Greetings,
As you all know, I am a person who loves hearing about the stories behind the music. It is one of the main reasons why I love the show Behind the Music. Also, I love hearing the voice of Jim Forbes. So, it's no wonder that, when I was doing a little browsing in a local library, a couple of books caught my eye. One was called The Girl in the Song, the other, The Boy in the Song. I picked them up to see that they were two, I guess you could call them, companion books, both written by Michael Heatley and Frank Hopkinson. I don't exactly know who these guys are, but God bless them, because they've done something very good here. Anyway, I decided to review these two works together, since I'd be saying pretty much the same things if I'd done them separately.
In case it isn't obvious, The Girl/Boy in the Song books tell the stories of several classic songs, fifty each, to be exact. These stories are about specifically the people who inspired the music. Yes, you can see why I would be drawn to this. And it isn't just a list of songs next to a list of names, and that's it. That would be kind of boring, and not enough to fill a pamphlet, much less a entire book. No, they actually give some good accounts of the songs as well as the artists, and also we get some great pictures. Because sometimes, you just need a picture.
Now I don't want to act like every single thing they put in these books is going to be some "WHAT! I had no idea THAT song was about THAT person!" moment. There are some classic stories that most people already know, albeit a little more in depth than some have gone. Of course, we all know that "Hey, Jude" was about Julian Lennon and "Rosanna" was about Rosanna Arquette. But even I, a person who would like to think I am quite informed about these things, was very surprised by some of what I found out here. And again, it was nice to see the song and the person's name and then, be able to go on and find out the entire story, as well as some extra, related, fun facts that are strewn throughout. Also, good news for those of you who have trouble finding boat loads of time to read, or those who just don't like to read. These books are fairly short. Each one is about 144 pages, and yet they still have a lot of interesting info. A book does not have to be long to be effective.
That's about all I can say about these books. I mean, the premise is very straight forward and needs little explanation. Still, I thought I would share it with you all, especially any nosy, music lovers, like myself. It is ironic that, though, whilst I am quite eager to know all of these things about other songwriters, I am somewhat reluctant to reveal who has inspired the songs I personally have written. I hope that doesn't make me hypocritical, since I'm happy to share some things when it comes to what I've written. Yeah, so what that I wrote a song that was inspired by a speech Rocky Balboa made? What are you gonna do about it?
Anywho, I would recommend these books to anyone. It would, most likely, appeal to music lovers, but I also think you'd like them if you just like some interesting stories. Either way, I say these books were a fantastic idea, and I am very glad they exist.
Love and full moons,
Becky the Writer
