31 Songs
by Nick Hornby
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"All I have to say about these songs is that I love them, and want to sing along to them, and force other people to listen to them, and get cross when these other people don't like them as much as I do." --Nick Hornby, from Songbook A wise and hilarious collection from the bestselling author of Funny Girl, About a Boy, and High Fidelity. Songs, songwriters, and why and how they get under our skin... Songbook is Nick Hornby's labor of love. A shrewd, funny, and completely unique collection show more of musings on pop music, why it's good, what makes us listen and love it, and the ways in which it attaches itself to our lives--all with the beat of a perfectly mastered mix tape. show lessTags
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Member Reviews
Nick Hornby's ponderings on 31 songs and 15 albums.
One of my great passions in life, besides reading, is music - in pretty much any form. I've always found Nick Hornby very readable (even Fever Pitch, and I really don't have any particularly strong feelings about football), so I thought I'd give this a go, despite either not knowing, or not liking the majority of the tracks he talks about.
His thoughts on the 31 songs range from the defense of good (and replaceable) pop, to finding God in the beauty of harmony (from a not really religious man), via the importance of good independent music shops (although chains aren't all bad), being English, and his autistic son, Danny's love of music and the miracle of this. En route, he is frequently show more very funny and occasionally, very moving (I was very close to tears reading the Badly Drawn Boy essay). Oh, I could go into so much more detail than this, but I shan't, otherwise, I'll basically be rewriting the book, only not as well... Suffice it to say, there are tracks he talked about that I rooted out straight away, and yet more that are downloading right now...
The last 5 essays, I think, are the "extra 5" touted on the front of the book (it's a re-release) - four of these are album reviews, but in the last, following the example of Gore Vidal's 1973 review of the Times bestseller list - having read everything on it, Nick Hornby listens to the top ten albums listed in the Billboard charts. Bear in mind, this was written in 2003. The results are hysterically funny... show less
One of my great passions in life, besides reading, is music - in pretty much any form. I've always found Nick Hornby very readable (even Fever Pitch, and I really don't have any particularly strong feelings about football), so I thought I'd give this a go, despite either not knowing, or not liking the majority of the tracks he talks about.
His thoughts on the 31 songs range from the defense of good (and replaceable) pop, to finding God in the beauty of harmony (from a not really religious man), via the importance of good independent music shops (although chains aren't all bad), being English, and his autistic son, Danny's love of music and the miracle of this. En route, he is frequently show more very funny and occasionally, very moving (I was very close to tears reading the Badly Drawn Boy essay). Oh, I could go into so much more detail than this, but I shan't, otherwise, I'll basically be rewriting the book, only not as well... Suffice it to say, there are tracks he talked about that I rooted out straight away, and yet more that are downloading right now...
The last 5 essays, I think, are the "extra 5" touted on the front of the book (it's a re-release) - four of these are album reviews, but in the last, following the example of Gore Vidal's 1973 review of the Times bestseller list - having read everything on it, Nick Hornby listens to the top ten albums listed in the Billboard charts. Bear in mind, this was written in 2003. The results are hysterically funny... show less
what an interesting book! i knew only few of the songs and albums hornby mentions, but even so i found his opinion really interesting. i also really liked the autobiographic references he made to his son and his failed marriage.
i have often wondered myself, why some pop songs just work for me and others don't, when it's all "just pop". it's good to read about someone defending "just pop" for once :-)
the book also made me curious about a couple of the bands mentioned which i haven't listened to before. i will check them out if i get the chance and see if i share his enthusiasm about it.
i have often wondered myself, why some pop songs just work for me and others don't, when it's all "just pop". it's good to read about someone defending "just pop" for once :-)
the book also made me curious about a couple of the bands mentioned which i haven't listened to before. i will check them out if i get the chance and see if i share his enthusiasm about it.
Nick Hornby's best known for writing novels featuring believable (and sympathetic) slacker man-boy characters, but his critical essays are easily the equal of his novels.
Though Hornby's Songbook doesn't quite measure up to his autobiographical book review series (or maybe I'm simply a bigger book lover than music fiend), it's still an entertaining, cogent series of personal essays about music.
Songbook highlights 31 of Hornby's favorite pop music standards, and wrapped around each is his personal connection to the songs. Some of them -- especially those pertaining to his autistic son -- are very personal, and the net effect is to render Songbook as much autobiographical as critical.
Hornby definitely walks a fine line here (any personal show more essay runs the risk of stepping into navel gazing territory) but he does a good job of speaking to his personal preferences and history without abandoning the reader.
In the end, the essays are wholly engaging -- even when he's talking about music I've never heard. That's probably because he delves into concepts like overexposure to pop music, the value of pop (despite its sometimes simplistic lyrics) and the divergence (currently) of pop music and social change.
Stuff like that.
Interesting stuff like that.
As a confirmed Hornby fanboy, I don't believe Songbook represents his best essay work, but I'm glad I finally broke down and bought it. show less
Though Hornby's Songbook doesn't quite measure up to his autobiographical book review series (or maybe I'm simply a bigger book lover than music fiend), it's still an entertaining, cogent series of personal essays about music.
Songbook highlights 31 of Hornby's favorite pop music standards, and wrapped around each is his personal connection to the songs. Some of them -- especially those pertaining to his autistic son -- are very personal, and the net effect is to render Songbook as much autobiographical as critical.
Hornby definitely walks a fine line here (any personal show more essay runs the risk of stepping into navel gazing territory) but he does a good job of speaking to his personal preferences and history without abandoning the reader.
In the end, the essays are wholly engaging -- even when he's talking about music I've never heard. That's probably because he delves into concepts like overexposure to pop music, the value of pop (despite its sometimes simplistic lyrics) and the divergence (currently) of pop music and social change.
Stuff like that.
Interesting stuff like that.
As a confirmed Hornby fanboy, I don't believe Songbook represents his best essay work, but I'm glad I finally broke down and bought it. show less
I read this in one sitting. You don't have to agree with everything Hornby says to thoroughly enjoy this book. But when he admits that Springsteen's Thunder Road is probably the song he has listened to the most, how can you not want to rush out (or fire up your Zune Pass) and download the others? Each essay is only tangentially about the song or songs that provide the title. It is more about the importance of music in Hornby's life, and the more important music is in your life, the more you will enjoy this. It may even serve to rouse you out of the stupor you have been in for the past 20 years and start to look for new songs to listen to and love. Hornby's tastes are pretty eclectic, although it is a shame that he mostly dismisses show more classical music. I can attest that it is possible to get the same epiphany from Chopin or Beethoven that comes from Thunder Road. show less
Songbook is a must for anyone who enjoys modern music. It is Hornby’s collection of essays on songs that have meaning to him, but do not look for traditional music criticism. Rather, get ready for irreverent and rollicking commentaries. Consistently, however, Hornby manages to strike a chord - a very personal chord that touches one's soul now and again. His love of music - "pop music" - is palpable, as is his love of how it transports him beyond the words of the lyrics and the chords of the tune. This is a book that ends much too quickly, but then again, it is the type of book that should end too quickly. Do not hesitate to buy it. A guaranteed winner.
En este libro, NH se dedica lo que sabe: escribir y contar cosas. Es un libro en el que nos cuenta su relación con 31 canciones, tanto las que le han marcado como las que le recuerdan algo de su vida, como las que le sugieren cosas nuevas. Este NH es un melómano de cuidado. Leyéndole uno tiene la impresión de que nunca llegará a escuchar tanta música como él.
Ya que el libro iba de canciones, se me ocurrió algo. Me fui a radio mula y sintonicé las 31 canciones, que fui escuchando a razón de una –a veces dos, pues hay capítulos dobles– por capítulo. Y les aseguro que la experiencia merece la pena. Conocía tres canciones de las 31 que destaca NH. Y sin embargo me encantó ir descubriendo grupos nuevos mientras un guía de show more excepción te contaba lo que sentía al oírlas y te hacía una breve reseña de cómo llegó a conocer al grupo.
En realidad, no son 31 canciones, sino casi 100, pues en muchos capítulos NH habla de muchas canciones que no salen en el título. Por ejemplo, en el capítulo sobre la canción X, NH comienza “no es que X me parezca mejor que Y, ni que Z, pero tiene algo que es especial. Al mismo tiempo que descubrí X yo estaba enganchado con A, B y C, que luego me llevaron a descubrir E, F y G…” y luego vuelve a hablar de X. En total, ya les digo, salen un montonazo de canciones.
En muchos de los capítulos NH habla de su vida, y de cómo han tenido ciertos episodios de ésta mucho que ver con las canciones que comenta. Me gusta leerle cuando escribe así. NH es un tío normal, con un don para contar cosas (y respaldado en castellano por un excelente traductor), que te lleva por donde quiere y te hace disfrutar por el camino, aunque sólo te esté contando que una vez organizó un festival benéfico en un colegio de primaria. Hay otro libro suyo, Fiebre en las gradas, que está aún mejor. Es una biografía de su pasión por el Arsenal, equipo de la Premier inglesa. Sólo habla de él y de fútbol, y es genial. Este libro recuerda a aquél, cambiando el tema, pero no llega a igualarlo. La sensación de leerlo con música, sin embargo, ha hecho que me haya encantado la experiencia. Mi nota: Muy entretenido. show less
Ya que el libro iba de canciones, se me ocurrió algo. Me fui a radio mula y sintonicé las 31 canciones, que fui escuchando a razón de una –a veces dos, pues hay capítulos dobles– por capítulo. Y les aseguro que la experiencia merece la pena. Conocía tres canciones de las 31 que destaca NH. Y sin embargo me encantó ir descubriendo grupos nuevos mientras un guía de show more excepción te contaba lo que sentía al oírlas y te hacía una breve reseña de cómo llegó a conocer al grupo.
En realidad, no son 31 canciones, sino casi 100, pues en muchos capítulos NH habla de muchas canciones que no salen en el título. Por ejemplo, en el capítulo sobre la canción X, NH comienza “no es que X me parezca mejor que Y, ni que Z, pero tiene algo que es especial. Al mismo tiempo que descubrí X yo estaba enganchado con A, B y C, que luego me llevaron a descubrir E, F y G…” y luego vuelve a hablar de X. En total, ya les digo, salen un montonazo de canciones.
En muchos de los capítulos NH habla de su vida, y de cómo han tenido ciertos episodios de ésta mucho que ver con las canciones que comenta. Me gusta leerle cuando escribe así. NH es un tío normal, con un don para contar cosas (y respaldado en castellano por un excelente traductor), que te lleva por donde quiere y te hace disfrutar por el camino, aunque sólo te esté contando que una vez organizó un festival benéfico en un colegio de primaria. Hay otro libro suyo, Fiebre en las gradas, que está aún mejor. Es una biografía de su pasión por el Arsenal, equipo de la Premier inglesa. Sólo habla de él y de fútbol, y es genial. Este libro recuerda a aquél, cambiando el tema, pero no llega a igualarlo. La sensación de leerlo con música, sin embargo, ha hecho que me haya encantado la experiencia. Mi nota: Muy entretenido. show less
A pleasant read that is well written and contains considered opinions. Some of the chapters are clearly heartfelt, whereas others appear to be an opinion about pop music in search of a song by way of example.
His n = 1 view of music is very different to my equivalent, nonetheless I found myself agreeing with many of the underlying sentiments.
His n = 1 view of music is very different to my equivalent, nonetheless I found myself agreeing with many of the underlying sentiments.
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Author Information
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Nick Hornby was born in Redhill, Surrey, England on April 17, 1957. He graduated from Cambridge University where he studied English. His books High Fidelity; Fever Pitch, which won the William Hill Sports Book of the Year Award in 1992; About a Boy and An Education were all made into movies. His other books include Slam; A Long Way Down; How to Be show more Good; Songbook; Shakespeare Wrote for Money; and The Polysyllabic Spree. He has received numerous awards including the American Academy of Arts and Letters' E. M. Forster Award in 1999 and the Orange Word International Writers' London Award in 2003. In addition to his books, his works have appeared in Esquire, Elle, GQ, Time, and Cosmopolitan. In 2015 his title, Funny Girl made The New York Times Bestseller List. (Publisher Provided) show less
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Common Knowledge
- Canonical title
- 31 Songs
- Original title
- 31 Songs
- Alternate titles
- Songbook
- Original publication date
- 2002-12
- Dedication
- For Lee, and all the other people who have introduced me to new songs.
- First words
- So we were dong this thing, this launch party, for Speaking with the Angel, a book of short stories I put together to raise money for my son's school and we -- the school, the publishers of the book, me and my partner ... (show all)-- were nervous about it.
- Quotations
- The thing that puzzles me about those who feel that contemporary pop (and I use the word to encompass soul, reggae, country, rock - anything and everything that might be regarded as trashy) is beneath them, or behind them, or... (show all) beyond them - some preposition denoting distance, anyway: Does this mean that you never hear, or at least never enjoy, new songs, that everything you whistle or hum was written years, decades, centuries ago? Do you really deny yourselves the pleasure of mastering a tune (a pleasure, incidentally, that your generation is perhaps the first in the history of mankind to forgo) because you are afraid it might make you look as if you don’t know who Harold Bloom is? Wow. I’ll bet you’re fun at parties.
- Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)It's a pop song, in other words, and like a lot of other pop songs, it's capable of just about anything.
Classifications
- Genres
- Nonfiction, General Nonfiction, Music, Biography & Memoir
- DDC/MDS
- 782.42164 — Arts & recreation Music Vocal music Secular forms of vocal music Songs General principles and musical forms Traditions of secular songs {genres} Western popular songs
- LCC
- ML3470 .H67 — Music Literature on music Literature on music History and criticism Popular music
- BISAC
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- Reviews
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- 11