The Boy Who Cried Freebird: Rock & Roll Fables and Sonic Storytelling

by Mitch Myers

Wedding the American oral storytelling tradition with progressive music journalism, Mitch Myers' The Boy Who Cried Freebird is a treatise on the popular music culture of the twentieth century. Trenchant, insightful, and wonderfully strange, this literary mix-tape is authentic music history . . . except when it isn't. Myers outrageously blends short fiction, straight journalism, comic interludes, memoirs, serious artist profiles, satire, and related fan-boy hokum—including the classic stories he first narrated on NPR's All Things Considered . Focusing on iconic recordings, events, communities, and individuals, Myers riffs on Deadheads, sixties nostalgia, rock concert decorum, glockenspiels, and all manner of pop phenomena. From tales of rock-and-roll time travel to science fiction revealing Black Sabbath's power to melt space aliens, The Boy Who Cried Freebird is about music, culture, legend, and lore—all to be lovingly passed on to future generations.

Genres: Music, Nonfiction

336 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2007

Reviews

[frites]

Liked the pieces on metal machine music and Doug Sahm

[Tony Hightower · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm typically a sucker for the Great Rock Critic's Memoir, the collection of tales of their time in the business combined with their best work from the day and maybe a few extra stories or pieces that deserved to see a bigger audience and help fill in the gaps in their literary worldview. It's kind of a cliché at this point, but similar volumes from Jim Derogatis, Nick Tosches, Richard Meltzer and my personal lord and savior Lester Bangs take these messed-up people with amazing skills, and turn their short pieces into a mosaic that reveals something of the time they wrote in, the bands they covered, and how they approached their writing, their love of music, and their art.



Those books are the template for this one. Mitch Myers didn't roll with the punk crowd so much, and it doesn't sound like he really got the edgier stuff that lit the creative fire under Bangs & Meltzer. Sure, he covered them -- he may not have understood Lou Reed's "Metal Machine Music" the way Bangs (thought he) did, though clearly it wasn't for lack of trying -- but his best writing comes when he waxes elegiac for the John Faheys and Doug Sahms of this world, more laid back types who swim in a different musical end of the pool than the gritty fuckyou types over whom Creem and Rolling Stone went skeetcrazy every week.



I want to fault this for being boring. I suspect it's largely that he seems to like music that I'm not crazy about, but you know, one of the jobs of a critic is to make the reader interested in what they're interested in. I don't think Myers is all that great a writer, especially compared to the Christgaus, Guralnicks, Marshes & Toscheseses of the world. And the "Adam Coil" fable-between-pieces conceit gets old real quick. (He mentions his music-executive father and his uncle Shel Silverstein many times in the book, and it makes me wonder how he got some of these writing gigs.)



Look, if you want a book about the about the music of the last 40 years that crackles with the force of literature, don't start here. If, on the other hand, you're really down with people like Leo Kottke and think he's been woefully underappreciated in modern music, then maybe this book will signify with you, the way I wish it did with me.

[chelsea · Rating 2 out of 5]

i am fortunate enough to be able to check out hardcover books from my work in an attempt to keep employees sharp on new releases. i was unfortunate enough to blindly pick up this title on whim, not making the connection between the author and his regular pieces on npr. it was the only book i took with me for a quick trip back to new york city for a wedding, and i was happy to place it down for bridesmaid duties and random reunions. the covers were packed with tall fictitious tales, lacking the dark sarcasim that i almost expected from a book with a cover so similar to fargo rock city. i'm apprehensive to say genuinely bad things about "the boy who cried freebird" simply because i was caught off guard; i sincerely hope the average person who picks up this book isn't doing so based on cover or title but on a general understanding of the author. this very well could be the right book for the right person.

i think i'll be staying away from music essays for a while.

[Tom Quinn · Rating 1 out of 5]

Dumb, but in a silly goofball way you can't really be mad at. The "fables" (they're more like urban legends recentered around famous musicians or events in rock history) are overwritten to groan-inducing levels and the introduction is pretentious as hell. And if you don't already recognize the names and events at the core of these tales, there isn't really enough information to bring novice rock historians in on the jokes. The nonfiction sections are a little better but the topics covered are extremely niche and not exactly what I'd call welcoming.

1 star. It's adequate filler material when you're in between weightier pursuits. Read it when you've got some time to kill.

[Jeff · Rating 3 out of 5]

Like mildly snarky rock 'n' roll fables? Mitch Myers writes 'em. Like thoughtful, insightful biographical essays? Myers' writes those too. How about gently probing missives on fringe artists like Gong and Albert Ayler? Check and check. This is sort of the problem with "The Boy Who Cried Freebird," really -- it's all corner points with very little center. Myers' writing is always smooth, and occasionally verges on greatness, but it doesn't really draw you in. Definitely worth reading for music geeks, but maybe not at $25.95 list.

[Stevo devo · Rating 3 out of 5]

A series of short stories about rock folklore. Some of them are more based in fact than others but that's hardly important. They range from curiously interesting to downright eerie tales about rock personalities, classic albums and rock-fan fantasies. It's a fun book for anyone who has ever believed that there's more to music than just the music.

[Jenn Nunez · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mitch Meyers is a pisser. If you like music & critical writings as well as historical narratives on music, this is the book for you. Even his fictional short stories are a riot. I really enjoyed this book. It had me writing down music to check out & other writers/critics to read.

[Jodi · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book was so poorly written that I had to stop reading it, because the juvenile stories made my eyes bleed.

[Jill · Rating 2 out of 5]

Some stories were enchanting and others fell super flat. Loved the title and loved the title story.

[Joseph · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is lame. The writing isn't great. The rock references are often all too heavy and pretentious. That's all I have to say.

[Jesse · Rating 3 out of 5]

Witty, New Journalismy rock criticism mostly about the alterna-canon: Brian Eno, Terry Riley, Albert Ayler, etc.. Nothing groundbreaking, but perfectly entertaining.

[Jamie · Rating 2 out of 5]

While some of these stories are enjoyable - the journalistic pieces are four star pieces of writing - the fiction wallows in cliche.

[Mark LaPorta · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loving yet tongue-in-cheek semi journalism on early rock reminiscence. Fun and easy. The title story is telling.

[Sydney · Rating 2 out of 5]

Myers is an imaginative writer, but I found his stories hit-or-miss. I eventually lost interest.