The Boy Who Cried Freebird : Rock & Roll Fables and Sonic Storytelling
Author(s): Mitch Myers
Wedding the American oral storytelling tradition with progressive music journalism, Mitch Myers' The Boy Who Cried Freebird is a treatise on the popular music culture of the twentieth century. Trenchant, insightful, and wonderfully strange, this literary mix-tape is authentic music history . . . except when it isn't. Myers outrageously blends short fiction, straight journalism, comic interludes, memoirs, serious artist profiles, satire, and related fan-boy hokum—including the classic stories he first narrated on NPR's All Things Considered.
Focusing on iconic recordings, events, communities, and individuals, Myers riffs on Deadheads, sixties nostalgia, rock concert decorum, glockenspiels, and all manner of pop phenomena. From tales of rock-and-roll time travel to science fiction revealing Black Sabbath's power to melt space aliens, The Boy Who Cried Freebird is about music, culture, legend, and lore—all to be lovingly passed on to future generations.
Review(s):
“Chicago’s hyperliterate answer to Lester Bangs writes straightforward criticism in addition to trippy time-travel Grateful Dead adventures.”
“Dr. Myers can tell a story...When you read his fiction, you understand the facts.”
“He is one of my favorite living storytellers.”
“Mitch truly lives within the music.”
“Mitch’s ‘Rock & Roll Fables’ are departures from the norm, alternately fresh, smart and unique.”
“Mitch Myers has an agile mind and a deft pen.”
“…Tasty musical goodness…Smashing.”
“...like an extraordinary jam session... a rhythmic nirvana that is as compelling as it is hilariously absurd.”
“...an insightful and entertaining look at popular music culture.”
“He’s a stone soul groove with stories most supersonic.”
ISBN: 9780061139024