The Madness and the Excess!

I've been re-reading Chuck Klosterman's "Fargo City Rock."  It's is one of the great books about music and pop culture.  Chuck is just a great writer.  He's a funny music-obsessive.  He's a populist, and a great fan of Heavy Metal music.  He goes out of his way to think outside the box.  He is not a hipster.  He is not a snooty rock and roll critic.  He's a nerd.  A very insightful nerd.  He grew up in North Dakota.  He grew up on Heavy Metal Music and Glam Rock and all those silly, ridiculous "hair metal" bands.

He makes a great case for taking some of this music seriously.  Or if not seriously, he makes a case that because this music was so popular, especially in the 80's, that it was/is socially or at least pop culturally significant.  It was certainly music that was significant to him.  And he tells you why in detail.  Chapter after chapter.  And it's actually all quite the enjoyable and insightful read.

The details are hilarious, ridiculous, and eye-opening. Now maybe Chuck's obsession, isn't my obsession (I will not be listening to KISS or Warrant, or Skid Row, or Poison, or pretty much 99% of the bands Klosterman writes about in the book), but he did make me pull out my copy of "Appetite for Destruction," and give it another listen.

There is something interesting about Guns N Roses and Axl Rose. And if you know a little about where Axl came from (a tiny town in rural Indiana), you do marvel at the story of success and excess and the madness of the band.  All the rock and roll cliches are rolled up in one band. It's all so very Spinal Tap... and the essence of certain type of rock and roll too. And it does say something about us and our culture too.