Oak Kitten
05-28-2006, 06:09 AM
Just tossing this one out to the JIMB in the spirit of the aphorism that any publicity is good publicity.
Oak
New and Notable book reviews
Anne Stephenson
Special for The Republic
May. 28, 2006 12:00 AM
'I Hate Myself and Want to Die: The 52 Most Depressing Songs You've Ever Heard'
Tom Reynolds
(Hyperion, $12.95)
To write a book like this, you need a working knowledge of music recorded over the past 70 years and an astute and merciless sense of humor. Tom Reynolds is our man. From MacArthur Park (sung by Richard Harris, whose overwrought falsetto "makes Mandy Patinkin sound like Tom Waits") to The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald (begins with Gordon Lightfoot channeling Pink Floyd, ends with a roll call of the Great Lakes) to Evanescence's My Immortal (Amy Lee's voice "would make a knock-knock joke sound like a Sylvia Plath poem"), he offers a thorough analysis of each song and makes merry over how morose pop music can be. Other targets include Hurt performed by Nine Inch Nails; Teen Angel by Mark Dinning; Janis Ian's At Seventeen; Round Here by Counting Crows; and One by Metallica. We consulted with a teenage guitarist who kept running off with the book when we weren't looking. He's a man of few words and muted enthusiasm, so his verdict was a rave: "The guy's really funny. And he's right."
Oak
New and Notable book reviews
Anne Stephenson
Special for The Republic
May. 28, 2006 12:00 AM
'I Hate Myself and Want to Die: The 52 Most Depressing Songs You've Ever Heard'
Tom Reynolds
(Hyperion, $12.95)
To write a book like this, you need a working knowledge of music recorded over the past 70 years and an astute and merciless sense of humor. Tom Reynolds is our man. From MacArthur Park (sung by Richard Harris, whose overwrought falsetto "makes Mandy Patinkin sound like Tom Waits") to The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald (begins with Gordon Lightfoot channeling Pink Floyd, ends with a roll call of the Great Lakes) to Evanescence's My Immortal (Amy Lee's voice "would make a knock-knock joke sound like a Sylvia Plath poem"), he offers a thorough analysis of each song and makes merry over how morose pop music can be. Other targets include Hurt performed by Nine Inch Nails; Teen Angel by Mark Dinning; Janis Ian's At Seventeen; Round Here by Counting Crows; and One by Metallica. We consulted with a teenage guitarist who kept running off with the book when we weren't looking. He's a man of few words and muted enthusiasm, so his verdict was a rave: "The guy's really funny. And he's right."