Me - Elton John

I can't stress enough that I'm already a big Elton John fan. I love singer songwriters in general. Have always been a lyrics geek. I saw Elton John in concert with Billy Joel either in the late 90s or early 2000s. I can't recall but I loved every second of it. They put on a hell of a show.

But as much as I've loved Elton John's music, I didn't know much about him personally. I knew he was British and I knew he was gay, but his childhood and upbringing were a total mystery to me.

So I just loved Me. It's so open and honest and direct and funny. Elton doesn't take himself too seriously and is very open with his trials and failures. His childhood is sad and informed a lot of his personality and choices later in life, but he's open about how he's made the best of things and moved on. I loved hearing about his musical connections. His various meetings with Bob Dylan, his friendship with Ringo Starr and John Lennon. His visits with the Queen Mum.

And I love how he embraces being able to change. There's something refreshing about people who are recovered addicts being able to embrace change and betterment. When he got sober, he realized he wasn't using his fame, money and influence enough and started an AIDS foundation that has raised $450M.

He's entirely delightful. I would thoroughly enjoy spending a day with him and his Canadian husband. I just loved reading about his journey. I finished the book and then stayed up until midnight watching Rocketman, which he mentions in the book and is just a delightful movie. I loved Taron Egerton's rendition of I'm Still Standing in the Sing movie. It was great to see him sing it again as himself and not a gorilla.

5/5 Stars.

Just Kids - Patti Smith

I have been sitting far too long on this review. It's not that I haven't wanted to. I've just been really swamped with other stuff. In any case, let me tell you how absolutely delightful Patti Smith is. 

Just Kids details the years Patti Smith spent with the photographer Robert Mapplethorpe when they were LITERALLY starving artists in New York City. From rundown apartments in Brooklyn to the fabulous and tragic Chelsea Hotel in Manhattan, Patti and Robert, supported and inspired each other to keep reaching and keep creating. 

I have to admit, other than a colleague I worked with over a decade ago who was a bit of an aging hippy, I'd never even really heard of Patti Smith before. "Because the Night" was a Natalie Merchant song from VH1 (I'm so embarrassed). In any case, I saw a reference to this book and decided to listen to the audio. After I started listening, Patti and Robert references were popping up everywhere, like in Little Fires Everywhere which I read earlier this month. 

So I took a deep Wiki dive on these two remarkable people and knew before I got to the end that Robert was going to die of AIDS related complications and that I would be really heartbroken for Patti who always held him in her heart even after they grew apart. What can you say about young love and young lovers who aside from being incredibly cool nerds were creative about life and the universe. Robert Mapplethorpe went on to stretch and challenge the definition of art. His provocative photos tested the boundaries of what could be available to the public. 

Just look at these incredibly cool humans.

And I loved all the ways Patti describes him and their life together. They may have been Just Kids, but they loved and created for a lifetime. It was wonderful to get a glimpse of such a powerful friendship.

4/5 Stars. 

Born to Run - Bruce Springsteen

There's a reason he's called "The Boss" and in this thoughtful, entertaining and sometimes moving memoir, Bruce Springsteen shows why he's a rock god, a respected philanthropist, an honest man, and a just genuinely decent human being. 

Born to Run chronicles Springsteen's life from his complicated childhood in Freehold, NJ to his sixties. There was so much information contained in these pages (that's illustrative, I actually listened to the audio version, read by the man himself) that I didn't know. 

While in college at Ohio State University, I worked student security at the basketball arena and was often lucky enough to be working during concerts and their sound checks. This would have been back in 2002. I remember after seeing Bruce Springsteen do nothing more than perform his soundcheck that I had just witnessed something real - a sense of "rock and roll" that evoked wistful looks in the eyes of my parents and basically anyone who had experienced the rock revolution of the late 60s and early 70s.

Don't believe me? Go read Corbin Reiff's list of top 10 Springsteen concerts and know that he's totally correct when he says:

To try and describe a live Bruce Springsteen performance with the woefully inadequate word “concert” is absolutely foolish. Throughout the years, many a writer has tried and failed to put into broader language what takes place at these sometimes two, sometimes three, and sometimes even four-hour revues, and only a very select few have succeeded. Jon Landau, the venerated ‘70s rock critic and Springsteen’s present-day manager, came perhaps the closest when he wrote after a 1974 gig in Boston, “I saw rock and roll future, and its name is Bruce Springsteen.” That night, Springsteen made Landau feel the way he would make so many millions more feel in the years and shows that followed. “On a night when I needed to feel young, he made me feel like I was hearing music for the very first time. (link here)

He can't read music. He was in his 30s before he finally made it big. He's very insecure. He's struggled with depression. And most importantly, he's totally upfront and honest about all of this. 

That this book is lyrically told should be no surprise to anyone, since Springsteen has been writing music and lyrics almost his entire life. He sees songs in everyday lives and makes them into music. He arranges phrases and words and imbues them with feeling and knowledge. It's a pretty rare form of alchemy. 

Rock God

I've obviously been listening to more Springsteen than usual during the duration of this audiobook - including some of his newer stuff I was totally unaware of. It is not hard to know 1984's Born in the USA - it was a level of rock stardom even The Boss was never quite able to obtain again. So now, this newly minted Springsteen superfan (me) has been listening to Tracks, and Wrecking Ball on repeat. (Honestly if you overlooked 2012's Wrecking Ball like I did, go back and give it a listen. It's awesome. Springsteen himself thinks it's his most perfectly made record). Yeah yeah all the old stuff holds up, but the new stuff is amazing as well. Go back and listen to Thunder Road and Badlands and Born to Run and convince yourself you can tell it's from the 70s. It's timeless.

I loved everything about this book. Told with a beautiful honesty and self-deprecating grace that is not usually seen in a star of Springsteen's caliber, Born to Run left me with a profound gratitude for the music and the musician.

5/5 Stars.