reading band biographies
Recently, I've read a couple of band biographies/musician memoirs. I read Bruce Dickinson's memoir, which was fantastic, and I read Mick Wall's Metallica book, Enter Night, which, while it got bogged down sometimes with a lotttt of business things, made me cry four times.
Dickinson's memoir was one hundred per cent, technically speaking, from a book point of view, better. Dickinson wrote it better, it was more interesting, and he actually did spend a fairly equal amount of time on every part of his life. The Metallica book spent half of its time pre-AJFA, like I mentioned, it was bogged down with the business thing (though you could make the same argument for Dickinson and aviation), and, while I liked the fact that Wall wasn't exactly objective with anything he was saying, you could make an argument that it's not a great way to do a nonfiction book.
But yeah, like I said, Enter Night made me cry four times. And like, I love Iron Maiden. I have the Number of the Beast record, and I have Seventh Son of a Seventh Son & Somewhere in Time on tape, and I have a Somewhere in Time patch on my denim vest, and I have a little Eddie that sits by my computer. Like I love Iron Maiden. Of course. I'm not a fucking monster.
But like, I really love Metallica. And I know it's super typical, you know, and I know they're the biggest goddam rock band in the world.
But like, I really love Metallica.
The four times the book made me cry, two times had to do with Master of Puppets, two had to do with Cliff Burton (one of them overlapping with a Puppets thing), and one had to do with Jason Newsted. Also I teared up a lot at the end, and when they were talking about St Anger and stuff. Because like, I really love Metallica. I'm not going to go through all the Metallica stuff I have because it's a lot, but rest assured. It's more than the Maiden stuff. And so even though, technically, the Metallica book wasn't as well done as Bruce Dickinson's memoir, I gave it five stars. What Does This Button Do? got four.
And I mean, I'm not a super objective reviewer. You really can't be, because if you are then you're never going to have fun with it and like, what's the point if you're not having fun, you know? I can say that technically Dickinson's book is a helluva lot better than Wall's, but emotionally? Are you gonna stand here and tell me that a book that starts off with the 1986 bus crash and then whiplashes you back to Lars Ulrich being a little entitled Danish weirdo and then talks about Kirk Hammett in loving detail and just in case you forgot about it here's the bus crash again is not going to be a book that makes you cry four times?
I mean, maybe it's just a me thing. But the thing with band memoirs or biographies is that I don't really expect all that much from them. I'm not going into them for the great literary merit, if you know what I mean. I'm going into them because I like the band or the person and I want to know more about them, or know some stories about them, or just have an excuse to think about them for 470 pages. Like, Dickinson's kind of shocked me with how well it was written. It's not often that you have to do any work at all to read a book about musicians. Normally you can just sit back and let it wash over you. Dickinson's book is the kind of musician book that I would recommend to someone who thinks they're all trash. Probably would not do the same for Enter Night. But you know, if you're into Metallica, Enter Night did make me cry four times. So. It's got that going for it.
Dickinson's memoir was one hundred per cent, technically speaking, from a book point of view, better. Dickinson wrote it better, it was more interesting, and he actually did spend a fairly equal amount of time on every part of his life. The Metallica book spent half of its time pre-AJFA, like I mentioned, it was bogged down with the business thing (though you could make the same argument for Dickinson and aviation), and, while I liked the fact that Wall wasn't exactly objective with anything he was saying, you could make an argument that it's not a great way to do a nonfiction book.
But yeah, like I said, Enter Night made me cry four times. And like, I love Iron Maiden. I have the Number of the Beast record, and I have Seventh Son of a Seventh Son & Somewhere in Time on tape, and I have a Somewhere in Time patch on my denim vest, and I have a little Eddie that sits by my computer. Like I love Iron Maiden. Of course. I'm not a fucking monster.
But like, I really love Metallica. And I know it's super typical, you know, and I know they're the biggest goddam rock band in the world.
But like, I really love Metallica.
The four times the book made me cry, two times had to do with Master of Puppets, two had to do with Cliff Burton (one of them overlapping with a Puppets thing), and one had to do with Jason Newsted. Also I teared up a lot at the end, and when they were talking about St Anger and stuff. Because like, I really love Metallica. I'm not going to go through all the Metallica stuff I have because it's a lot, but rest assured. It's more than the Maiden stuff. And so even though, technically, the Metallica book wasn't as well done as Bruce Dickinson's memoir, I gave it five stars. What Does This Button Do? got four.
And I mean, I'm not a super objective reviewer. You really can't be, because if you are then you're never going to have fun with it and like, what's the point if you're not having fun, you know? I can say that technically Dickinson's book is a helluva lot better than Wall's, but emotionally? Are you gonna stand here and tell me that a book that starts off with the 1986 bus crash and then whiplashes you back to Lars Ulrich being a little entitled Danish weirdo and then talks about Kirk Hammett in loving detail and just in case you forgot about it here's the bus crash again is not going to be a book that makes you cry four times?
I mean, maybe it's just a me thing. But the thing with band memoirs or biographies is that I don't really expect all that much from them. I'm not going into them for the great literary merit, if you know what I mean. I'm going into them because I like the band or the person and I want to know more about them, or know some stories about them, or just have an excuse to think about them for 470 pages. Like, Dickinson's kind of shocked me with how well it was written. It's not often that you have to do any work at all to read a book about musicians. Normally you can just sit back and let it wash over you. Dickinson's book is the kind of musician book that I would recommend to someone who thinks they're all trash. Probably would not do the same for Enter Night. But you know, if you're into Metallica, Enter Night did make me cry four times. So. It's got that going for it.
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