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Post by kgp on Oct 3, 2009 8:39:04 GMT -5
Nick Hornby's new book is about a reclusive, aging cult icon and his fans.
Just sayin'
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Post by ClamsCasino on Oct 4, 2009 13:35:58 GMT -5
The very first line has a diehard fan going to a club toilet in Minneapolis to see the spot where his hero lost heart.
Later, we see the one-time rocker planning his comeback by doing a song-by-song solo acoustic rerecording his most beloved album, "Juliet," to be called "Juliet, Naked."
Which suggests an obvious question...Tim, Naked or Pleased To Meet Me, Naked? For some reason Let It Be, Naked seems almost redundant.
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Post by wecantgetanybetter on Oct 4, 2009 16:34:46 GMT -5
Tim, naked, for sure.
The concept reminds me of three movies: (1) Gus Van Sant's (?) shot-by-shot remake of Psycho a few years ago, (2) Michael Hanecke's shot-by-shot remake of his own movie "Funny Games" except in English, (3) and Robert Frank's "Candy Mountain," starring Tom Waits. In that one, the hero hitchhikes to Nova Scotia in search of a legendary, reclusive guitar maker ... clearly a stand-in for Frank himself, a photographer and filmmaker with a cult following (he did the cover for Waits' Rain Dogs and the Stones' Exile on Main Street).
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Post by kgp on Oct 4, 2009 17:01:01 GMT -5
I'm about halfway into this book right now. It's okay, but Hornby's always been a bit hit or miss for me.
For what it's worth, I've read none of the press for this book. It just turned up in my library queue last week. The singer-songwriter character seems to be obviously inspired by Paul, but could have been inspired by a number of people, I suppose.
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Post by A Regular on Oct 5, 2009 13:25:06 GMT -5
It would have to be Let It Be, Naked....like the non-Phil Spector version that Paul-Ringo OKed a few years ago. Sounds like a weird parallel universe sort of thing.
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Post by Kathy on Oct 5, 2009 13:56:22 GMT -5
I'm about halfway into this book right now. It's okay, but Hornby's always been a bit hit or miss for me. For what it's worth, I've read none of the press for this book. It just turned up in my library queue last week. The singer-songwriter character seems to be obviously inspired by Paul, but could have been inspired by a number of people, I suppose. I was driving through the middle of the desert last week and caught a very static-y 5 minutes of Nick Hornby on public radio, talking about this book, and from what I heard, the character seems almost certainly inspired, at least in part, by Paul. I'm only hoping Nick Hornby has never been to this site for inspiration on fan(atics)!
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Numskll
First Class Scout
Posts: 173
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Post by Numskll on Oct 5, 2009 14:00:42 GMT -5
Wait!?! Do we know which urinal in which that Paul lost his heart? I smell a road trip!
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Post by kgp on Oct 5, 2009 17:25:23 GMT -5
[ I'm only hoping Nick Hornby has never been to this site for inspiration on fan(atics)! The EP thread is getting pretty heated, you know, in case he's planning a sequel.
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Post by wecantgetanybetter on Oct 5, 2009 19:43:12 GMT -5
I'm about halfway into this book right now. It's okay, but Hornby's always been a bit hit or miss for me. For what it's worth, I've read none of the press for this book. It just turned up in my library queue last week. The singer-songwriter character seems to be obviously inspired by Paul, but could have been inspired by a number of people, I suppose. I was driving through the middle of the desert last week and caught a very static-y 5 minutes of Nick Hornby on public radio, talking about this book, and from what I heard, the character seems almost certainly inspired, at least in part, by Paul. I'm only hoping Nick Hornby has never been to this site for inspiration on fan(atics)! transcript of possible radio show you heard in the desert
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Post by wecantgetanybetter on Oct 5, 2009 19:47:53 GMT -5
From [url=http://seattlest.com/2009/10/05/an_interview_with_nick_hornby.php ]Seattlest[/url]: Q. It kind of pains me that Tucker Crowe is imaginary and I’ll never hear his music. What does Tucker Crowe’s music sound like in your mind? Hornby: I was imagining the melodic sensibilities of a Jackson Browne crossed with the rawness of some of Richard Thompson's stuff. And Tucker sings with the grain of Paul Westerberg. Or something.
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Post by Kathy on Oct 5, 2009 21:21:19 GMT -5
I was driving through the middle of the desert last week and caught a very static-y 5 minutes of Nick Hornby on public radio, talking about this book, and from what I heard, the character seems almost certainly inspired, at least in part, by Paul. I'm only hoping Nick Hornby has never been to this site for inspiration on fan(atics)! transcript of possible radio show you heard in the desert This was the exact part I heard (this is him reading from the book): "There seemed to be a surprising amount to talk about. The Web site had a latest news section, which never failed to amuse Annie, Tucker no longer being a man who did an awful lot - as far as we know, Duncan always said. There's always something that passed for news among the faithful, a Crowe night on an Internet radio station, a new article, a new album from a former band member, an interview with an engineer. The bulk of the content, though, consisted of essays analyzing lyrics or discussing influences or conjecturing, apparently inexhaustibly, about the silence." Uhh...hmmm. Sound like any place we know?
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Post by wecantgetanybetter on Oct 5, 2009 22:12:36 GMT -5
"The Internet came along and changed everything. When, a little later than everyone else, Duncan discovered how it all worked, he set up a Web site called Can Anybody Hear Me, the title of a track from an obscure EP recorded after the wounding failure of Crowe's first album."
Can Anybody Hear Me = Come Feel Me Tremble Crowe derives from Cameron Crowe Minneapolis bathroom = Minneapolis airport bathroom made famous by Larry Craig Pilgrimage there = Chuck Klosterman's pilgrimage to Bob Stinson's apartment Taylor's conversion = St. Paul's conversion on the road to Damascus So if Taylor Crowe is Paul, the question remains, who at MWT is Nick?
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cford
Star Scout
Posts: 803
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Post by cford on Oct 6, 2009 10:10:56 GMT -5
I'm about halfway into this book right now. It's okay, but Hornby's always been a bit hit or miss for me. For what it's worth, I've read none of the press for this book. It just turned up in my library queue last week. The singer-songwriter character seems to be obviously inspired by Paul, but could have been inspired by a number of people, I suppose. I suspect Hornby probably is a fan, but I saw the "High Fidelity" movie (based on his book) and I do not recall any overt Replacements/Westerberg references -- and you would think there would have been an opportunity to make those references in movie featuring an 80s influenced record store. Did I miss them? CF
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randolph500
Star Scout
round the corner give it some gas
Posts: 758
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Post by randolph500 on Oct 6, 2009 14:39:03 GMT -5
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Post by wecantgetanybetter on Oct 6, 2009 16:37:20 GMT -5
Perhaps this is where the world discovers randolph500 is Nick Hornby.
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Post by kgp on Oct 6, 2009 17:05:31 GMT -5
I suspect Hornby probably is a fan, but I saw the "High Fidelity" movie (based on his book) and I do not recall any overt Replacements/Westerberg references -- and you would think there would have been an opportunity to make those references in movie featuring an 80s influenced record store. Did I miss them? CF Well, Paul was included in Songbook. ("Born For Me," I believe.)
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Post by wecantgetanybetter on Oct 6, 2009 17:49:32 GMT -5
I suspect Hornby probably is a fan, but I saw the "High Fidelity" movie (based on his book) and I do not recall any overt Replacements/Westerberg references -- and you would think there would have been an opportunity to make those references in movie featuring an 80s influenced record store. Did I miss them? CF Well, Paul was included in Songbook. ("Born For Me," I believe.) Yep, here's what Hornby wrote in that book: Paul Westerberg, everyone's favorite coulda-beena-contender, is no pianist, but his solo on "Born for Me" is just lovely -- maybe because he's the singer-songwriter, and knows what his song feels like to him, and therefore what it should feel like to us. "Born for Me" is a ragged ballad, with a Waitsian lonely losers' lyric and an affectingly heartsick tune; the solo is basically played with one finger, and initially at least consists of three notes, but it sounds great to me -- not in a punky, do-it-yourself way (although frankly you could, once you've heard it), but in a strangely, intensely musical way. A better pianist would have wrecked the moment, filled in the gaps, failed to recognize how the tune has exerted a spell over the right listener; somebody with little talent and absolutely no ear would simply have chosen the wrong three notes. Just as you know intuitively when the simplest and crudest brush strokes have been made by a proper artist, I can never listen to the solo without thinking that it's played by a born musician -- not a virtuoso, not even someone who could make a living as a pianist in a cocktail lounge, just a man who thinks and feels and loves and speaks in music.
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Post by Strange and Grandiose on Oct 7, 2009 20:35:10 GMT -5
I'm about halfway into this book right now. It's okay, but Hornby's always been a bit hit or miss for me. For what it's worth, I've read none of the press for this book. It just turned up in my library queue last week. The singer-songwriter character seems to be obviously inspired by Paul, but could have been inspired by a number of people, I suppose. I suspect Hornby probably is a fan, but I saw the "High Fidelity" movie (based on his book) and I do not recall any overt Replacements/Westerberg references -- and you would think there would have been an opportunity to make those references in movie featuring an 80s influenced record store. Did I miss them? CF It seems like there's at least one Replacements reference in the book, and I'm pretty sure there are a couple in Long Way Down.
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randolph500
Star Scout
round the corner give it some gas
Posts: 758
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Post by randolph500 on Oct 7, 2009 22:28:08 GMT -5
Perhaps this is where the world discovers randolph500 is Nick Hornby. ;D
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