The 'Rock and Roll' Tag Archive

Below you'll find all my writing tagged with the word Rock and Roll. The posts are listed in chronological order. Click the post title to read more.

August 20th, 2010

Rock & Roll Will Save Your Life

Do you have that friend in your life who, depending on the day and your mood, you are either madly in love with or so annoyed by you want to shove him in front of a bus? After reading Rock and Roll Will Save Your Life, I’m pretty convinced that if Steve Almond were my [...]

July 16th, 2009

On proper concert attire

Out of the last 38 concerts I’ve attended, thirty-seven times I’ve worn a plain black t-shirt, jeans, and my favorite orange and blue tennis shoes. Once I wore a bright red Twins shirt, jeans, and my favorite blue and orange tennis shoes. The Twins shirt, which I got for like $4, has become a constant [...]

June 19th, 2009

Rock & Roll June Book 2: Closer to rock snobdom

I have to admit The Rock Snob’s Dictionary: An Essential Lexicon of Rockological Knowledge was probably not meant to be read from cover to cover like most books. Really, who sits down and reads the dictionary? I did, and it was a little exasperating. Mostly because the definitions started to get a little samey. How [...]

May 3rd, 2009

Now taking requests for June Rocks

Every June (well every one since the last June) I fill my month by reading Rock & Roll Books and dub it June Rocks. I’m not sure why I’m so excited for this reading excursion, because last year’s selections were kind of a bust ranging from Meh to Barf. Not good at all. So this [...]

November 18th, 2008

Now, this is what I was talking about

Okay, this is what I was talking about, Hold Steady and the Drive-by Truckers rocking the free world. And in case you are interested, Let there be Rock

June 15th, 2008

Everything I’m Cracked Up to Be

Here’s the thing with rock and roll memoirs (at least this is the thing I’m getting after reading, well, two) stories about playing crowded, smoky clubs all the sound the same after you hear about three of them. Doesn’t matter where the club is, who the band is, or what year it is. Sometimes something [...]

June 12th, 2008

The Importance of Music to Girls

At one point in her book The Importance of Music to Girls Lavinia Greenlaw makes this observation: “I don’t know how to think or how to talk about what I think. I haven’t learned anything for years. I don’t listen. I can’t speak. I am watching myself happening or not happening . . .” For [...]

May 26th, 2008

Much like summer loving, summer reading will be a blast

Because I am 99% Booknerd and 1% music-geek-wannabe, I have designated June rock and roll month. What gives me such authority? The fact that my birthday is on the sixth day of the sixth month and this year I’ll be thirty-six. Did I make that up right now? Hell yes. It’s been a long time [...]

May 4th, 2008

Cranky gets an education, a list

Things I learned from watching most of the 832-part History of Rock and Roll on VH1 Classics: 1. The song “Carrie Ann” was written about Marianne Faithful. 2. “Do You Believe in Magic” came out in like 1965 and not in about 1985 like I had always assumed, also the band who sings it, The [...]

November 26th, 2007

For Jags

Jags, you’ll be surprised that Neil Young didn’t even make the list of the 16 ugliest men in Rock and Roll. I am disappointed.