When you spend your life writing, you don't get enough time for readin and it is something I have really missed since starting rock nyc. I used to spend my summer weekends wandering around Manhattan with a backpack, filled with books and cassettes for my walkman, I'd listen to music all day long and walk aimlessly up and down the aisle and when I got tired I'd sit and read for an hour and then set off again.
Today, I spend my weekends writing and sleeping! I guess that's what happens when you grow old! But still, I do steal time for some reading over and above newspapers and rock mags. I just finished off Chuck Palahaniuk's very funny and smart "Damned" and am in the midst of three rock books.
1. The One – RJ Smith – The absolute last word on James Brown, you don't need anything else about the man (except to continue listening to him for the rest of your life). All of it is great, but the part about the death of James Brown's son in a care accident is sad not in its manipulation, but in the lack of it.
2. Who I Am – Pete Townsend – Pete can't get over himself and there's the pity, but it is also the point. The writing here is a little weak, but simply the knowledge that "Tommy" is, indeed. all subtext is fascinating. He is hiding in plain site as the man who wrote "Fiddle About" as a dirty joke when it was, in fact, the entire reason for the opera
3. I'm The Man – Sylvie Simmons – The best writer of the three, writing about the most writerly musician of the three. Cohen, or Kohen, is a remarkable man and Simmons gets all of his story and it is an amazing story. Did you know Cohen joined Scieneology at one point?