Talking to Girls About Duran Duran: One Young Man's Quest for True Love and a Cooler Haircut

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Talking to Girls About Duran Duran: One Young Man's Quest for True Love and a Cooler Haircut

3.58 of 5 stars 3.58 · rating details · 4,183 ratings · 741 reviews

The author of the national bestseller Love is a Mix Tape returns, with a different-but equally personal and equally universal- spin on music as memory. "No rock critic-living or dead, American or otherwise-has ever written about pop music with the evocative, hyperpoetic perfectitude of Rob Sheffield." So said Chuck Klosterman about Love is a Mix Tape, Sheffield's paean to...more

Hardcover, 288 pages

Published July 15th 2010 by Dutton Adult

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Aug 17, 2012 Kim rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: it-was-density, mmxii

This week I was able to finish 3 books… dog days of summer and all that.

One was a rather depressing tale of orphanism and the south and people who chewed tobacco. I shudder. The other was that horrible Heathers like book Some Girls Are… (not horrible as in horrible writing, but ugh…) and then I finished up this book. I am all over the place. I have a cold and was told that I may be experiencing ‘premenopausal’ symptoms (fuck that shit. I am 41 years old. I’m sweating because I live in New Engla...more This week I was able to finish 3 books… dog days of summer and all that.

One was a rather depressing tale of orphanism and the south and people who chewed tobacco. I shudder. The other was that horrible Heathers like book Some Girls Are… (not horrible as in horrible writing, but ugh…) and then I finished up this book. I am all over the place. I have a cold and was told that I may be experiencing ‘premenopausal’ symptoms (fuck that shit. I am 41 years old. I’m sweating because I live in New England and the humidity is like 98%. Screw you, doc). See? Stability not a requirement here.

With that bit of TMI preamble, I will now tell you what I think about Talking to Girls about Duran Duran. One young man’s quest for true love and a cooler haircut. First of all, AWESOME title. Right there, any guy I see holding this book would have my attention, and once I figured out his sexuality, I might even crush on him. If you can bounce around to The Reflex at a Duran Duran reunion show wearing a baggy sweater with Julian Sands hair and combat boots, you will most definitely get laid, my friend. No matter what gender you are into. We girls are a little complex… if you look like Rob… we will be your BFF. But, you’re probably gay and we won’t crush on you. If you look like Nickand can tell me that John Taylor’s bass lines are amazing during Rio… I will probably set up a shrine for you. Yes, we are shallow… we are groupies… duh.

Rob Sheffield is like the unhip little brother of Nick Hornby. The girls will crush on Nick because he’s so mature and witty and yes he’s bald, but he’s got that literary thing going on. Rob is the goofy kid who still wears leather jackets that don’t really fit but you just want to ruffle his hair and hug him and lie on your bed and mock the celebrities in Tiger Beat. Rob will be the one that you call when you hear the new remix of New Moon on Monday with the French clown in the beginning. Nick is the one that you will stand against the wall and wish that you could understand his references and does this skirt look good with these boots?

I feel bad for Rob… because when we groupies finally grow up, we will want him. We know that when the news of Michael Hutchence’s death is announced, we want Rob to hug us and we want to rub our snot on his vintage Violent Femmes shirt and he won’t care because he will be trying to make you laugh about stories of how Paula Yates looks like one of those Chinese crested hairless dogs. Rob is a keeper.

Talking to Girls chronicles his teen/young adult years through music… something music critics do very well… but Rob is generational. He is 4 years older than me… this actually makes quite a difference in music years. He was 14 in 1980, I was 10. Youth culture had yet to relate to us. I think that’s why his other book ‘Love is a mix tape’ spoke more to me. We were in our 20s and that 4 year gap isn’t as drastic. Like, I have never heard of Hayzee Fantayzee and this is one of Rob’s favorite one hit wonder bands. I feel adrift. But, I can listen to Purple Rain and my memories are of seeing it in the $2 theater in downtown Manchester when I was 13 with my friends and dancing in the back of the sticky theater while his memory is of driving an ice cream truck around Boston that summer feeling like he was king. This has got to be my favorite essay of the bunch. I can’t imagine a more liberating summer:

“I lived on ice cream sandwiches and Top 40 hits all summer, dodging traffic on the Southeast Expressway singing along to an endless loop of “Purple Rain” and “99 Luftballons” and “Roxanne Roxanne” and “Ghostbusters” and “Girls just want to have fun” and “Missing You.” …I loved to crank up the volume in the Callahan Tunnel, where you can literally hear the music bounce off the walls. When you have Prince on the radio, all the ice cream you can gobble in the freezer and nothing to do but drive a truck in Boston traffic without a single lesson on how, being eighteen is pretty close to bearable.”

There is a whole essay on is love/hate/love relationship with Stephen Patrick Morrissey. “he has devoted his life and mine to making me a lamer, dumber, more miserable person. I can’t leave him behind, because I’ve tried, and yet he follows me everywhere I go. Six years on my trail? I should be so lucky to get off that easy.”

“Morrissey was my Mrs. Garrett, the house mother from The Facts of Life, a soothing adult figure giving me words of wisdom.”
“Aw, Stephen Patrick… I’m a little depressed.”
“There’ll be blood on the cleaver tonight.”
“Excuse me?”
“You should never go to them. Let them come to you. Just like I do.”
“Wow! I never saw it that way, but you’re right!”
“I decree today that life is simply taking and not giving. England is mine and it owes me a living.”
“Gosh, me too, Stephen Patrick! But I have a problem. See, there’s this girl I like.”
“She wants it now and she will not wait. But she’s too rough and I’m too delicate.”
“I wish I could talk to her, but I don’t know how.”
“Pretty girls make graves.”
“They do? That’s terrible!”
“If I were you, I wouldn’t bother.”
“Thanks, Stephen Patrick! You’re the best!”

I cannot even begin to calculate how much truly terrible advice I got from Morrissey. In the endless Tuesdays with Morrissey conversations I had with him, in the privacy of my own overheated skull, he gave me a map to life, with all the arrows pointing in contrary directions.”

See? Rob is a soulmate! His lamentations of how Paul McCartney taught him how to be a husband, not a boyfriend, how Chaka Khan released his inner karaoke god, how Bonnie Tyler taught him that girls are so shallow and only use you for your lame ass ride to get home. He and I grew up in the outskirts of Boston; we listened to the same radio stations! We grew up on Bedtime Magic with the mysterious David Allan Boucher on Magic 106.7!! We dealt with the NKOTB stalkers (his sister was one of them), we made mix tapes and bought cassingles! I just wish those 4 years difference in age weren’t so formative. I would have so loved having him to hang out with. I would have taught him so much about girls and he would have taught me so much about what geeky boys really think because that would have cleared up a lot of misunderstandings in my youth.
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Sep 15, 2012 Emily Seaman rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: book-club-reads

I like music. I always have music on in my car, in my classroom, when I'm cleaning, etc. I have never been one to be able to tell you the title or artist of the song I'm listening to. I suck at playing music trivia games, and I've grown accustomed to being irritated when people go "REALLY?! You don't KNOW who THIS IS?!" as if I grew up with The Worst Childhood and Adolescence Ever. So, when I read this book and skimmed through the chapters I went, "uh oh". Sure, I was born in the 80s...but come...more

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Sep 04, 2012 Jennifer Spiegel rated it 5 of 5 stars

I love this book because of two things: the writer’s voice is warm, sweet, and honest, and we’re talking about Duran Duran. I think it’s like comfort food, which I’ve heard includes things like biscuits and gravy. For me, it might be BBQ baby back ribs from Don and Charlie’s or a Peanut Buster Parfait from DQ. Though my own LOVE SLAVE is set just after the death of Kurt Cobain, the eighties were like the biblical breath of life for my beloved grunge-haunted characters. They might be struggling w...more I love this book because of two things: the writer’s voice is warm, sweet, and honest, and we’re talking about Duran Duran. I think it’s like comfort food, which I’ve heard includes things like biscuits and gravy. For me, it might be BBQ baby back ribs from Don and Charlie’s or a Peanut Buster Parfait from DQ. Though my own LOVE SLAVE is set just after the death of Kurt Cobain, the eighties were like the biblical breath of life for my beloved grunge-haunted characters. They might be struggling with existentialist angst in 1995, but they know all-too-well about The Human League and Bonnie Tyler. And of course Duran Duran. That’s DURAN DURAN to you. My bet (and I would know) is that Sybil, my protagonist, has her own Duranie past, replete with SING BLUE SILVER books and “Planet Earth” singles. Comfort food, I’m telling you. Comfort food.

But let’s not forget the first thing I loved: the writer’s voice. You can’t be too full of yourself to get away with this stuff. You’ve gotta be pretty comfortable with yourself as a man, frankly, to admit to being a guy loving Duran Duran. You’ve gotta be humorous. You’ve gotta have some insight too—and I found it with his exegesis of New Romanticism. For the first time ever, I feel like I’ve come to terms with my John Taylor-past. Sheffield skillfully connects adolescence in the eighties (my adolescence) with the Romantic tradition of Blake and Shelley. It’s special because there’s a nice candid smidgen of dorkiness present. Then, he says something very true about Duran Duran: they embraced their demographic (girls) and they never betrayed them. They never pretended to be something other than what they were. They don’t talk about going “legit,” whatever that means. They loved their girls.

I know this to be true because I went to one of the reunion shows when I was in my thirties. In truth, I moved on. During my teeny-bopper days, I did make a true metamorphosis. I switched to U2. That said, the Duran Duran show was GREAT and, yeah, they played to their audience—which was made up mostly (like 95%) of women in their thirties.

Good book. The Duranie Days were not deep. New Romanticism was a bridge, maybe. Afterwards, we’d turn to Nirvana and Pearl Jam. Still, Sheffield remembers the time well

(This is part of a larger blog post which will appear at the end of the week on www.jenniferspiegel.com.)
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Mar 03, 2013 Riccol rated it 1 of 5 stars

Shelves: non-fiction, peoria-pl

This was a tough book for me to rate. I had to think long and hard about it as I wanted to be fair; it didn't seem right to write it off as a bomb just because it didn't fit my personal tastes. But after much consideration I did give it only 1 star, which equates to a Bomb/Skip It in my system. Here's why.

I despise cooked onions. But I love liver. And 99% of diners everywhere serve it smothered with sauteed onions. If I don't specify "no onions" when ordering and am thus presented with a dish pi...more This was a tough book for me to rate. I had to think long and hard about it as I wanted to be fair; it didn't seem right to write it off as a bomb just because it didn't fit my personal tastes. But after much consideration I did give it only 1 star, which equates to a Bomb/Skip It in my system. Here's why.

I despise cooked onions. But I love liver. And 99% of diners everywhere serve it smothered with sauteed onions. If I don't specify "no onions" when ordering and am thus presented with a dish piled with steaming onions, would it be fair to proclaim the meal was awful and the chef sucked just because of my personal aversion to onions? No, it wouldn't be. The meal may have been perfectly prepared and cooked, a culinary delight for most; my dislike of onions wouldn't make it less so. And I can scrape the onions off and still enjoy the meat underneath.

This is how I see this book. Music history, theory, analysis is of no interest to me. So I knew going in that there would be onions to scrape off but I was expecting a nice piece of meat underneath - the memoirs of growing up in the '80's. Like Sheffield, I'm a child of the eighties who was also admittedly a fan of Duran Duran so was looking forward to a trip down memory lane. I was sorely disappointed.

I found his anecdotes tedious to get through and leaving me wondering "what was his point?". I was never able to pick up on the connection between what he was writing and the title he chose for the book. It felt like he was really stretching to explain himself and the point of the book title and never got there.
He talked a great deal of his sisters and other girls he hung out with, always with admiration and respect and a sense of wonder, but afterwhile it began to feel like he actually wanted to be one. And that changed the tone of the book for me. Is he trying to understand girls or does he secretly want to be one? If he did, ok, fine, that would have made a really interesting book in itself, but here in this book he just left me confused.

Putting aside any deep meaning he was trying to impart, which was lost on me, there wasn't even any entertaining "fluff". I was wanting to be able to say to self "Oh! I remember that!" or "Oh! I had one of those!" or "Oh, yeah, that was so like ya know, totally like how it was." But there was never such a moment. Even the songs/groups he used as chapter titles held no memories for me. Many I had never even heard of, and the ones I did, they are not the songs or groups that I remember as being huge in the eighties. It's his memoir, of course he's going to write about what he remembers most, but I felt let down, as if he wasn't writing about the same decade I experienced.

So I give this a 1-star as I can't think who would really enjoy it. If you're a music aficionado you'll likely want to argue about his choices and analysis of such, and if you're just looking past the onions for a light, entertaining trip back through the eighties, you'll be disappointed.
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Aug 05, 2011 Brian rated it 3 of 5 stars

I read Life is a Mixtape on the recommendation of a friend late last year, and found it to be a really poignant biography of life and loss with music as a tremendously powerful backdrop. Talking to Girls About Duran Duran is similar in construct, but is more of a series of memoirs about growing up in the 80s, once again using music as the backdrop to all of life's lessons. While I found many of these stories funny, and in some cases even insightful, it never really came together for me as a unif...more

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Aug 07, 2011 Anthony Chavez rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: favorites

I grew up saturated with music in my household, my father could have opened a record store in our house with the amount of vinyl and cassette's he had (now cds omg... oh so many). All genres too, so I was exposed to everything, except Madonna and Prince he wasn't a fan of them whatsoever, so I could really relate to everything he says in Love is a Mixtape (80's & 90's) and Talking to Girls about Duran Duran (ALL 80's with a dash of 90's, minus the Madonna part). I can imagine his articles fo...more

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Sep 11, 2010 Emma rated it 3 of 5 stars

It took me less than three days to finish Rob Sheffield's equivalent of a sophomore album - his second book, Talking to Girls About Duran Duran. I was a huge fan of his memoir, Love is a Mix Tape, so I had high hopes for this book too.

Now I didn't live through the 80s, I'm not a Duran Duran fan, not Irish Catholic, and didn't recognize the majority of these songs by name, but I ripped through this book. I would get to the end of a chapter (each chapter title a different song) and think, "oh...ju

...more

Talking to Girls About Duran Duran is Sheffield reminiscing over old 80s tunes and 80s culture (especially new wave music). But of course it is so much more. It's more windows into Sheffield's life, a life I admittedly fell in love with upon reading Love is a Mix Tape. Each chapter recalls a different 80s tune and it's importance in his life. Although towards the end he talks more about his life and less about the music, I didn't care. This might turn some people off, but I find Sheffield's teenage self (who dominates the majority of the chapters) to be adorably shy, and his writing witty.

Sheffield understands the grave importance music plays in our lives, how intertwined it is with everything we do. And he understands life, or at least understands its indeterminability, its subtle nuances. Talking to Girls About Duran Duran is sprinkled with insightful observations, "I was too young to know adult life is full of accidents and interrupted moments and empty beds you climb into and don't climb out of." His writing is fresh and surprising and I love it; with phrases like "glitter encrusted sex cookies" how could you not? He knows how to manipulate a story, making the reader care about his memories, like picking up garbage on the freeway or clipping his grandfather's toenails, because he can plant you right into his emotions, whisk you straight back to the 80s.

I recommend this book to fans of Sheffield's work, the 80s, music, memories, and life in general. It was an enjoyable 269page trip through the decade that no one seems able to completely leave behind.

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Jan 01, 2013 Karen.s rated it 3 of 5 stars

Cute and sweet to sum it up simply. If you grew up in the 80s, this book is a quick nostalgic trip. It's not exactly as I would have expected. The chapter titles are famous songs (or in one case, a song I'd never heard of ever (Shiny, Shiny by Hayzi Fantayzee) and I thought I knew 80s music pretty well.) though they often have very little connection to the author's memories connected to that song or even an obviously connected theme. Some chapters are notable: "Pretty in Pink", a tribute to John...more

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Nov 27, 2012 Gabriela rated it 3 of 5 stars

I was mortified, but he just smiled and said, "In my day, it was David Bowie. I was mad at him because my girlfriends liked him better than me"

Rhythm was girl code, which is why I was obsessed with the claps, but I never got it right. Handclaps were the difference between boys music and girls music.

One of my favorite Morrissey songs, about how there's a group of friends and one of them starts going to the fascist disco and everybody grieves because they've lost their boy. In general, political e...more

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May 06, 2012 Sara rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: humor, nonfiction, memoir

Although this book is a biography and memoir by genre, it could easily fit onto the shelf with Nick Hornby’s “High Fidelity,” “Nick and Norah’s Infinite Adventure,” and other favourite fiction of music lovers and awkward teens. Sheffield, who also wrote “Love is a Mix Tape,” is one of those down-to-earth, conversational writers who happens to know A LOT about music. And fortunately for us, he decided to write a second book — this one focusing on music of the eighties and why every girl then seem...more Although this book is a biography and memoir by genre, it could easily fit onto the shelf with Nick Hornby’s “High Fidelity,” “Nick and Norah’s Infinite Adventure,” and other favourite fiction of music lovers and awkward teens. Sheffield, who also wrote “Love is a Mix Tape,” is one of those down-to-earth, conversational writers who happens to know A LOT about music. And fortunately for us, he decided to write a second book — this one focusing on music of the eighties and why every girl then seemed to have a crush on the bassist of Duran Duran.

Each chapter is titled with a song, “some of my favorite ’80s relic songs that warped my brain with dubious ideas, boneheaded goals, laughable hopes, and timeless mysteries,” ranging from the Rolling Stones and David Bowie to Bonnie Tyler and Madonna; the stories in each chapter usually have something, somehow, to do with the song. Rob’s sisters, Tracey, Ann, and Caroline each make frequent appearances, usually helping Rob interpret some foreign action or habit of the female, such as their odd propensity for having toilet paper on the “the little rolling thing” instead of on the sink counter. Some of the lessons Rob learns are laughable, such as boyfriend lessons from Ray Parker Jr.’s “A Woman Needs Love,” and the fact that “rock epics are for boys; pop hits are for girls;” and some are mildly profound: “I Want the One I Can’t Have and It’s Driving Me Mad: one hundred percent of teenagers dream about making out, but they only dream about making out with 5 percent of other teenagers. This means our dreams and our realities are barely on speaking terms, so we look forward to making out with people who aren’t real, keeping us in a nearly universal state of teen frustration. It screws us up for the rest of our lives, as we keep hoping for the unattainable.”

Sheffield has written a funny, readable, and highly entertaining memoir which will appeal to a wide range of people — those who have their own horror stories revolving around the ’80s, to those who just have teenage horror stories. Recommended.(less)

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Mar 21, 2012 Brittney rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: memoirs

I'm probably a little outside the optimal age range for this book; though I'm familiar with most of the songs Sheffield writes about, they don't have the emotional resonance for me they might if I had been a decade older when they came out. But Sheffield's writing is engaging and pleasant to read, and you can follow along well enough even if you've never heard some of the music he references.

As someone who spends much of her time immersed in the pseudo-objective world of music "critique," I foun...more

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Dec 12, 2011 Anne rated it 4 of 5 stars

Talking to Girls About Duran Duran is Rob Sheffield's personal story about being a teenager in the 80's and the effect 80s music had on his life. He begins the book when he is 13 years old and each chapter's title is a song from the 80s. He holds nothing back no matter how embarrasing it might be, his awkwardness around girls, his years living as a hermit listening to The Smiths, his glory days as the ice cream man, all are discussed in the book with the music he loved mixed in to help tell the...more

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Nov 02, 2011 Kristal Cooper rated it 4 of 5 stars

Rob Sheffield is a writer for Rolling Stone, so he knows music and he knows how to craft a story. Sometimes this is book a bit more memoir-y than I might like, but he does do a good job of explaining why particular songs meant so much or taught him something at certain points in his coming-of-age. What didn't work for me so much is the specific line-up of songs because he's four years older than I am and a great number of them are from 1982 -- right before I started listening to pop music. Also,...more

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Aug 17, 2011 Marc Weitz rated it 4 of 5 stars

Being a fan of Duran Duran and being a fan of talking to girls, this book was right up my alley. It helped that I am an 80s kid who remains a big 80s fan. This is the type of book that I used to resent reading when it was about the baby boom era for the baby boomers. They always seemed full of obnoxious glorification of an era that was mediocre at best when viewed against the greatness of the eras that preceded it. However, this is my book, for me, that is glorifying my mediocre era, and I just...more

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Aug 12, 2011 Heidi rated it 4 of 5 stars

A friend gave this to me to help me get over my Hunger Games withdrawal. After trying to read at least 3 other books, this is the one that worked. The Introduction just reeled me in with its slick, easy, conversation-like style and I read it in two sittings: going from LGA-CVG and then a couple of hours last night. It's like sitting at a bar and talking to a super-cool guy about your shared music obsessions. One of those conversations that while you're in the middle of it you hope it doesn't sto...more A friend gave this to me to help me get over my Hunger Games withdrawal. After trying to read at least 3 other books, this is the one that worked. The Introduction just reeled me in with its slick, easy, conversation-like style and I read it in two sittings: going from LGA-CVG and then a couple of hours last night. It's like sitting at a bar and talking to a super-cool guy about your shared music obsessions. One of those conversations that while you're in the middle of it you hope it doesn't stop for a while.
While I can't say I agree with (a lot!) of his favorite or well-remembered songs (when was the last time you heard someone mention Scritti Politti or Ray Parker Jr.?) I will say that I wholeheartedly agree and identify with the place that music holds in his life. I very clearly remember the first time I heard certain bands and there are songs that can stop me in my tracks and move me to another year in another city. I adore the way he shares with us the lessons he learned from these songs, these artists. I identify with how much these songs relate to certain people, certain years and the state we were in when we obsessively play them over and over. I was a huge Smiths fan but always knew Morrissey was just in a funk, I was a Madonna and Prince fan but never hoped they'd last as long as they did. I never really cared about Duran Duran when they were around (gasp!). I didn't relate at the time to boys who wanted to wear make up and be prettier than me. But I distinctly remember the first time I watched MTV and then what a prevalent part of my life it became. There are so many artists that I didn't like then that I have come to appreciate with time and Duran Duran is one of them. I worked in a music store when 'Decades' came out and that was actually when my appreciation began. They are one of the bands that sound seems to get richer the longer it stays on the air. What was kind of fluffy silliness in the year it was released now, for me, seems to embody an historical period that made its claim on that lightness and in retrospect seems so sweet and naive and quaint. I love Duran Duran now and this book definitely spoke to me. Now if only we can get John Cusack to star in the movie...(less)

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Apr 08, 2011 RandomAnthony rated it 3 of 5 stars

Rob Sheffield's Talking With Girls About Duran Duran is less about Duran Duran and more about the ways boys in the 80s (and any era, really) accessed music to help them articulate what they can't quite say to girls or each other. The book also reads like the memoir of a polite, Catholic indie-rock fan who fears/adores his three sisters, sells ice cream from a truck, and really, really wants a girlfriend.

Sheffield likes to portray himself as a wuss with a weakness for shiny pop but he's way more...more Rob Sheffield's Talking With Girls About Duran Duran is less about Duran Duran and more about the ways boys in the 80s (and any era, really) accessed music to help them articulate what they can't quite say to girls or each other. The book also reads like the memoir of a polite, Catholic indie-rock fan who fears/adores his three sisters, sells ice cream from a truck, and really, really wants a girlfriend.

Sheffield likes to portray himself as a wuss with a weakness for shiny pop but he's way more brave than me. Never in a million years would I have admitted, at age 18, to liking Poison. No way. And Sheffield loves music all across the board, like an excited puppy, whether Debbie Gibson or Lita Ford or Big Daddy Kane. And Sheffield knows that (some) girls like excited puppies. The puppy wants to play and make the girls happy. Sheffield is all about making himself that puppy, not in a sneaky, manipulative way because (some) girls can through that act, but through a curious lack of guile. I like him. I'd pet the puppy, even if he knew 100 times more about music than me and has the balls to do karaoke Chaka Khan. Reading this book is sometimes like talking with a friend who will not let you off the hook when you say The Replacements' Tim was better than Let It Be. And although he won't be a jerk about the disagreement he'll bring it up, out of nowhere, in six months and probably worked the angles for two days after the original conversation.

The text is organized into years, with each year connected to a song/artist the author associates with that period. Sheffield's strength lies neither in writing about music or writing about teenagers, but in writing about the connection between music and teenagers. And as most teenage boys spend a lot of their time listening to music and thinking about girls, Sheffield's strengths ring as authentic. He respects the music like an acolyte but never speaks in a ponderous, academic manner. While Talking With Girls about Duran Duran treads some of the same ground as his earlier Love Is A Mix Tape, this book is lighter, of course, and more fun. Sheffield is excellent at saying important things while appearing not to say anything important all. A quick, worthwhile read.(less)

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Mar 14, 2011 Elly Lonon rated it 3 of 5 stars

You ever have someone try and turn you on to something that just doesn’t quite fit you, but you can still tell it’s really, really awesome? Even if you don’t enjoy it as much as you probably ought to? You know, like The Dave Matthews Band, or imported stinky cheeses, or anal sex.

Yeah. So I just read Talking to Girls About Duran Duran. That’s kinda how I feel about the book. It’s good. Very good! It’s just…well…I think I lack the balls to appreciate it fully.

I mean, based on the cover, it screams...more

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Mar 14, 2011 George rated it 4 of 5 stars

In a series of short chapters, Sheffield reminisces about growing up in the 80s (his teenage years and early twenties). It's the same approach he used in his earlier Love Is a Mix Tape, but without the strong central theme that held that one together. As a result, the book jumps around quite a bit, from the summer he spent as an ice cream man to his summer abroad in Spain, to more abstract musings on why cassingles are so great and the lasting appeal of 80s movies. I'm sure that'll be frustratin...more

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Dec 08, 2010 Gretchen Alice rated it 4 of 5 stars

In the movie version of High Fidelity, Rob Gordon mentions that he's organizing his albums autobiographically. In TtGADD, Rob Sheffield goes one step further and writes essays for his defining songs and moments from the 80s. The result is a deeply surprising and emotional book about 80s pop and new wave. In Love Is A Mixtape, a book which I absolutely adored, Rob discussed the unbreakable relationship between love and music. In Talking to Girls About Duran Duran, Rob talks about why he loves his...more

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Sep 26, 2010 Ruth rated it 3 of 5 stars

I've seen Rob Sheffield on VH1 a fair amount over the years, and I usually feel like I'm not buying whatever he's selling. So I was surprised to find that I enjoyed this series of essays about various 80's and 90's songs and episodes in his life that they call to mind. The essays are by turns funny, charming and sad. If you listened to as much music as I did during the 80's, you'll also appreciate the fact that Sheffield manages to seamlessly weave obscure lyrics into the essays. My biggest beef...more

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Sep 10, 2010 Joshua rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: read-in-2010

Nearly four stars for this musical memoir from Rob Sheffield that is based on music and stories connected to that wonderful time known as "the '80s." I enjoyed Sheffield's other memoir about loss and music through the mix tape philosophy a bit more than this but that's not to say there's not a lot to enjoy for music fans here. Sheffield defends his stance on a lot of cringe-worthy bands from the era--Hayzee Fantayzee for one!-- while writing about a lot of bands that I actually like and listen t...more

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Aug 19, 2010 Kimberly rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I recently finished reading Rob Sheffield’s book, “Talking to Girls About Duran Duran: One Young Man’s Quest for True Love and a Cooler Haircut.” I ask you, what woman (who came of age in the 80’s) could resist picking up a book with such a profound title? Probably thousands if my more cynical counterparts are to be believed, but we won’t even discuss what large rock they were trapped under during such a totally awesome time in music history. Let’s face it, it is the only reasonable explanation...more

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Jul 26, 2010 Nicole rated it 3 of 5 stars

This is a fun look back at the music (and culture) a lot of us grew up on. I enjoyed the chapters on Duran Duran, why John Hughes films are still relevant (one word: Duckie), and cassingles. I wasn't crazy about some of Sheffield's other musings, like those about religion and Morissey (from the Smiths), but I still liked the book overall. The best part was going to YouTube to look up the songs (and videos) and remembering what my life was like then. That is basically what Sheffield writes about:...more

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Aug 15, 2012 Madison Miller rated it 3 of 5 stars

I have never read a Rob Sheffield book before, but I have read a lot of Chuck Klosterman and seen his articles in Rolling Stone, so being a 22 year old girl and music buff, I figured this book was right up my ally.

At the end of this book, I can say that I was right, but not for the reasons I'd imagined. This book is real- like reminiscing with an old friend. The parts I ended up loving about this book- the humorous, light writing (like you were talking to the smartest, funniest, nerdiest guy you...more I have never read a Rob Sheffield book before, but I have read a lot of Chuck Klosterman and seen his articles in Rolling Stone, so being a 22 year old girl and music buff, I figured this book was right up my ally.

At the end of this book, I can say that I was right, but not for the reasons I'd imagined. This book is real- like reminiscing with an old friend. The parts I ended up loving about this book- the humorous, light writing (like you were talking to the smartest, funniest, nerdiest guy you know) with secret deep passages and phrases, the character himself, his awkwardness, his family.

It took a while to get into because I began to realize that this was more a collection of short essays, put together chronilogically and told with 80s music as the background/common ground. there is no plot, but you do feel like at the end of the book that the author is your childhood friend from the 80s. And there are plenty of experiences and moments captured in the book that we can all relate to-regardless if we grew up in the 80's as a nerdy irish catholic boy in Boston or not.

I highly reccomend this to anyone who appreciates a sly, witty, nerdy, sense of humor. An anyone that was a teenager in the 80s, is an 80s music fan, or a music fan in general.
And to the romantics, who want a different, real life, awkward teenage boy hilarious point of view. (the author constantly makes fun of his teenage self, which is undoubtedly the best part). get ready to fall in love with Rob sheffield, after this passage he had me:

"is there anyone stupider, weaker, more helpless, than two twenty-three-year-old kids in love? not stupid for running out of gas, or even fighting, but for staying together in the first place. that was the first moment I realize how fucked we were. for the rest of my life, I would have reasons to be afraid. I now had something in my blood stronger and meaner than I was. two people leaning against a '76 Granada by the side of the road, arms folded, staring at the gravel- this was a posture we could stay in forever, and nobody could protect us from it except eachother".(less)

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Jul 30, 2012 Jennifer Conrad rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: essays

I'll be honest: I only read this book because it had Duran Duran in the title. I knew it was a bunch of essays, but I couldn't resist my favorite band from my youth. Luckily, I was given this book, so I didn't actually spend any money on it.

With that said, it wasn't as bad as I was expecting. Yes, I love 80s music and have an addiction to pop music from any era, so I was a little more open to the topic of Sheffield's essays. I'll be the first to admit that this guy has a great writing voice and...more I'll be honest: I only read this book because it had Duran Duran in the title. I knew it was a bunch of essays, but I couldn't resist my favorite band from my youth. Luckily, I was given this book, so I didn't actually spend any money on it.

With that said, it wasn't as bad as I was expecting. Yes, I love 80s music and have an addiction to pop music from any era, so I was a little more open to the topic of Sheffield's essays. I'll be the first to admit that this guy has a great writing voice and some very amusing stories. He also worked the lyrics from many different 80s songs into his essays seamlessly. Unfortunately, his tie in to whichever song he used as the title for the essay. So, while I was expecting some story revolving around Culture Club's "I'll Tumble 4 Ya", I ended up reading more about the arrival of MTV and a debate on which bands were new wave or not.

There were some fantastic lines in this book, and I really enjoyed a number of the essays. For example, he spends one essay comparing Paul McCartney to a bossy Irish sister ("the Alsatian" or Doberman of the family who forces other people to get things done) and talking about how McCartney's monogamy with Linda McCartney ruined Sheffield's life. There's a hilarious essay about his summer working as an ice cream man. There's another about cassingles and his favorite cassingle hits, and still another about John Hughes movies. But, my favorite was, OF COURSE, the essay that dealt with Duran Duran and why they remain popular (because they're okay being pop stars and having mainly girl fans--they just don't feel the need to prove themselves to guys, explained Sheffield [who loves DD]).

A number of the essays mentioned songs with which I'm not entirely familiar. Others dealt with his Catholic beliefs, lack of girlfriends as he was growing up, and just his obsession with music.

The essay were amusing, but not anything I could really use in my high school classroom--or with anyone who wasn't at least in their double digits during the 80s. I don't feel the need to keep this book--luckily, I got it for free.(less)

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Jul 07, 2010 Pete rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: reviewed

Talking to Girls About Duran Duran: One Young Man's Quest for True Love and a Cooler Haircut by Rob Sheffield

Okay, before we get too far into this, everyone should know that this book doesn't come out for a whole week.
This is very exciting for me.
Not only did I hold the book in my hands before the unwashed, unshaven, apparently wholly uneducated about hygiene masses, but the version I held was special. And not just because it was an uncorrected proof. Not just because Steve Perry was named Stev...more

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Jul 02, 2011 Red Fields rated it 2 of 5 stars

I was 22 - 31 in the 80s. I lived in lower Manhattan. When it was first released I watched ''Planet Earth'' on a huge screen in a downtown club and was suitably impressed. I wanted to like this book but found it uneven. It's not a good sign when you keep wondering if you should put it aside because you have so many other books you want to get to and don't want to waste time on something you aren't that into. But I persevered because I knew it wouldn't take that long, and hey, I still like some 8...more

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May 12, 2012 Jeff Silvey rated it 4 of 5 stars

This is not a novel, nor is it all about Duran Duran. Only the introduction and last chapter deal with the Fab Five exclusively. The rest is a series of memoir-like vignettes where Sheffield interprets both his life and the world itself through 80s nostalgia, mostly through the pop music of the time.

He references everything from Bowie to the Stones, Chaka Khan to the Replacements. He muses on items such as: how many songs by difference artists there are about Major Tom, the Banana Splits, what...more

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Jul 12, 2011 Em rated it 4 of 5 stars

Maybe if the songs he chose to frame each chapter around were nearer and dearer to my heart this would have been a 5 star, but probably because they weren't, I valued the stories even more. Duran Duran was my first big concert in 6th grade for the Seven and Ragged Tiger tour (thanks mom for letting me go!) and I had a poster of them on my bedroom wall, and even loved nick rhodes and john taylor, but I don't consider myself ever to be the infamous "Duranie," as Rob Sheffield likes to call them......more

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Jun 06, 2011 Kristen rated it 1 of 5 stars Recommends it for: ladies: the douchey guys in your life that talk down to you about music because of your ladyparts.

Shelves: music

I should've known what I was getting into, but I found the intro to be extremely patronizing. "This is just the way we [men] dissect the things we love. But it's tougher to talk to women about the Clash. (They love "Stand by Me" but they don't care that it's really called "Train in Vain" instead of "Stand by Me.")" Yeah, he's not saying all women are like this, but it's sort of a sad attempt at humor through perpetuated gender stereotypes and it ends up angering any of us girls who LOVE the Clas...more

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About Rob Sheffield

Rob Sheffield is a contributing editor at Rolling Stone magazine. In addition to writing music reviews and profile stories, Sheffield also writes the Pop Life column in the Mixed Media section of the magazine. His work has also been featured in The Village Voice and Spin. A native of Boston, Sheffield attended Yale and the University of Virginia, and is six foot five.

His first book, Love is a Mix...more

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“My sisters were the coolest people I knew, and still are. I have always aspired to be like them and know what they know. My sisters were the color and noise in my black-and-white boy world-how I pitied my friends who had brothers. Boys seemed incredibly tedious and dim compared to my sisters, who were always a rush of energy and excitement, buzzing over all the books, records, jokes, rumors and ideas we were discovering together. I grew up thriving on the commotion of their girl noise, whether they were laughing or singing or staging an intervention because somebody was wearing stirrup pants. I always loved being lost in that girl noise.” — 36 people liked it

“But bringing people together is what music has always done best.” — 16 people liked it

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