Backstage & Beyond: 48 Years of Rock Chats & Rants - Softcover

Sullivan, Jim

Softcover

ISBN 13: 9798993867830

Publisher: Trouser Press Books, 2027

Synopsis

Jim Sullivan — a 2023 inductee into the New England Music Hall of Fame — spent 26 years writing for the Boston Globe and two decades more writing for countless national publications. He has interviewed and reviewed countless musicians, many of them multiple times.

Backstage & Beyond is not just an anthology of profiles and reviews Jim Sullivan has written over a half-century; it integrates different pieces of writing about 45 artists into a broader, deeper and more expansive time-passages view of each. It covers rock and roll pioneers (Jerry Lee Lewis, Roy Orbison), classic rockers (Kinks, Who, Bowie) punks (Sex Pistols, Clash, Ramones), new wavers (Talking Heads, Police, Cars, Cure) and much more. Most of the subjects have been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Originally published as two volumes in 2023, this new edition contains more than 40 revised and updated versions of the most fascinating chapters as well as several new ones and a revised introduction.

“I have spoken to many journalists in my time: some good, some bad, some terrible. And it is lovely when you meet someone who is just like you ... a huge music fan! Jim Sullivan … is friendly, knowledgeable, forthright and opinionated! An expert in his chosen field. He is no pushover ... if you have faults or are resting on your laurels, he is the first to tell you off.” —Peter Hook (Joy Division/New Order)

“There’s a lot of history here, and a lot of reflecting on that history. For me, it’s interesting to see the conflict many artists have as they try to evaluate their own work and its place in the scheme of things. Jim Sullivan has been able to coax some of those reflections out of a broad spectrum of artists, and it’s fascinating to read.” —Greg Hawkes (The Cars)

“Jim Sullivan is an expert interviewer with an uncanny ability to connect with his subjects. In Backstage & Beyond, he brings out the humanity in a host of rock and roll icons who are too often portrayed as godlike figures. This an intimate and revealing look at many of the major personalities of the classic rock era.” —Tom Perrotta, author of Election, Tracy Flick Can't Win, The Leftovers and Mrs. Fletcher

“Sullivan has been really successful at getting a huge list of artists to share what makes them come up with the music we’ve been loving for decades. He has a knack for peeking under the blanket and finding out what makes musicians human — and sometimes inhuman. That’s what makes the book so much fun to read.” —Tom Hamilton (Aerosmith)

“These are wonderful stories across the whole range of popular music, by one of rock’s finest journalists. As history lengthens and some of these legends move on, these become increasingly precious fragments of lives lived at the sharp edge of music.” —Richard Thompson

"The marquee names first draw you in, but it’s what’s behind the storefront that’s really the main attraction here. Sullivan fashions a kind of extended narrative from interviews, performance reviews and his own thoughts and rethoughts on the music and the musicians who make it. His informed commentary and the professional and personal revelations he elicits from his subjects place Backstage & Beyond several leagues above the average rock read. At this late date, that’s saying something." —writer and broadcaster Gene Sculatti (The Catalog of Cool, For the Records)

About this title

About the Author

Jim Sullivan, a 2023 inductee into the New England Music Hall of Fame, spent 26 years writing for the Boston Globe and more than two decades more writing for countless national publications. He has interviewed and reviewed musicians from all genres, many of them multiple times. He lives in the Boston area.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Musicians' quotes from Backstage & Beyond:

“Jerry Lee Lewis would never harm a hair on nobody’s head, much less take someone’s life. I’d die for someone, but I would never hurt nobody.”

--Jerry Lee Lewis

“My voice is a gift. My talent is a gift; the life process is a gift; the opportunity for the journey is a gift.”

--Roy Orbison

“I never really thought I was up to much for years and years. But now, looking back, I did some good stuff. I feel at peace with myself that way.”

--Ian Hunter (Mott the Hoople, solo)

“I have this unquenchable enthusiasm. I probably drive people around me mad with my enthusiasm.”

--David Bowie

“I’m not without my wounds, but I am alive. So, it’s kind of cool.”

--Iggy Pop

“As you get older … why would you want to listen to what an 18-year-old is getting off on?”

--Lou Reed

“I used to hate interviews with a passion. Now I think it’s great. It’s quite inexpensive therapy.”

--Bryan Ferry (Roxy Music, solo)

“There’s very little exciting about me other than the famous people I know, who in turn are equally boring.”

--Robert Fripp (King of Crimson)

“My attitude has always been to make the music that I want to make … and then, when it’s finished, try to sell it.”

--Peter Gabriel (Genesis, solo)

“I make all the wrong friends and trust all the wrong people.”

--Ginger Baker (Cream, Blind Faith)

“As a writer, it’s a danger to exaggerate your own emotions. It’s probably a greater danger to conceal them.”

--Warren Zevon

“I reduced myself to a gibbering heap of rubble … and still I was surrounded by people who wanted to get close to me.”

--Pete Townshend (The Who, solo)

“There’s one person in the world who’s more insecure than I am, and his name is Pete Townshend.”

--Ray Davies (The Kinks, solo)

“If you think by saving the forest you’re going to redeem your soul, you’ve got another thing coming.”

--Leonard Cohen

“Making Broken English was the most cathartic thing in my life. Something in me changed, and I was really very happy.”

--Marianne Faithfull

“I have become happier, and that’s something that’s very hard to accomplish in a lifetime for some people.”

--Tina Turner

“I understood where [punk rockers] were coming from because what they were trying to do was wake everybody up.”

--Neil Young

“One of the reasons I started to play music and to write music was because I found it hard to communicate.”

--Richard Thompson

“Phil Spector wanted us to go on the Top 40, which was white, so if they didn’t know we were Black, they would play us.”

--Darlene Love

“I’ve been offed in every sort of capital punishment way you could be. Tens of thousands of times.”

--Alice Cooper

“With music, there’s intoxication, an addictive aspect. Once it’s in you, it’s got to come out.”

--Peter Wolf (J. Geils Band, solo)

“It was a statement if you played guitar. It [became] an iconic image of freedom and self-expression and rebellion.”

--Joe Perry (Aerosmith)

“Without humor, you’re dead. I always knew I was funny.”

--Lemmy (Motorhead)

“When we came out in ’74, rock and roll was pretty much dead. It was totally synthetic. All the fun was gone. We rocked the boat.”

--Joey Ramone (The Ramones)

“I’ve always been true to my word, and I mean what I say. You might not like what I do, but at least I mean it.”

--John Lydon (Sex Pistols, Public Image Ltd.)

“People in England realize that anybody can be a star. Beginners have to realize they can be stars; otherwise, they ain’t gonna bother with it.”

--Joe Strummer (The Clash)

“When I’ve had brief periods of the muse taking an extra-long vacation, you wonder, did it go to Zanzibar, and is it in some weird hotel, never coming back?”

--Patti Smith

“The band came to a tragic end, but that does not change the fact that Joy Division was a great band to be a part of.”

--Peter Hook (Joy Division, New Order, solo)

“I loathe the Morrissey kind of wallowing in despair. I don’t find it very entertaining to be around somebody who’s morose all the time.”

--Robert Smith (The Cure)

“If you’re not in conflict, you’re not making great art. We made delightful noise, we enjoyed a few drinks, we got into fights with people.”

--Hugo Burnham (Gang of Four)

“I’m just following the Irish way of life: cram as much pleasure as you can in your life and rile against the pain you have to suffer as a result.”

--Shane MacGowan (Pogues, Popes)

“I have a suspicion that the Police are moving to an area of music that Weather Report is moving to.”

--Sting (Police, solo)

“If you play music outside the alternative rock spectrum it’s hard for people to conceive that you can like this music the way you can a rock band.”

--David Byrne (Talking Heads, solo)

“We wouldn’t be doing it if we didn’t want to be popular. We had a pretty good go of making ourselves unpopular.”

--Elvis Costello

“All ‘famous’ rock music makes almost no sense to me… I am the Ernest Hemingway of indie rock!”

--Black Francis (The Pixies)

“We try to avoid trends. The more you latch onto a trend, the shorter shelf life you have.”

--Glenn Mercer (The Feelies)

Edition details

• Publisher: Trouser Press Books
• Publication date: 2027
• Language: English
• ISBN 13: 9798993867830
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 500