Following within the footsteps of the overdue nice Lester Bangs -- the main respected and irreverent of rock 'n' roll critics -- twenty-four celebrated writers have penned tales encouraged by means of nice songs. simply as Bangs solid new gentle on a Rod Stewart vintage together with his tale "Maggie May," a few thoroughly unforeseen connection among an impressionable younger guy and an getting older, alcoholic hooker, the varied, electrifying tales the following use songs as a springboard for a sort dubbed the lit riff.
along Bangs's vintage paintings, you can find tales via J.T. LeRoy, who places a getting better teenage drug abuser in a dentist's chair with not anything however the Foo Fighters's "Everlong" -- blaring in the course of the P.A. -- to struggle the discomfort; Jonathan Lethem, whose narrator appears again on his misplaced innocence simply as an extramarital affair careens to an finish -- this to the song "Speeding motorbike" as recorded via Yo l. a. Tengo; and Jennifer Belle, who envisions a prequel to Paul Simon's "Graceland" -- one who occurs at a kid's celebration replete with a true stay kangaroo.
With unique contributions from Tom Perrotta, Nelson George, Amanda Davis, Lisa Tucker, Aimee Bender, Darin Strauss, and lots of extra -- riffing on everybody from Tom Waits and Bruce Springsteen to the White Stripes, Cat strength, and Bob Marley -- this is often either an fabulous selection of brief tales and a rare scan in phrases and song.
Soundtrack on hand from Saturation Acres tune & Recording Co.
Quick preview of Lit Riffs PDF
So are thousands of different humans, yet they’re no longer with me. you're. How come? ” She felt cornered. “Because … I’m simply narcissistic adequate that after i glance at you, I see a few of me in retrospect, and that i like that. i would like a yes-man—” “Ah, come on—” “Okay, then, i would like a replicate. Or anyone who stocks a few of these emotions you name futile. i need to speak like this, whether we’re either simply digging one huge gap that leads nowhere, as I strongly suspect, I’ve been starved for speak like this for longer than you could think.
I requested. “Lionel? ” “For the mushrooms? ” “No,” he acknowledged. “No, I didn’t. ” “You should still do this. ” “I don’t have the money. ” “Oh. ” I didn’t have a lot cash myself. If I did, I most likely wouldn’t have given it to him even though. I wasn’t yes how a lot a bag of mushrooms used to be worthy besides. Swampthroat bought up and dusted himself off. He stumbled round, squinting within the sunlight and straightening out his garments. He wiped his eyes and surveyed the environment, harassed, it appeared, as to how he’d ended up there.
Are you aware whose center is it? ” She couldn’t aid herself, and who knew in regards to the etiquette of transplants? the total excess of at the subway she had questioned what he had performed along with his middle. Had he requested for it again? How may well he now not? How may perhaps he enable it pass? “I don’t are looking to take into consideration it,” Ray responded. “Right,” she acknowledged, yet she didn’t comprehend. “All i do know is, it was once from an eighteen-year-old child, from the Midwest. ” “A boy,” she acknowledged, pondering how untested and undamaged that center will be. How she needed she’d identified Ray whilst he had that middle.
That’s okay,” he acknowledged. “I’ll exit and get a few. ” He was once being grown-up, mustering all of his grownup manners for me. He buttoned his blouse, his chest disappearing. I regarded out the window. “It’s begun raining. do you need an umbrella? ” My umbrella used to be a Monet print, acquired at a museum reward store on an afternoon they’d forecasted solar. He shook his head, and that i considered him pawing out throughout a undeniable lake at evening. I can’t make it ok, basically comprehensible. That’s the main i will wish for. whilst i feel of him now, I think the radio cranked, the scrim of water, an intersection nestled in a wooded area of mobilephone poles, Michael, his dick tensed opposed to his denims.
Ah shit, must you? ” he requested. “Already? ” “I’m on cut-off date. ” She couldn’t think it used to be over similar to that. That was once it. It used to be over. She felt a little bit unwell. “Sure, yet you’ve obtained to come back back. ” He seemed a bit careworn, and flustered. “Of course,” she stated. She couldn’t get her breath. “Look, it’s in contrast to I’m doing something. they arrive and take my blood, and that i hang around. I sleep much, consume plenty of steak. money my incapacity fee. ” “Wow,” she stated. “That’s the existence. ” “I omit you,” he acknowledged, and he or she believed him.