2 Book Lovers Reviews
Nöthin' but a Good Time: The Uncensored History of the '80s Hard Rock Explosion
By Tom Beaujour
& Richard Bienstock
Have you every listened to that Audible that made you think to yourself, man I wish that could have been twice as long and a musical? Well, Nöthin' But a Good Time is that book!
In the vein of Ready Player One and The Dirt, this book capitalizes on nostalgia. Every singer, every song, all those bands, each one brought back memories. Nöthin' But a Good Time doesn’t flow like a typical book. The contributors (you really can’t call them authors) sat and talked to many of the characters who were active during the rise and fall of ‘80s rock. They plucked snippets of these conversations and made it all flow into a cohesive narrative of the time and place.
The book was filled with some surprises and some things that weren’t so surprising; everyday I had several anecdotes that I felt obligated to share with my wife. It really speaks to the power of a book when you have to share it with others. Nöthin' But a Good Time embodies the period, it was fun, lighthearted, yet had its share of tragedy.
A good deal was made of the end of the era and the birth of grunge; I have my own little theory about that. Was it a shift in taste? Did Nirvana kill metal? I just think that the fans got older; the fifteen-year-old who was blown away by “Eruption” in 1978 was 28 in 1991; the eighteen-year-old who stood in line for four hours to get Twisted Sister tickets in 1984 was 25 in 1991; the twenty-one-year-old who banged the "Cherry Pie" guy in the back alley behind Gazzarri’s in 1983 was 29 in 1991. These people got to an age where they had kids, they had to get up in the morning, they had bills to pay. They couldn’t go to the shows on a Tuesday night anymore. The market grew up, but we still love the music.
Nöthin' But a Good Time may not be a creative masterpiece like some of the fiction that I typically read or listen to, but it certainly was nothing but a good time.
And just an FYI, I’m listening to Mötley Crüe as I write this.
*5 Stars
