Well, I started the title with my car so I guess I’ll talk about it first. My car got bombarded with golf ball size hail on Wednesday. My car has huge dents all over the hood and a huge crack in the windshield…not to mention some of the glass in pieces came down on the driver’s seat. The car is currently at Binswanger Glass in Shawnee, KS where the windshield will be replaced on Monday. As it turned out, the windshield that is currently on the car was not the windshield that was on it when it was first made. The guy said he knows this because the frame that goes around it is on backwards. This would explain why I get rain coming into my car when it rains from underneath the windshield. I also get a sound like a gust of wind hitting my car when I drive on the highway. I hope this sound will be reduced also. Anyway, time will tell on that.
Now the Warren Zevon part. I started reading I’LL SLEEP WHEN I’M DEAD: THE DIRTY LIFE AND TIMES OF WARREN ZEVON. This is a book that was written by his ex wife Crystal Zevon but it contains tidbits of what others (friends, colleagues, and family) had to say from the very early days up to the first 5 hours or so after his death. Anyway. I was reading the part at the front that has some literary praise for the book from magazine and news paper sources as well as others…(Rolling Stone, New York Times, also Jackson Browne and Bruce Springsteen) but it also has this blurb from the Portland Oregonian that said, and I quote…
“It’s a big book with lots of great stuff in it.”
This is my favorite review of the book and also the one I hate the most. I just can’t get over the fact that if I had written those words, not just would it have never gotten published but it would look like, after attempting to read it, they never finished but they just wanted to say something nice about it because they were on deadline. That’s all I have to say about that…
I have more I want to say but I’ll get to that later…
July 5, 2008 at 8:00 am
Of all the great armies of rock fans, few can match the devotion of Bruce Springsteen’s. For them it’s not just catching just one show-it’s about catching them all. Anyone who has experienced Springsteen in concert will testify that the bond between audience and artist transcends the usual adulation. Something magical, almost mystical happens. Some might describe it as spiritual-most definitely it is life affirming. It is in trying to nail this phenomenon that the beautiful hardbound For You has arrived.
Edited by Lawrence Kirsch and replete with an amazing welter of outstanding photographs, it’s a mind-blowing collection of thoughts and stories from fans of every age and many nations, each explaining why Springsteen occupies such an important place in their hearts. Covering all four decades of Springsteen’s career it is possibly the ultimate fanzine for it is the fans who have made the journey and whose words tell us as much about them as they do about Springsteen. The warmth and humanity that flows from every page is truly moving and provides a beacon of hope from which we can all draw strength in these hard times. Not a book to be read at one sitting but rather to revisit and enjoy over time.