Talking Heads' Fear of Music (33 1/3)

I think the reason I enjoyed this book as much as I did is that I share much in common with the author: we both were in our teens when the album came out, we both listened to it a lot at the time, and frequently over the years. Finding this book feels like a validation to me: Someone else enjoyed this album as much as I did, and I am grateful to have found this book.The book follows along with the album's song list, and intersperses the discussion with topics such as where this album falls within the entire Talking Heads discography, the band roster, and more.The song discussions are a lot of fun. Many of the ideas he brings up are similar to what a lot of us would find, but he also brings in many I had not thought of. And with an author of his talent, it's a joy just to read his interpretations.Take the advice Jonathan Lethem gives in the introduction: Listen to the album while you read the book, and turn the volume up!I wish more talented authors would share their thoughts about their favorite albums.A lot of other reviewers seem to have been looking for a more scholarly examination of the album. While this book was not written by a music scholar, it certainly examines many, many themes and ideas. What this book does not provide (and perhaps this is the reason for the low rating) is much in the way of history surrounding the band, its members, or what was going on in the studio while the album was being made. I suppose that would have been interesting, but I am satisfied with this book because it is about the album, not the making of the album.

33 1/3rd: LOVE the series. Some books, not so much. I believe everyone wants slightly different things out of the books, so I'll let you know where I'm coming from. My favorite books in the series are "Village Green" and "Pink Flag". Only one of those has the co-operation of the artists involved, so the 'insider's view' is not essential. But I like a lot of detail about the recordings, the studio, the songs evolutions, the bands pre and post history, influences the casual fan (or even rabid fan) might have missed, and I am not one to skip through a technical discussion of old analog recording technology or the number of tracks used for bass on a given song! Some authors of this series prefer to talk solely about their relationship with the record, and this is one of them. There's a lot of "boy in the room" drivel. There's a lot of discussion about stuff which is at best tangential to the record. Very very few interesting factoids are slipped in. Mention is made of Brian Eno's "trickery" on the record, but nothing really specific (everyone else, for instance, mentions the song where the bass sounds like a tuba). Now some 33 1/3rd books do dip into the author and stuff, but it is mixed in - great example of that is the excellent book on Wowee Zowee, which mentions where the author was living and what kind of girlfriend he had during Pavement's prime but is also geeky enough to dip into the pre-amps used in the recording chain for "Strings of Nashville". There's balance. The author writes both the book he wants to read and the book he wants to write. This guy, he just wanted to write about how much he loved this record and unfortunately, as one reviewer said, it READS LIKE A PITCHFORK REVIEW (which is the ultimate insult I think to rock criticism). Why 2 stars instead of one? Well, it is a great album, and talking with another fan who points out the first thing you hear in "Drugs" is a breath of air is cool, if not overtly illuminating. Also, the author points out that when you're putting the vinyl record away and pulling it back out a lot, the edges on the LP cover lose their sharpness and the cover becomes something other than what you originally bought, which I thought was a neat observation.

The best thing about the 33 1/3rd series is the variety of styles and approaches that the writer's take. I like some of the musicological pieces, most of the more academic pieces (though I will forever be angered that Eno's ANOTHER GREEN WORLD was given such a shoddy, dispassionate treatment!), and all of the more creative and personal responses. Colin Meloy's book on the Replacements' LET IT BE has been at the top of my list, but Lethem's FEAR OF MUSIC sits right up there with it. The insights are personal and connect the experience of big new music to everyday life, and two distinct stages of life at that. I've often learned more about music by reading about how different writers connect to music than I have by reading the most scholarly or cultural analysis. I most appreciated Lethem's description of the circle he drew when trying to determine whether to write from what he knows and thinks and remembers, and to stick by that, not dilute it, with other people's stories, versus spending all his writing time and energy researching and incorporating other writers' ideas and biographical factoids into his circle of impressions and ideas. And he introduced me to the program "Freedom," a great little tool that temporarily shuts off your access to the Internet ... this is a writer's god-send, and it really transformed my own practice as I've been finishing up one of my own book projects and starting on a new one.

An OK read but very little information on the creation of the album itself and more about the author’s interpretation of it. Pretentious in places and you learn very little. The authors habit of going on about Bob Dylan whenever he can is tiresome and irrelevant. Not one of the best books in the series.

Interesting read about a great album but very self-indulgent and pretentious. In spite of this I became more intrigued in the album after subsequent listens

Interesting read for fans of a superb album.

amazing album, very good book

I was surprised to see so many negative reviews of this book. What’s not to like? At one point Lethem remarks that his identification with Fear of Music as a teenager was so strong that you could have placed the album where his head was and it would have adequately represented his inner self. If you haven’t ever felt that way about an album, book, or movie, this isn’t a book you should read. Lethem isn’t doing standard music criticism or cultural analysis—thank God, who needs more of that?—he’s exploring the strange liminal zone between his own psyche and a rock album that got so deep under his skin (like Byrne’s air) that it had a hand in forming it (his psyche).But then, some people don’t know s*** about the air.For Lethem writing this book, everything seems to be up in the air. That’s the point. Lethem can’t tell where Fear of Music ends and he begins, or vice versa, and the reader isn’t supposed to know either. And it comes directly from his heart to you. What Lethem can do as well as any music writer I’ve ever read, however (as he also showed in his novel You Don’t Love Me Yet), is describe musical progressions and effects in coherent language that somehow captures the essence of music and meaning, that merges forms, creates prose that sings the praises of songs that narrate, so the music and the analysis get together, load their trucks, burn their notebooks, and change their hairstyles. This is one of those abilities that mystifies and humbles me: I don’t know how Lethem does it. I can only absorb it admiringly and, as with great music, enjoy its ineffability and my own incapacity to understand how he does it. Ironic, because Lethem’s Fear of Music is kind of about that: Lethem’s still-adolescent fumbling, joyful, jerky, melancholy, intense, searching, desperate, weary and inspired attempt to come to terms with his inability to understand Fear of Music and, at the same time, his inability not to at least TRY. Maybe that’s why some people didn’t like it? Too naked, too honest, too raw—like Fear of Music the album, Fear of Music the book offers no comfort or solace besides the comfort and solace of forgoing comfort and solace: “I ain’t got time for that now.”Fear of Music has been my favorite album for thirty years. My favorite song was Heaven, which is about a bar where they play your favorite song, all night long. (How’s that for an infinity loop?) I had never read anything else by Lethem before I read his little book. It did not disappoint, which in itself is about as likely as a party where everyone leaves at exactly the same time. Lethem writes like a building on fire, like he’s flat on his back, with no regrets, like he’s a little freaked out, like he’s charged up, like he’s got it figured out, like he doesn’t know what he’s talking about, like there’s a party in his mind, like he’s inside a dry ice factory.It’s a good place. He gets his thinking done.This is the book I read.