3rd time's the charm...?

Sometimes it takes a coupla readings 2 "get" a book. I remember reading Jesse Sublett's mystery novel ROCK CRITIC MURDERS when it came-out in paperback in 1990, intrigued by the silly title & the kitschy, cool, retro cover in reds & yellows.
But a few yrs later I couldn't remember NEthing about the book after the 1st 50 pgs. & a few yrs ago when I tried 2 read it again I bogged down shortly after those 1st 50, when the plot gets rolling....
This time around I made it all the way thru & can tell U that ROCK CRITIC MURDERS is a lite, fun, fast read, & is very good on the gritty bar-band Dtails & the sun-baked Texas lifestyle.
It's also cool that Sublett's writing gets smoother & funnier as the plot gets more complex.
But U may not get past the 1st 50 pgs either, if yr a music fan. & in a way I think Sublett lost the chance at a really good Texas-bar-band slice-of-life novel when he let the murder mystery take over.
A quick recap: Bassist & part-time parole-skip-tracer Martin Fender gets a phonecall. His 4mer band True Love is getting back 2gether 4 a gig 2 help open a new Austin nightclub. Does Martin want the gig? Considering his chronic shortage of $$$, oh yeah. The band rehearses 4 a week in a sprawling, hot ranch house outside of town, & during that wk we get 2 know the band. At the Nd of that wk, suddenly the band's struggling, aging lead guitarist is found dead. Suicide ... or murder? Suddenly there's a kilo of cocaine that's come up missing. & the late guitarist's girlfriend starts acting really weird....
I won't recap the rest, Bcos the events R the story, & it's worth the trip. Some of Sublett's lines R laff-out-loud funny. & there's a dramatic climax & a happy Nding 4 almost every1 -- Xcept 4 the Bad Guys. Might make a pretty good movie. Oh, & a coupla rock critics get murdered along the way 2, but it's no great loss....
But here's the thing: The scenes where True Love rehearses in the ranch house R really good -- low-key, gritty, down-2-Earth, real. We get 2 know Fender's fellow band members as real people, & they R completely Blievable. This sounds like a real life, observed in Dtail & put in2 a book in a unique, Blievable way. & I was disappointed there wasn't more of it in the resta the book.
The plot pretty much takes over after the gtrist's body is found, & there R some neat twists & turns along the way, & it's Njoyable. But it's a STORY. The 1st 50 pgs & the up-close look at bar-band life w/ its little conflicts & releases, clashes & Njoyments, is something more. & I wish Sublett had continued w/ it, instead of w/ the story that probly sold the book. The story itself U can find NEwhere, I don't think it's NEthing real special, tho it's pulled-off w/ some humor. But the setting -- if yr a fan of the Austin music scene, or bar-band R&B, or if U've ever lived in Texas, U might like this book a LOT. I just wish it had some more magic after the 1st 50 pgs....

COMING SOON: Van der Graaf Generator's PAWN HEARTS. Listening 2 it right now -- not bad! Why's everybody think it's so scary...?

The presence of his absence

Nick Hornby's JULIET, NAKED (2009) really is the best rock novel I've read since Lewis Shiner's GLIMPSES. It's funny & moving & deep, very smoothly written, & w/ lotsa good insights about relationships & what makes art & how men & women respond 2 music diffrently, & there's a happy Nding 4 almost every1. It's WAY better than Hornby's earlier still-pretty-good HIGH FIDELITY (really didn't like the Nding of that 1).
It also casts some rather disturbing lite on folks who write album reviews & post comments on the Internet. I saw myself in some parts of this book & didn't like the picture 2 much. U might C yrself 2 -- but read the book. It's pretty great.
Over in a sleepy coastal England town, a guy named Duncan is perhaps the world's 4most authority on an early-'80s American rocker named Tucker Crowe, an apparent musical genius who went silent shortly after recording his best album, an anguished cycle of lovesongs Ntitled JULIET.
Duncan & his wife Annie get an advance copy of a "new" Tucker Crowe CD, a collection of acoustic demos from his last album, called JULIET, NAKED. Bcos Duncan ignores the unintresting mail, Annie opens the package & gets 2 hear JULIET, NAKED 1st -- which causes a rift in their relationship.
Then Duncan hears it -- & his worship 4 Crowe boils over. He thinks the demos-CD is the 2nd Coming. He posts a rave review of the new album at a Crowe-fans website on the Internet ("where no one is forgotten anymore").
But Annie doesn't agree -- she thinks the demo package is a stark, sketchy, artless dry-run 4 the "real" album, & shows the original album 4 the masterwork it is.
Annie writes & posts her own dissenting review at the Crowe-fans' website.
...& Tucker Crowe responds.
This all happens in the 1st 50 pgs of the 400-pg book. We get 2 meet Tucker Crowe, & discover that after bailing on his music career (after a supposed "epiphany" in a Minneapolis bar-toilet), he went on 2 B an amateur human Bing, a drunken & useless husband & an especially bad father. Tho there's some hope he & his youngest son might B able 2 bring the Xtended family back 2gether....
Crowe & Annie Bgin 2 correspond. Annie & Duncan break-up. Annie & Crowe eventually meet. Crowe goes outta his way 2 avoid the train-wreck of Responsibilities that is his Ntire Xtended family. & everybody grabs 4 whatever happiness they can, even tho there R No Guarantees.
I read this book in practically 1 sitting, in less than 24 hrs, interrupted only by sleep, during my last 2 sick-days-off from work. It is immediate, fluent, funny & insightful, Hornby's characters R funny & Ngaging, & at no point did it feel kinda artificial, like I thot parts of HIGH FIDELITY did. Hornby has done nothing but get better. Don't wait 4 a movie (which this Cms almost perfect 4) -- if U're a music fan & U've ever wondered how music & listening & love & relationships all fit 2gether, & sometimes IF they do, U need 2 read this book.
Just 1 complaint, & it's not about the story. This book is 404 pgs long. It didn't need 2 B. The STORY isn't that long. The text is in big type w/ wide side-margins, a rather narrow column of type, 25 lines running right down the center of each pg. If they'd shrunk the type or narrowed the margins a touch they coulda cut the size of the book down 2 300 pgs. If they'd run 30 lines of type onna pg they coulda cut it down 2 just over 200 pgs, which is the size it probly shoulda bn. But then Riverhead/Penguin Books wouldn't have bn able 2 justify asking $25.95 4 a copy of a hardback book that thin.
(I also think summa the proofreading ain't the best: There's a few spots late in the book where it Bcomes unclear who's speaking -- & in fact the speaker hasn't changed, the proofreader just didn't catch the booboo.)
So. Find a cheap copy of the book. Buy it used, buy it 2nd-hand. Wait 4 the cheaper (probly thinner) paperback. But get it.

'77 was a pretty good yr....

Tony Parsons' STORIES WE COULD TELL (2005) is probly the best rock&roll novel I've read since Lewis Shiner's GLIMPSES.
It's not perfect, there R a few minor things that go wrong w/ it, & it takes awhile 2 get where it's going -- but in its final 50 pgs Parsons pulls-off some moments that R warm & sweet & laff-out-loud funny. It's not a happy Nding 4 every1, & I'm not sure about the last few pgs, but it's definitely worth the trip.
Parsons (along w/ Julie Burchill) was 1 of the "young gunslingers" that England's NEW MUSICAL EXPRESS hired in the mid-'70s 2 try & get a handle on Punk Rock. Parsons has apparently taken some of his Xperiences (or at least the setting & mood of those times) & put them in2 this novel, which takes place on the nite in Aug '77 when Elvis Presley died. (Parsons wrote this book after penning 3 or 4 rather big non-music-related best-sellers in the U.K.)
All the main characters work 4 a British weekly music tabloid called THE PAPER. Terry, a fan of the rising punk bands, Bfriends longtime nearly-has-bn rocker Dag Wood, who's trying 2 make a comeback -- but Dag Btrays him by trying 2 steal Terry's girlfriend Misty, who's a photographer 4 THE PAPER. Boy-Wonder reporter Ray Keeley has fallen on hard times & is threatened by THE PAPER's editor -- if Ray can't get an Xclusive interview w/ John Lennon, Ray's out of a job! Meanwhile, Leon wants 2 get more politics in2 THE PAPER -- he gets bruised during the anti-fascist riot in Lewisham & is stunned that THE PAPER won't cover it: "This is what's really going on!"
The book follows the 3 reporters thru their Xperiences on this 1 nite -- in & out of clubs, thru romance & heartbreak, dealing w/ Family Issues, avoiding warring thug gangs, & much more. Terry checks-out a coupla other girls, but gets his old girlfriend back & Dlivers some classic revenge 2 Dag Wood. + Terry has a big suprise coming. Leon discovers Disco & meets The Girl Of His Dreams. Ray travels all over London seeking Lennon, & finds a new love in the process -- but there'll B no spoilers here: This 1 plot thread is 2 good 2 mess-up.
Tho the book starts promisingly, I think Parsons wanders around a lot in the middle, & tho he pulls it 2gether in the Nd, I think he coulda still used EVEN MORE room 2 draw all the strands of his story back 2gether (the book's less than 300 pgs). Leon's story especially feels unfairly cut short -- he never gets 2 write about what happened at Lewisham 4 THE PAPER, or even about his cosmic disco Xperiences. & the storyline about his Dream Girl is disappointingly tossed away.
But the laffs R pretty great, & there's a lotta really good period Dtail -- Parsons should know, he was there. Tho we never meet NE of them, the Sex Pistols, Clash, Jam, Buzzcocks, Vibrators, Stranglers, New York Dolls, Elvis Costello, Eddie & the Hot Rods, Slaughter & the Dogs, the Tom Robinson Band, David Bowie & Kraftwerk all get name-checks in this book, in addition 2 the Dtailed portraits of fictional per4mers Dag Wood, Billy Blitzen, Grace Fury, Leni and the Riefenstahls, & Brainiac & the Electric Baguette. (We also get a pretty vivid tour of Greater London, w/ all the familiar clubs & landmarks & much more.) But by the Nd of the book, there's a definite feeling that the heyday of Punk Rock has already passed, by the Nd of the Summer of '77. (My original title 4 this post was gonna B "Dglamourizing Punk Rock.")
There R a few factual errors: The Led Zeppelin album cover that's Dscribed near the Nd of the novel is LZ IV, not III as stated in the book -- the Dscription's accurate, but it's the wrong album title. Abba's hit "Dancing Queen" is Dscribed in the text as "new" in Aug '77 -- when it had already hit #1 in America 6 mo's earlier -- mayB America heard it 1st, but I think that's unlikely. & at 1 point Yoko Ono asks who the B-52's R -- 1977 strikes me as a bit early 4 her 2 B asking that question since the B's 1st album wasn't released til 2 yrs later. & Bsides, even if they were around then, since John&Yoko lived in NYC, they'd likely know more about the Athens, Ga.-based B-52's than NE1 in London....
But the mood & atmosphere & the intertwining stories mostly make up 4 all this. There R also some great little touches -- like Terry, Ray & Leon Bing the "young guys" at THE PAPER, looked upon w/ some resentment by the never-named "Old Guys," some of whom must B -- *SHOCK! HORROR!* -- almost 30 years old! Skip Jones, THE PAPER's resident eccentric & every1's choice 4 Greatest Rock Journalist Of All Time, is a perilously old 25. & there's a great bit near the Nd of the book when an even-younger Child Prodigy briefly upstages the young guys ("Who was THAT?!" "He's the New Guy."), but they don't think he's worth taking seriously....
& who woulda Blieved that a then-young-hothead like Tony Parsons was a sucker 4 John Sebastian & the Lovin' Spoonful?! In the book, 1 of Parsons' characters calls Sebastian "better than Dylan! I love this geezer!" & the title of the book comes from a song on Sebastian's long-ago cut-out solo album THE TARZANA KID. An album I'm now probly gonna havta track down....
I'm also gonna havta track-down Parsons' & Burchill's THE BOY LOOKED AT JOHNNY....

Shiner strikes again!

Lewis Shiner's SAY GOODBYE: THE LAURIE MOSS STORY (1999) is a low-key, gritty, realistic novel about the late-'90s music bizness, focusing on a fictional singer-songwriter & her band who Don't Quite Make It -- tho Shiner leaves the story open at the Nd 4 a possible return.
4 at least 1/2 its length this book is as down-2-earth & "normal" as Shiner's earlier, brilliant rock-music-novel GLIMPSES was fantastic (tho GLIMPSES was absolutely concrete-accurate on the Dtails). I think Shiner's choice 2 treat the novel as something of a documentary of Laurie Moss's rise & virtual disappearance was something of a mistake -- it makes the opening a little dry, & the 1st 1/2 of the story Cms told from a bit of a distance. It takes awhile 4 the story 2 get rolling, compared 2 GLIMPSES, which grabs U from the 1st pg.
But every time Shiner shifts 2 1st-person 2 narrate Laurie's story, the intrest-level increases & the story Cms effortless 2 read. The magic starts working. & 1nce Laurie finishes recording her 1st album & her band starts on tour, the story is involving 2 the finish. Then it's over 2 soon.
Along the way we learn a lot about Laurie's past (good, solid, Blievable Dtails about her Texas roots -- Shiner lived in Austin 4 quite awhile), the dream band she meets almost by accident, the "living-legend" guitarist Laurie falls 4 & then hasta put-up-with, the album they record piece-by-piece, their early adventures playing live at LA clubs, gaining increasing publicity, signing 2 an (incompetent if not evil) major-label record co., a 6-month U.S. tour, then minor disaster(s) & back 2 oblivion, with a postscript that Laurie May B Back.
While we learn about Laurie's past, we don't Xactly learn what drives her, where her songs Come From (I always want 2 know EVERYTHING about this stuff) -- dead father, nagging mother, grandpa in precarious health, string of nowhere jobs, etc. -- U know, Normal Life. At 1 point in the book, Laurie's mom turns 2 her & says "You're such a cipher." & after 245 pgs, she still is. All we really know is she has this incredible talent & drive 2 B famous thru her music. Self-pitying, self-Dstructive "living legend" guitarist Skip Shaw is probly a better-realized character than Laurie herself, & Laurie takes 2 long 2 fire him from the band B4 he Dstroys it. & after he leaves, the band does better 2gether than even they ever dreamed.
Along the way, we learn The Real Secret about the electric guitar, there R some great band-camraderie jokes, & some of the writing, as usual w/ Shiner, is just lovely: "Remember this, she told herself.... Know that there was a time when you were not alone, but were part of something bigger than yourself. Know that you made music that was both solid and full of beautiful detail, that you moved people physically and emotionally, that you lived this and it will always be inside you."
Quibbles: I know it's pointless 2 complain about typos & bad copyediting/proofreading in modern novels (the all-time winner 4 most typos in 1 book is Gael Baudino's GOSSAMER AXE, a book SO great U'll 4give the stupid errors, & there R 100's of them....), but SAY GOODBYE has a coupla errors U may trip over. Near the Nd, a mistaken drop of the word "be" in typesetting turns a sentence in2 nonsense, tho it's EZ 2 figure-out what was in10ded; & earlier Shiner notes that atta band rehearsal Skip Shaw was "drinking rum and belligerant...," a booboo so obvious that I really did look up from the book & say 2 myself "I've never heard of a drink called a belligerant." & mayB the 1st music-fact error in 2 books: I thot it was Charlie Rich & not Jerry Lee Lewis who sang "Lonely Weekends"....
But I feel bad pointing these things out Bcos the book's well worth reading, specially if U're a fan of current alternative or folk-style music. Is it better than GLIMPSES? Well, no. But it's a totally diffrent kinda book, sorta the flip-side of GLIMPSES. & the low-keyness of it may have worked against its success -- Shiner talks about this in the book itself, that the story he's telling may not attract or appeal 2 NE1, & he notes in his long autobiography posted at www.lewisshiner.com that, even tho GLIMPSES won the World Fantasy Award, it was "a sales disaster," & that SAY GOODBYE sold even worse.
This hasn't stopped Shiner tho, thank Ghod. Pushing 60, he's still writing, w/ a career-retrospective short-story collection & a new (non-music-related) novel issued recently. SAY GOODBYE isn't fantastic, & it coulda bn warmer, but I'd sure look at a sequel....

Some pretty great rock&roll novels....

Here's 2 mixing genres: If U're a music fan U might really Njoy some of the following rock&roll novels, summa which R among my fave books in the world. Since the list is kinda short, I'll follow it up with other rock-music novels I'm aware of but haven't read or couldn't get thru (tho the reviews were good), & some Xcellent rock&roll short-fiction. & away we go....
* GLIMPSES, Lewis Shiner -- The BEST rock&roll novel EVER. Shiner's hero has the ability 2 hear & create great "lost" pop music that never quite Xisted in reality: The Beach Boys' SMILE, The Doors' CELEBRATION OF THE LIZARD, Jimi Hendrix's FIRST RAYS OF THE NEW RISING SUN. In order 2 create this music on tape, he slips in2 a sorta alternate reality (or is he hallucinating?) where he meets all these great musicians & plays a part in helping them finish their projects. The section on SMILE is especially fine: Shiner knows his stuff & doesn't mess up the Dtails. Meanwhile, the real-life crises Shiner's hero hasta face when he's not searching 4 lost music R real & Blievable (failing marriage, father dying, growing older). Vivid, gripping, moving. Great stuff.
* GOSSAMER AXE, Gael Baudino -- The 2nd-best rock&roll novel ever. When a harper from the land of Faerie is trapped in our reality without the love of her life (who's still on The Other Side), she forms a heavy-metal band as the most direct way 2 blast a hole Btween the realities & get her lost love back. Great in-a-band Dtails, moving stories of both our heroine & the women who join her band, & a marvelous happy Nding. Vivid, involving, Xciting, Mpowering.
+ ZEITGEIST, Bruce Sterling -- Recently reviewed here. A lovable con-artist comes up w/ a musical scam 2 fleece the Moslem world of millions of $$$ just B4 Y2K hits. But the conman loses control of his act & then the girls in his "band" start dying due 2 neglect. Outrageous, cynical, sarcastic -- but there's a happy Nding 4 all the good folks. Even the conman saves his soul. & it's laff-out-loud funny.
= THE ARMAGEDDON RAG, George R.R. Martin -- '60s group The Nazgul reforms but their tour Cms a front 4 all kinds of dark plotting. Some nice nostalgia & good group-rehearsal scenes, but the cloak&dagger/thriller plot lets down Martin (1 of my heroes) & his characters.
= ROCK CRITIC MURDERS, Jesse Sublette -- I've read this 3x & tho there's a good feel 4 Bing in a no-frills blues-rock band & the hot, dry, MT Texas setting is completely Blievable, there R no real suprises in the standard murder/private-investigator plot. It's just not Xciting enuf.
= THE MEMORY OF WHITENESS, Kim Stanley Robinson -- This shoulda bn better. A young Master Musician learns 2 play Holywelkin's Orchestra, a sorta giant keyboard/orchestrion-thing that creates magical music that can unite all peoples.... He goes on 2 tour the Solar System (sorta the Ultimate Tour) ... but gets sucked in2 a cloak&dagger plot involving sun-worshippers on Mercury. Kinda heavy-handed & disappointing, tho Robinson's written some other great stuff: "Green Mars," "Mother Goddess of the World," "Escape from Kathmandu," "Discovering Life," "The Lucky Strike," "The Part of Us That Loves," & the AMAZING "A History of the 20th Century, With Illustrations."

MY GHOD, I 4GOT ALL ABOUT:
+ THE COMMITMENTS, Roddy Doyle -- OK, I think the movie's better, but this is DEFinitely worth taking a look at. Doyle's got an odd writing style (I'M 1 2 talk?): Everything is shorthanded, he never uses quotes 2 show his characters R talking -- but the struggles of a band 4med "2 save Ireland thru R&B" R amusingly & involvingly Dtailed, & it's a quick read. Only a coupla minor complaints: The book Nds JUST AS IT'S GETTING REALLY GOOD (just like the film), & I don't think we ever quite HEAR the music The Commitments per4m. But 4 Ghod's sake, C the movie 2....
+ HIGH FIDELITY, Nick Hornby -- *Grumble, grumble* ... This is a pretty-good "growing-up" novel, centered on a hero who owns his own used-record store & starts recording local bands on his own garage-based record label(!), but still won't accept responsibility, get married & act like "a real grown-up," according 2 his girlfriend. Funny, nicely observed & Xcellently written, very readable -- but I hated the Nding. I would not have married the girlfriend who 4ces the hero 2 grow up -- most guys would likely resent her 4 Bing so pushy. 4 me, the best things in the book R the off-the-wall record-store humor ("You can't possibly be taken seriously as a person without at least 5,000 albums in your collection"), the hero's ongoing Top 5 lists of The Best Rock&Roll Songs Of All Time (4 all possible occasions), & the long reminiscences about his previous girlfriends.

OTHERS I'M AWARE OF:
LITTLE HEROES, Norman Spinrad -- Something about "the old lady of rock and roll" helping 2 create an act that'll unite the country & possibly the world. Tried 2 read this fat novel a coupla x & couldn't get very far, but Spinrad knows his stuff & is almost always suprising 2 read.
SAY GOODBYE: THE LAURIE MOSS STORY, Lewis Shiner -- Based on GLIMPSES, this should also B great, but I've never Cn a copy 4 sale NEwhere. Supposedly this is about a fictional singer-songwriter who Didn't Quite Make It. Worth tracking down, I'm sure....
WRACK AND ROLL, Bradley Denton -- Gotta copy on my bookshelf & when I get 2 it I'll let U know. Looks a little like LITTLE HEROES. Some of Denton's short stories R outrageous & funny....
ECLIPSE, John Shirley -- A trilogy, something like a punk-rock apocalypse....
THE KILL RIFF, David J. Schow -- This is less a rock&roll story & more a horror novel. A father goes out 4 revenge against a heavy-metal band after his daughter dies at 1a the band's concerts. Schow was a talented & funny short-story writer, but tho the reviews of this novel were good, I couldn't get past the grim 1st chapter.
THE TEXTS OF FESTIVAL, Mick Farren -- An apocalyptic pulp-science-fiction novel, psychedelic & etc. Farren was a member of The Deviants & the Pink Fairies, was a rock critic, & co-wrote a song or 2 w/ Hawkwind.
TIME OF THE HAWKLORDS, Michael Moorcock & Michael Butterworth -- Speaking of Hawkwind, this book turns that British heavy-space-rock band of the '70s in2 heroes in their own adventure. If it captures the atmosphere of their albums it might B pretty cool. Moorcock co-wrote some songs w/ them & did a coupla guest vocals.
(+) THE BEAR, Rafi Zabor -- Is jazz OK in this list? Zabor's novel is about a saxophone-playing bear who practically turns in2 Charlie Parker when he hits the stage at New York jazz clubs. The 1st 1/2 of the book is pretty great, vivid & funny & involving, but when The Bear started onna long nationwide tour I just sorta drifted away, like I do w/ a lotta jazz....
...I've read reviews 4 rock novels Ntitled SMOKESTACK LIGHTNING and JAMBEAUX, but I have no idea who the authors R....

SHORT STORIES:
* "Stone," Edward Bryant -- An electronic-feedback technician in the stage crew 4 a future singer (a Janis Joplin-type) helps her commit suicide -- in the most public way possible. Intense & moving. Bryant's other music-related fiction that I've read ("Armageddon Between Sets," "Drummer's Star") is OK but a little thin, not up 2 the high standards of "Stone" or some of his other stories like the brilliant "Strata."
* "A Little Night Music," Lucius Shepard -- Xcellent. Shepard reviews a per4mance by a zombie rock&roll band. Cold & creepy.
* "Dead Air," Greg Egan -- Scary! Haunted goings-on atta late-nite rock&roll radio station. That'll teach the heroine 2 play such possessed old rock&roll songs as "Hands of Jack the Ripper"!
* "Preflash," John M. Ford -- A photographer can C people's futures, & 1a the jobs he does is shoot a video 4 an up&coming singer. Amazingly vivid & cinematic, the whole thing reads like a really good music video....
* "The Winter Market," William Gibson -- The hero of this also shoots a video, sorta, centering on the driven heroine who thinks she's not much longer 4 this world. MayB this doesn't qualify as a music story really, but I can't C the video Bing done w/o music....
+ "The Music of the Spheres," Bradley Denton -- Turns out some rock&roll (Specially the REALLY addictive stuff) is a plot by aliens 2 take over the Earth.... Hilarious!
+ "Jeff Beck," Lewis Shiner -- An avg. everyday guy gets the chance 2 play guitar just as good as the legendary Jeff Beck ... but his new power does not make him happy....
+ "All the Way Up, All the Way Down," Robert Silverberg, part of his novel THE WORLD INSIDE -- Silverberg has a great vision of a future rock band, the instruments they'd play, what it'd B like 2 C them per4m. That's sorta background 2 the actual story, but it's worth reading just 4 what Silverbob does w/ the band. The rest of the story shows Silverberg's overcrowded urban world of 2281, & like the rest of the book the vivid setting sorta overwhems the events of the story.
+ "The Feast of St. Janis," Michael Swanwick -- Another Janis Joplin story. A future traveler visits the annual Feast, the climax of which is the sacrifice 2 the crowd of "this year's" Janis. Impressive, Dtailed, kinda shocking. Swanwick's 1st published story (1980). His only other solo "music fiction" story I've found, "In Concert," is 4gettable. But some of his other stories R great, like the brilliant "The Dragon Line" (an updating of Merlin, Arthur, etc.), mystical & moving "The Edge of the World," hilarious "Ginungagap."
+ "The Big Flash," Norman Spinrad -- A rock band Cms 2 B pointing the way toward nuclear Armageddon. The story has some intensity, & the Nding is grimly inevitable. But there R no real suprises here. When this was published in '69 it probly was a little shocking....
+ "The Song the Zombie Sang," Harlan Ellison & Robert Silverberg -- Classical music OK? The zombie only awakens 2 play keyboards in something like a classical production. Bn yrs since I read this, but Ellison & Silverberg's talents meshed well.
= "Touring," Gardner Dozois, Jack Dann & Michael Swanwick -- Spooky horror story, about how Buddy Holly, Richie Valens & The Big Bopper havta keep playing the same concert at Clear Lake, Iowa, over & over & over. & of course their audience R all dead 2....
...If NEbody has some suggestions, I'm always intrested in reading more good rock&roll fiction....

Chairman Bruce cracks a joke

As I said, didda lotta reading during my Time Off. Re-read 3 James Ellroy cop novels (intense!), tried 2 get thru a re-read of James Tiptree Jr.'s BRIGHTNESS FALLS FROM THE AIR, got seriously bogged-down 200 pgs in2 Richard Rhodes' DARK SUN: THE MAKING OF THE HYDROGEN BOMB & gave up, tho I'm still very intrested in the history (I'll talk more about why someday), & read Nathanael West's MISS LONELYHEARTS, the only 1 of these I won't B reviewing here.
Actually, MISS LONELYHEARTS got me started: I'd been bored with fiction lately & figured I could relate 2 the book since it's about a newspaper guy who's going nuts, & 4 20 yrs I was a newspaper guy who sometimes thot he was going nuts. & tho I was suprised by the openness of the sex & the amount of heavy drinking Dscribed in a book written in the 1930s, & even tho I laffed a few times here & there, overall it didn't work 2 well 4 me. I just thot the book was 2 THIN, tho it's sposta B sorta a classic.
But all this is Bside the point, 'cos this is sposta B a review of Bruce Sterling's ZEITGEIST, a funny, outrageous, cynical look at the pop-music biz, pop culture & Middle Eastern politics circa Y2K.
I've written here B4 about how Sterling was 1 of the firebrands of science-fiction's "cyberpunk" movement back in the mid-'80s; along with William Gibson, Sterling was probly the most successful writer 2 create work classified under the "cyberpunk" banner. ZEITGEIST, which was published in late 2000, probly ain't cyberpunk, it's just barely science fiction; & since the time it's set in is now 10 yrs past it has sorta a weird not-2-dated feel 2 it -- everything that happens in it coulda occurred last week in Reality. Luckily, this sarcastic piece of work is about music, since this is supposed 2 B a blog that reviews music & books, & so I'm Starting Over with a book that's at least music-related....
Here's the plot in a nutshell: Shady music promoter & scam-artist Leggy Starlitz (a recurring character 4 Sterling, Starlitz has appeared in at least 2 earlier short-stories, "The Littlest Jackal" & "Hollywood Kremlin," & possibly at least 1 other whose title I've forgotten) surfaces in Istanbul with a new scam: An all-girl pop band created 2 scam millions of $$$ out of the Islamic world. Starlitz's act, the G-7 girls, are even lighter and airier than the Spice Girls, if you can imagine such a thing. They don't sing, they don't play instruments, they lipsync 2 pre-recorded tapes. (Most of the girls don't even have NAMES. Tho we meet a couple who have Real Personalities, mosta the G-7 girls R referred 2 as "The American One," "The British One," "The French One," etc. Mosta the time they R even addressed this way by their handlers: "Hey, French One, how's it goin?") Starlitz sets up an international network 2 sell G-7 action figures, clothes, lunchboxes, etc. The idea is to rake-in as much cash as possible from the Muslim world B4 the Ntire scam ends with the turn of the millennium.
But, this being fiction, there R complications. 1 of Starlitz's partners in the scam -- a power-hungry Turkish criminal with heavy political connections -- hijacks the act so he can rake in the cash all on his own. Leggy & an old friend (a former Russian pilot turned mercenary, assassin & all-purpose fixer) try 2 get the act back, but.... & then some of the G-7 girls start dying, at least partly due 2 neglect by their new "manager"....
Along the way, Leggy gets 2 know his precocious 11-yr-old daughter, visits parts of Cyprus, Turkey & the American Southwest that U'll probly never wanna visit, cleans-up the evidence at an ugly battle scene, & tries 2 fix the problems with G-7 & Do Right by both his act & his daughter.
The book is outrageous & laff-out-loud funny almost all the way thru. There were only a coupla places where I thot mayB Sterling was heading off the rails, but he pulled it back 2gether pretty quickly. I don't understand now why I bogged-down 50 pgs in when I 1st tried 2 read this -- mayB it just wasn't the right time 4 me 2 read the book. & the book's short -- only 275 pgs.
Intrestingly, after all we've learned about him, the book ends with Leggy apparently reformed from his low-down scamming fly-by-nite ways. Thruout the novel there R discussions about the diffrence Btween what G-7 does & "real" music -- 1 girl gets thrown out of the group Bcos she wants 2 write & sing "meaningful" songs, which isn't part of Leggy's scam. There's also a stunning Turkish traditional singer who obviously Has Talent & who every1's in awe of. But she comes 2 an unhappy end.
The book isn't quite perfect -- I'd call it a high + rather than a * on my scale. But it's funny & vivid & never boring. Possibly even better than Sterling's earlier HEAVY WEATHER. Chairman Bruce should let his hair down like this more often....