Books

[bob72]

[hutch]

That said, has anyone noticed how oral histories are so much more common now with music/sports/entertainment books? They can be really interesting if well-edited but I feel like this is a lazy way to create a book.

I mean, the best rock books are the ones that have a clear, well-written narrative. And creating that is hard! But if you're doing an oral history, you basically just edit the transcripts of your interview and call it a book. It's like an outline with quotations. Feels like the easy way out, kind of a cousin to the 'found footage' film genre. I came up with that simile as I was writing it.

Totally agree.. its lazy and  is only as good as the source material NOT the "author".. the Pixies oral history was pretty poor.. I still want to read the one about Janes

For the Savage book on punk I find the interviews far more interesting in a way than the actual book..

[Relaxer]

I've read Whores, the Jane's book. Since I'm a HUGE Jane's fan, I gobbled it up and re-read it often. But it's so obvious that all of the quotes from the bandmates themselves are from past interviews (which the author admits). I don't think they contributed to the book itself at all.

In fact, when reading a subpar oral history, you can always tell right away who cooperated and who didn't. For example, Eric A's sister clearly made herself available for as much as the authors wanted because she shows up on every damn page commenting on shit, even when Eric A was long out of the band. Perry's old gf Casey also was around with nothing to do because it seems like she's got multiple quotes per page, even after she was long out of the picture.

[Relaxer]

This was another laughably terrible oral history



I'd say a good 95 percent of the quotes are from random dudes who opened for Nirvana in Kansas City in 1989. So if you were curious what Les Thugs or the bass player from Tad had to say about Kurt's suicide, here's the book for you!

I don't think I recognized the name of a single person quoted in this book. It was just a lot of guys like Daniel Kenowski (guitar tech for Pond).

That said, this was a great oral history on that era:

[hutch]

interesting.> I also heard the Replacements one is pretty bad....just a bunch of people talking about how great they were ...

[Relaxer]

Sorry, I'm being overbearing here. I just read that Replacements one. I thought it was really good. If anything, the takeaway I... uh... took away from it is that Paul and Tommy were pathologically self-destructive. And not just "let's drink and drug ourselves to death", I mean like desperately needing money, receiving some, and then using it to buy a broken down golf cart or lighting it on fire. Those guys just sabotaged themselves at every single opportunity.

It was pretty fun to read Bob Mould's simmering rage as he describes how hard he and Husker worked the circuit and did everything DIY and then the Replacements stumbled in, said they didn't want to do any work, demanding roadies and assistance, and then got the major label deal.

Also, the whole Bob Stinson thing is such a heartbreaker. Dude was just so damaged from his childhood.

[Seth Hurwitz]

I am reading War & Peace and quite enjoying it

[Relaxer]

By candlelight, right grampa?

[Seth Hurwitz]

Yes I am old

[ye-ole-hatch ıll|̲̅̅●̲̅̅|̲̅̅=̲̅̅|̲̅̅●̲̅̅|llıl]

love how it's 100% ok to give seth shit
and he just rolls with it
de-mock-racy

[hutch]

I have yet to finish it myself...I have trouble with novels by russians...

[Julian, Forum COGNOSCENTI]

I have yet to finish it myself...I have trouble with novels by russians...

I actually love the classic Russians. Prefer Anna Karenin if we're talking Tolstoy specifically.

[Relaxer]

love how it's 100% ok to give seth shit
and he just rolls with it
de-mock-racy

I'm a divorced, bald 45 year old shadow of a man. The number of people I can rip on is dwindling rapidly. I take my spots when they emerge.

[hutch]

^sorry to hear that



as a rule-with exceptions- I'm not a fan of novels from the "get paid by the word" (serialized) period of literature....some of these books just go on and on and on and on...it feels like they had to drag them out as long as they could.. kind of like a Latin American soap opera or something.. but I admire anyone who can get through these things....I am embarassed never to have finished some classics even though I seem to recall having passed English without reading them

[Julian, Forum COGNOSCENTI]

as a rule-with exceptions- I'm not a fan of novels from the "get paid by the word" (serialized) period of literature....some of these books just go on and on and on and on...it feels like they had to drag them out as long as they could.. kind of like a Latin American soap opera or something.. but I admire anyone who can get through these things....I am embarassed never to have finished some classics even though I seem to recall having passed English without reading them

I get that if you're talking Dickens or someone whose work was actually serialized and published in a magazine and paid by the word. That was, however, assuredly not the case with War and Peace. There's a lot of long Russian novels, but unless I am gravely mistaken, none of them were serialized releases; that was a uniquely English thing at that time.