Lit Riffs

Lit Riffs

by Amanda DavisJonathan Lethem J. T. Leroy and others
Epub (Kobo), Epub (Adobe)
Publication Date: 01/11/2007

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Following in the footsteps of the late great Lester Bangs -- the most revered and irreverent of rock 'n' roll critics -- twenty-four celebrated writers have penned stories inspired by great songs. Just as Bangs cast new light on a Rod Stewart classic with his story "Maggie May," about a wholly unexpected connection between an impressionable young man and an aging, alcoholic hooker, the diverse, electrifying stories here use songs as a springboard for a form dubbed the lit riff.

Alongside Bangs's classic work, you'll find stories by J.T. LeRoy, who puts a recovering teenage drug abuser in a dentist's chair with nothing but the Foo Fighters's "Everlong" -- blaring through the P.A. -- to fight the pain; Jonathan Lethem, whose narrator looks back on his lost innocence just as an extramarital affair careens to an end -- this to the tune "Speeding Motorcycle" as recorded by Yo La Tengo; and Jennifer Belle, who envisions a prequel to Paul Simon's "Graceland" -- one that takes place at a children's birthday party replete with a real live kangaroo.

With original contributions from Tom Perrotta, Nelson George, Amanda Davis, Lisa Tucker, Aimee Bender, Darin Strauss, and many more -- riffing on everyone from Tom Waits and Bruce Springsteen to the White Stripes, Cat Power, and Bob Marley -- this is both an astounding collection of short stories and an extraordinary experiment in words and music.

Soundtrack available from Saturation Acres Music & Recording Co.

ISBN:
9781416586456
9781416586456
Category:
Short stories
Format:
Epub (Kobo), Epub (Adobe)
Publication Date:
01-11-2007
Language:
English
Publisher:
MTV Books
Jonathan Lethem

Jonathan Lethem was born in New York and attended Bennington College. He is the author of seven novels including Fortress of Solitude and The Feral Detective. Motherless Brooklyn was named Novel of the Year by Esquire and won the National Book Critics Circle Award and the Salon Book Award, as well as the Macallan Crime Writers Association Gold Dagger. He has also written two short story collections, a novella and a collection of essays, edited The Vintage Book of Amnesia, guest-edited The Year's Best Music Writing 2002, and was the founding fiction editor of Fence magazine. His writings have appeared in the New Yorker, Rolling Stone, McSweeney's and many other periodicals. He lives in Brooklyn, New York.

Touré

Touré is a writer, TV host, and host of the influential podcast The Touré Show. He writes for Rolling Stone, The New York Times, The New Yorker, The Washington Post, The Nation, Vogue, and many other publications.

A former cohost of MSNBC’s The Cycle, he is also the author of Who’s Afraid of Post-Blackness?, a New York Times and Washington Post Notable Book, and three other books. He lives in Brooklyn with his wife and daughter.

Tom Perrotta

Thomas R. Perrotta (born August 13, 1961) is an American novelist and screenwriter best known for his novels Election (1998) and Little Children (2004), both of which were made into critically acclaimed, Academy Award-nominated films. Perrotta co-wrote the screenplay for the 2006 film version of Little Children with Todd Field, for which he received an Academy Award nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay. He is also known for his novel The Leftovers (2011), which has been adapted into a TV series on HBO.

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