Anastasia’s Comments (group member since Nov 04, 2013)

Anastasia’s comments from the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum Library and Archives group.

Thanks Ken! I think the book would be better titled Stealing All Transmissions: A Secret History of Punk. He still could have devoted a similar amount of words to the Clash, without stretching so much.

I know most of you are not able to attend our author event with Randal Doane on Thursday night, so if you have any questions for him, please post them here! We will also be live tweeting the event, and you can tweet questions to our account @RockHallLibrary and use the hashtag #stealingclash.

So, what did you think about the book? In particular, I'm curious to know if anyone else had trouble keeping track of all the different radio stations. Overall I enjoyed the history of free form radio and how punk rock benefited from it, but I don't think the connection to the Clash was strong enough. But at least the book wasn't just another biography.

One can't go far into talking about Oasis without addressing their influences. I really liked how Niven dealt with the subject of Noel's liberal use of songs from the 1960s and 1970s - such as basing Shakermaker on the Coca-Cola song. In particular, the assertion that these songs were "never going to be heard" meant that it didn't matter if they were based on older works. Does this subject matter to you as a listener?

Yes, the more I think about it, I realize that we now can put this album up against the rest of Oasis' output. Morning Glory was perhaps just as good (I haven't listened to it in years though), but it's only after the band's demise that we can put it all in perspective.

I was in high school when this album was released, and its place in my life has little to do with any of the larger themes discussed in the book. Do you think a book like this could have been written in the 1990s? Or do we need 20 years of hindsight to be able to see the album's place in pop history?

I'm not quite finished with the book, but my first comment is on how the book is structured. Initially I didn't like that the author was jumping around and not following the song order on the album. However, what this allowed (forced?) me to do was listen to the songs individually and pay more attention to the lyrics/subject.

So far the only thing I've listened to is the version of Smile that was released in 2004, and for the first time after reading this book. I loved it! Especially the song Heroes and Villians; in general I didn't mind that some of the songs were so short - as a whole it worked.
As to your question Andy, I haven't gone back to revisit other Beach Boys songs, but overall I found myself remembering just how great those songs are.

I started reading it, and after about 40 pages got tired of all the background (although this part did increase my knowledge of surf music). Then I used an old trick from college, and I started reading it more or less backwards. By restarting with the section on Smile, I then skipped back a chapter, and then another until I'd read most of the book.

Similar to Lindsay, my favorite part of the book was about the confluence of Dylan, the Beatles, and the Beach Boys - I often forget about the Beach Boys when thinking about this period of rock, and this chapter was necessary for me to understand where Pet Sounds fit in (and where Smile would've belonged).

I listened to the full album for the first time a couple of weeks ago in preparation for reading this book. But rather than wanting to listen to the album again after reading the book, what I really want to do is listen to all of the outtakes that Gaar writes about. It seemed like that was her focus, to show where the songs came from, instead of what they were about. But I also agree with Amanda, that it is excellently written.

If you've finished the book, what did you think? I'm half way through and didn't want to put it down. I also decided not to listen to the album first, and approached the book simply as a book.