Juliet, Naked

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Hey, there's a new rock novel by a major player just released!

It's called Juliet, Naked, and it's by Nick Hornby. This is the same Nick Hornby that brought us High Fidelity, the crown jewel of modern rock novels.

I always like it when someone tackles this "genre." If you ask me, it's a shame Rock Lit doesn't have its own shelf at your local bookstore. What could be more natural for those of us who loved rock music than to curl up with a well-written novel about rock musicians? Always seemed like a good fit to me. Oh well. If nobody else wants it, I'll take it.

Me and Nick Hornby, that is.

I haven't read Juliet, Naked yet, but I did read High Fidelity, and I thought it hit on something essential about my era (1983-1998) of rock music fan, in particular, our need to create a hierarchy of our favorite bands or songs.

This is something I did obsessively when I was a kid. I can still remember a few of my lists. Here's one from when I was fifteen:

1) Van Halen
2) Rush
3) Led Zeppelin

When I was seventeen, it mutated to:

1) Rush
2) Led Zeppelin
3) Triumph

(Gotta love Canadian rock.)



By the time I went to college, things had changed:

1) REM
2) Replacements
3) Husker Du

And when I moved to Tempe, Arizona, things really changed:

1) Dead Hot Workshop
2) Gin Blossoms
3) Beats the Hell out of Me

I have a theory why we're compelled to rank our favorite bands like this. I think it has something to do with the power the music has over us, and it's our way of giving that power shape and order. If we can rank our favorite bands correctly, we can control them in a way that's satisfying, understand them in a way that we hadn't before. It's part of our identity, what these bands are to us, what order we place them in. Kind of like the Holy Trinity, but with guitars.

I quit making lists like this some time ago, but I still keep my favorite bands in mind, and sometimes even broken into specific categories. For example:

My favorite band of all time:

Dead Hot Workshop

My Favorite band of the Aughts:

The Shins

My least favorite band of all time:

The Animals

My favorite metal band:

AC/DC

My favorite punk band:

Minor threat

My favorite English band:

The Smiths

My favorite band of the 90s:

Pavement

My favorite band of the 80s:

Camper Van Beethoven

My favorite solo singer:

Morrissey

My favorite band that I shouldn't like at all:

Journey

Actually, I just thought up a few of those on the spot, but it was fun.

What are your Top Three of All Time?

Yours in laying down the law,

Art

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