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Entertainment & Artistry => Words => Topic started by: [stealth] on April 22, 2005, 08:02:09 PM

Title: '31 Songs' - Nick Hornby
Post by: [stealth] on April 22, 2005, 08:02:09 PM
Essentially a book about 31 of the author's favourite songs, and how they've made him feel.  It's also a kind of essay on popular music today, where he thinks it's headed and its value in our lives.  I bought it yesterday and have pretty well read it cover to cover.  It's one of those books you can pick up and read right from the middle, the go back to the start, towards the end and every other place inbetween.  (I love reading books this way rather than, A to B, which probably goes a fair way to explaining why I struggle to get through even a slim novel in less than couple of months).

And it's got me mixtaping again.
Title: '31 Songs' - Nick Hornby
Post by: Jake on April 22, 2005, 09:13:13 PM
so, can you name a few tracks that he talks about?
Title: '31 Songs' - Nick Hornby
Post by: Govtcheez on April 22, 2005, 10:49:31 PM
I love Nick Hornby, but I'm not big fan of reading song lyrics.  Is there a lot more exposition than lyrics?
Title: '31 Songs' - Nick Hornby
Post by: [stealth] on April 23, 2005, 03:33:52 AM
>>so, can you name a few tracks that he talks about?<<

Sure, to name some of them...

"Your Love Is The Place Where I Come From" - Teenage Fanclub
"One Man Guy" - Rufus Wainwright
"Rain" - The Beatles
"I've Had It" - Aimee Mann
"Frankie Teardrop" - Suicide
"First I Look At The Purse" - J. Geils Band
"Smoke" - Ben Folds Five
"Glorybound" - The Bible
"Royskopp's Night Out" - Royksopp
"Pissing In A River" - The Patti Smith Group

>>Is there a lot more exposition than lyrics?<<

It's not really so much about lyrics, that is to say, a breakdown of the lyrics, as what was going on at the time he heard the song, how it's made him feel and the track as a whole and it's place in the context of the artists career. I mean, sure, he does quote the odd lyric, but not in a "Here we see Dylan constructing a new post-modern lexicon with his use the word 'Lady'" or any of that muso-journo wank.