I am about halfway through Brendan Halpin's newish rock and roll novel A Long Way Back, and I'm really enjoying it. I probably would be further along in the book if I didn't keep pausing to read his blog, which is also great and really funny. He knows a lot about rock and roll music, yet somehow had managed to miss the magic of the Sweet until my book's narrator's relentless Sweet-plugging persuaded him to check them out:
And whoa Nelly did the folks who wrote the Rocky Horror songs rip off Sweet in an almost criminal fashion. It's too bad, because, coming late to the Sweet party, I listen to the songs and half expect to get hit with toast or have some drunken guy in fishnet hose yell "Where's your neck?!!" from a few rows behind me.
And while I'm at it here's another Halpinism from a ways back that's still cracking me up after all these weeks:
Kiss, if you believe Gene Simmons... has been a completely cynical moneymaking machine from day one. But this doesn't dim the brilliance of, say, "Deuce." I mean, "get up and get your grandma outta here." No idea what that song is about, but they had me at get your grandma outta here.Me too. Posted by Dr. Frank at April 10, 2006 08:43 AM | TrackBack
Frank,
Hey, if you already did this earlier on then ignore this(or post a link?), but I had really drifted away from your band several years ago, but I heard you had a book out so I looked around and ended up here. ANYWAY, I'm interested in the whole aspect of the book thing versus music, as in what are you shooting for as far as selling wise or review wise? With a "Dumb Little Band" you can drive around and play songs and so forth, but with "words" what is the thought for promoting? I'd guess that many people or your target audience wouldn't read or don't care about lit reviews, so what is the game plan for reaching them? I always was amazed that even back in the day bands could break even and then some bands like Sweet Baby, just never made it. It just seems like such a formidible task to promote a book and hope that it catches on or gets into the hands of people who would like it most. Any thoughts?
The Sweet are the shit!
Posted by: COOP at April 10, 2006 11:48 PMI used to have some Gene Klein (Simmons) monster fanzines (done via ditto machine; smell the alcohol!), as it happens. And I have a whole other anecdote about one of his imposters.
I realize this barely connects with your post, but, hey, a kid has to do something to comment.
Posted by: Gary Farber at April 16, 2006 02:11 PM