NEW YORK (Top40 Charts/ Harper Entertainment) - Dear
Music Fan:
Esteemed writer and public radio commentator, Mitch Myers debuts his first book, THE BOY WHO CRIED FREEBIRD: Rock & Roll Fables and Sonic Storytelling (HarperEntertainment; On-sale date: 4/10/2007; ISBN: 9780061139017) starring a wide-ranging cast of music industry icons including Ozzy Osbourne, Robert Johnson, Aretha Franklin, Phil Spector and many others.
Taking cues from '70s era publications like Creem, Crawdaddy and Rolling Stone, THE BOY WHO CRIED FREEBIRD is a freewheeling collection of music-oriented parables, serious artist profiles, and edgy, offbeat essays. Myers incorporates factual reporting, oral storytelling and comedic spritzing—blending his social satire with historical fact in creative, literary fashion.
Black Sabbath saving the world from alien infiltration, a classic update on the old American legend of John Henry, Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention freak out – it's all within the pages of THE BOY WHO CRIED FREEBIRD, just waiting for you to make your own call; fact or fiction?
A popular contributor to National Public Radio's All Things Considered, Myers has been published in a variety of journals including Rolling Stone, The Village Voice, High Times and DownBeat. Da Capo Best Music Writing 2003 featured his article on Doug Sahm, which ran in Magnet Magazine and is included in this book. Myers is also creative consultant of to the Shel Silverstein estate and he directs the Silverstein Archive in Chicago.
THE BOY WHO CRIED FREEBIRD explores perennial examples of rock and roll, blues, jazz, gospel, beat poetry, minimalism, modern classical, soul, avant-garde and electronic music. In addition, Myers offers playful insights on the peripherals of music: record collecting, bonus tracks on CDs, rock concert decorum, dope-smoking, 60's nostalgia, obsessive music geeks, ridiculous sex, Deadheads, the business side of rock and roll, music journalism itself, rock in film, and other related pop-phenomena.
THE BOY WHO CRIED FREEBIRD offers more than 40 entries that will captivate fans of popular music culture, including the following five never-before-published stories:
• Who Will Save The World? (Black Sabbath): Writer Dave Marsh said this political piece was Mitch's "Masterpiece. Lester [Bangs] is drooling with envy in Hell."
• Back to the Fillmore (The Grateful Dead): 'Back to the Future' meets Hunter Thompson's Hells Angels and Tom Wolfe's Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test.
• The Ballad of John Henry and the Wheels of Steel: As heard told by Myers on NPR, this is a classic update of a timeless American folktale.
• Tie-Die! (A Demonic Tale of Psychedelic Possession): A rock & roll Twilight Zone episode.
• The Mix-Tape Murder Mystery: A classic police-buddy whodunit in the tradition of Nick and Nora (in The Thin Man), Charlie Chan and Dragnet...with a soundtrack.
For lovers of both music and the written word, THE BOY WHO CRIED FREEBIRD is creative 'underground' journalism from an evocative and mature literary voice.
I look forward to hearing from you to discuss review, excerpt, and interview possibilities.
Versa Manos
Gorgeous PR
(323) 782 9000
[email protected]
THE BOY WHO CRIED FREEBIRD:
Rock & Roll Fables and Sonic Storytelling
By Mitch Myers
On-sale: 4/10/2007
HarperEntertainment (an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers)
Hardcover, $25.95; ISBN: 9780061139017
