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Type of bind: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.01083578
EAN num: 9780743470261
ISBN number: 0743470265
Label: MTV
Manufacturer: MTV
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 432
Printing Date: June 15, 2004
Publishing house: MTV
Sale Popularity Level: 887883
Studio: MTV
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Product Description:
Following in the footsteps of the late great Lester Bangs -- the most revered and irreverent of rock 'n' roll critics -- twenty-four celebrated writers have penned stories inspired by great songs. Just as Bangs cast new light on a Rod Stewart classic with his story 'Maggie May,' about a wholly unexpected connection between an impressionable young man and an aging, alcoholic hooker, the diverse, electrifying stories here use songs as a springboard for a form dubbed the lit riff.
Alongside Bangs's classic work, you'll find stories by J.T. LeRoy, who puts a recovering teenage drug abuser in a dentist's chair with nothing but the Foo Fighters's 'Everlong' -- blaring through the P.A. -- to fight the pain; Jonathan Lethem, whose narrator looks back on his lost innocence just as an extramarital affair careens to an end -- this to the tune 'Speeding Motorcycle' as recorded by Yo La Tengo; and Jennifer Belle, who envisions a prequel to Paul Simon's 'Graceland' -- one that takes place at a children's birthday party replete with a real live kangaroo.
With original contributions from Tom Perrotta, Nelson George, Amanda Davis, Lisa Tucker, Aimee Bender, Darin Strauss, and many more -- riffing on everyone from Tom Waits and Bruce Springsteen to the White Stripes, Cat Power, and Bob Marley -- this is both an astounding collection of short stories and an extraordinary experiment in words and music.
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Rated by buyers -
Lit Riffs is a unique concept, one so obvious you'd smack yourself on the forehead for not having considered it: stories based on songs, when the reverse is quite common. The choices of songs to base a tale on is wildly disparate, which is cool. Thankfully this collection didn't go down the route of all easily recognizable pop songs.
More interesting than the book is the companion recording of cover versions of the songs that inspired Lit Riffs, soon to be released by S.A.M. records; My favorite track is the rendering of Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah by the band Teenage Girls. Covers of Cohen songs tend toward the slavishly faithful; it's refreshing to hear a group make it seem new.
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