Songbook

I bought this book, sight unseen, simply because of the description, which was: Nick Hornby, one of my favorite writers, had written a book about a bunch of his favorite songs. That's all I needed to know, that sounded great to me, I was sold.
I've been a Hornby fan since Fever Pitch. When High Fidelity (the book) came out, I was amazed: it felt like Hornby had been eavesdropping on my mind, because I tend to agree with a lot of his opinions about music and music lovers. Similarly, I'm a big fan of the reviews he wrote for The New Yorker a few years ago.
So I ordered the book and it showed up in my box and I immediately turned to the table of contents to see: which songs did he write about??? And I was surprised, and a bit disappointed, to see that I only recognized about a dozen of the titles. And there wasn't one song in the bunch that I considered a personal favorite. And when I listened to the songs I didn't know (included on a handy-dandy CD)... they didn't blow me away. But that's the beauty of a mix tape and, despite the fact that it's printed on paper, this is a mix tape.
And this one comes with great liner notes. Hornby's a smart, entertaining, intuitive writer. I may sound like a disappointed fan trying to make the best of a book that didn't satisfy me 100%, but even when Hornby's writing about music I haven't heard, it's still enjoyable, it's still worthwhile, it's still exposing me to things I previously didn't know about.
Even when he's confessing to not being a huge Dylan fan and confesses to preferring a Rod Stewart cover of one of my favorite Dylan songs to the original (which is, of course, the true road to enternal damnation), he does so in a way that's completely relatable even to a Dylan fanatic.
Even when he's extolling the virtues of a song I find to be "sad bastard" music (like he does in his essay about Mark Mulcahy's "Hey Self Defeater") he manages to include a great, conversational subtext about the virtues of small, privately owned, slowly-becomming-extinct record stores with a personal touch.
This is also a beautifully designed McSweeny book, with a beautiful "Maxell XL-II" mix-tape cover and with clever illustrations by Marcel Dzama. The book also benefits Treehouse Trust and 826 Valencia, organizations that are extremely worthy of the extra money.
Hornby should do one of these a year, I think. And next time, it'd be nice if he'd touch on his favorite Stones songs, his favorite Stax songs, his favorite Steve Earle songs, his favorite blues, his favorite jazz, his favorite Clash songs, etc, etc. If he'll write it, I'll read it.

Nick Hornby's gift as a writer is how he manages to express his love and appreciation of music through words. One of greatest pleasures in life that we so easily take for granted is discovering new music that yesterday was missing from our life and today seemingly becomes integral to our existence as we repeatedly play and sing along to the song. Hornby manages to capture and describe this unique feeling that we all feel but have difficulty expressing coherently.
"I love the relationship that anyone has with music: because there's something in us that is beyond the reach of words, something that eludes and defies our best attempts to spit it out. It's the best part of us, probably, the richest and strongest part..."
Although I'm fairly sure the majority of readers, will not be familiar with many of the songs that Hornby writes about, the point of the songbook is more personal. It will help you reawaken your own love of music as you shuffle through your music collection and go through a similar period of self reflection.
Personally, the book was worth it once I listened to Aimee Mann's "I've Had It", a beautiful soulful song that I've lived without for as long as I can remember, and now I can't go without listening to repeatedly along with the Soundtrack to About a Boy by Badly Drawn Boy.

I used to work for a rather small company that suffered from pretensions of greatness. The company had attempted to develop a new software package that - had development gone smoothly - would have allowed it to gain a massive share of one of those esoteric niches that are the stars in the software galaxy.
Instead, the project foundered and the company almost went bankrupt. At a shareholders' meeting (the company had 50 people; that we held shareholders' meeting showed the pretension), I asked the Presdient, what he was doing to prevent the problem from recurring. His response: "What would you do?"
My response began with "Hey, I ain't no hero, that's understood..."
What does one do when the cliche 'The Soundtrack of Our Lives" applies?
You become Nick Hornby. And, you write a marvelous treatise on just how and why (and, above all, how much) you love what I am afraid has no better name than 'Pop Music".
Mr. Hornby has always been an introspective character worthy of inclusion in his own novels, "About a Boy", and "High Fidelity". In fact, that came to pass in his autobiographical "Fever Pitch". But, where Arsenal (Go Gunners!) was the cloth on which the tapestry of his life (loss of father, doubts about himself, selfishness, and other varied and sundry passions) was sewn, here, it is thrity one songs that serve that purpose.
But, please be aware this is not an anthology of music reviews. This is an anthology of Mr. Hornby's life. You'll understand if you are one of us, those people who carry a jukebox in their head...no, in their soul. He shares his soul with us, using an intimacy that is normally saved for confessions to the closest of friends. It's akin to sitting in the back of your local over that one last pint, when the alcohol has freed you from the demons of self-consciousness. It's in that state that you will speak the truth about yourself and what you feel. That Mr. Hornby does it with background music makes it all the more perfect.
Buy this book. Read this book. Live this book. Savor the moods, the feelings, the emotions, the wins and losses, the very life of being alive.

If you're familiar with Nick Hornby, then you already know he's a huge music fan. In "Songbook", he writes short (each one is about 3-6 pages long) essay pieces discussing some of his favorite songs. His selections are unique and his insights are often wry and humorous. He's truly able to explain what these songs mean to him and what music in general means to fans: how it inspires us and informs the other areas of our lives. The book is an enjoyable (and very quick) read. The accompanying "mix" CD features several of the songs from the book and serves as a great introduction to these bands.

If I have a complaint with this book (and it's a very minor one), it's that some of the essays only tangentially explore their corresponding song. For example, the combined Dylan/Beatles essay only mentions the Beatles' "Rain" in the very last paragraph of the essay and it's rather glossed over. This is a minor flaw overall, however, and I highly recommend this book to all music lovers. It will make you think about your passion in some new ways and it will also expose you to lots of great new music.

Who better than the author of "High Fidelity" to dissect and ruminate on the art of the Pop Song? I was introduced to this book by a high school teacher who used it as basis for an assignment asking students to create a soundtrack of their lives. As Hornby admits, though, he doesn't select songs with attachment to a particular moment in his life, so much as songs that represent why he loves the verse/chorus/verse/chorus/bridge/maybe solo/chorus style of music above all others. He openly attests that he uses even the most revered Mozart as background noise, that he doesn't get jazz, and he doesn't like music that brings him down.

Within those parameters, he finds many areas of music and his own life to expound upon. In doing so, he also turned this reader on to a lot of great music (esp. if you're lucky enough to get the hardcover with included CD). Here are a few choice examples:

Born For Me by Paul Westerberg: A song destined for play at a future wedding, but this chapter describes the art of the instrumental solo, and why less is so often more. Hornby exalts Westerberg's plinky-plink piano break by saying, "A bad musician would have picked the wrong four notes."

Samba-Pa-Ti by Santana: A hilarious chapter on the song Hornby planned to lose his virginity to. This leads to a great diatribe on songs like "Let's Get It On," and how they're really intended as sex substitutes rather than sex accompaniment. And in a great last laugh, the chapter segues into-

Mama, You Been On My Mind by Rod Stewart: This would seem too easy a target, but the author has some real compassion for the guy, and for others who are masters at the lost art of making someone else's song their own. That said, he can't resist some jabs at the rusty-throated one, and if anyone knows where to find Rod's rendition of the Scottish World Cup song (Ole Ola), please let me know.

A Minor Incident by Badly Drawn Boy: After the preceding comedy of several chapters, I was completely bowled over by this one; Hornby describes the grieving process of discovering his son's autism, and paints quite a moving picture of their father-son relationship. As the brother of a child with autism, I identified with quite a lot here, and learning later of the book's philanthropic nature (proceeds benefit a school devoted to the education of such populations) have even greater pride in my purchase. Anyone familiar with Badly Drawn Boy or his soundtrack to the film adaptation of Hornby's "About A Boy" will never be able to hear this song the same again. Hornby goes so far as to say that the song his book inspired now means more to him than his book ever could.

Through each chapter, Hornby maintains his deft use of phrase and subtle aphorisms, so slyly that you must often re-read passages to catch a clever quip that dares not draw attention to itself. Fans of Hornby's fiction will find no complaints here.

A thoroughly engrossing read which lends itself to periodic visitation, but will probably be read through many times over. And in buying it, you help a great cause. If ever there was a win-win literary purchase, this is it.

My wife gave me this book for my Birthday. The idea was wonderful and I was intrigued. I had never read Nick Hornby, but I am a fan of High Fidelity. That night I went to bed the book and my kid's CD player. I started off well until I got to the 2nd essay "Thunder Road". Nothing on the CD. Now I suppose that I could find this song fairly easily, but since there are 31 essays and only 12 tracks on the CD I quickly got totally uninterested in the book. Why would anyone want to read about a tune that he didn't know or could listen to at the same time. I figure copyright must be the hangup, but I honestly can't imagine "The Boss" refusing to let a recognized author use an old song to gain a glowing review that might be read by thousands of readers. The book will remain unread & unlistened toat my house.

*sigh* this is the kind of stuff you'd like to write about every mix tape you ever made. this is the kind of stuff you try and try and try to say but since you can't find the words you just add a song to the tape that most closely reflects what you're trying to convey. hornby's so admirable. it's not easy to come up with words about songs written by other people, and hornby does it so well.

For some rock 'n' roll is literature for living, while for others it simply fills the air when they're not on cell phones riding in their cars. Mr. Hornby is the former, and so am I. While I don't agree on all his philosophical conclusions in this book, at least he makes an effort to offer solutions; and that alone places him near the top of his class in the current generation of writers. Don't read this book for music. That's why the CD is included. Read it to understand how the power of rock 'n' roll can impact a person's perspective through the years.

His writing is wonderful. It helps that we have similar taste in music, but I think this book would have made a wonderful read even if he spent all his time writing about Britney Spears and Tuvan Throat Singing (Case in point: his New Yorker article for the 2001 music issue). Nick Hornby is a delight to read no matter what he writes about.

I thoroughly enjoyed not only the book, filled with excellent essays about Nick's favorite songs, but the CD is a great bonus, as well. I loved it! I bought two extras as presents. It was like having a good friend burn a CD for you, with new and old stuff, and then being able to tell you, or write you, thoughtful, insightful, funny and touching stories behind each selection. If only more artists did this--pick 20 or so songs of their favorites, so we can be exposed to the great music that is out there. I highly recommend this.