The man behind the Mountain Goats makes his book debut with an entry into the 33 1/3 series. But tackling Black Sabbath’s ‘Master of Reality’ in the form of a novella is more than just a novelty.

Imagine the singer from your favorite band decided one day he was going to write a book. Would you read it? We’re not talking an autobiography about their life as the singer of your favorite band; lots of fans would want to read that. This is a songwriter one day deciding to write a novel, which would generally sound like a pretty bad idea, if only because it’d be overextending themselves. Even Jordan realized he wasn’t meant to play pro baseball.

Most lyricists, though capable of writing killer pop songs, exist in a grey area between poetry and literature. A vast plain that encompasses forlorn love letters, rock and roll manifestos, protest chants, introspective journal entries, and surrealist word association. Often they paint a scene or a situation and sing about how that moment feels. But can you imagine trying to understand the plot of a Beck paperback, or the character progression of a Slanted & Enchanted novelization? Jack White’s story of drunken southern heartbreak might be a rollicking good time, but the prose would be muddy and derivative. Thom Yorke’s tale of modern dystopia would probably be interesting but incomprehensible, and then you’d have to pretend that you ‘got it’ around your artsy friends. Which is all fine; these people are who they are because they’re good at writing songs. Even the ones who do approach storytelling in their music rarely leave you feeling like you want to know what happens next.

Not so with the Mountain Goats’ John Darnielle. His songs often feel like short stories waiting to be filled out with details. He even has recurring characters that span multiple albums. Yes, the music on his recent, more studio-polished albums is increasingly key to setting the tone and creating a fuller sound. Look back to his earlier lo-fi guitar recordings though, and they give the impression that the music was a means to an end for the narrative. Maybe I’m being kind, since I own more Mountain Goats albums than any other band — which is easy; there are over a dozen — but I’d say John Darnielle is unlike other songwriters in that he’s always had a book in him. Volumes of books even.

So as a fan of his songwriting, I was naturally excited to hear he was going to flex his typing fingers on some fiction. The real surprise was finding out his book debut would be coming as an entry into the 33 1/3 series. Generally known for in-depth analysis of classic albums from rock critics and insiders, there’s no doubt Darnielle could have done an admirable job with their traditional approach; he already writes intelligently about music on his site Last Plane to Jakarta. Who would’ve guessed he’d tackle the Black Sabbath album Master of Reality in the form of a novella, composed of diary entries from the perspective of an institutionalized teenage metal fan? I’d never seen anything quite like it and couldn’t wait to check it out.

……….

I’ll admit it, I’d never heard the album, or at least really listened to it, until getting it along with the book. So I sat down to read its 100 pages one weekend with the CD on repeat. I soaked it up while the main character, Roger, describes looking up to Ozzy and his band for being “people like us…Maybe every other band in the world has more brains and deeper meaning, but only Black Sabbath sounds like exactly what my friends and I might have done if we’d had the equipment.” I skipped backward or forward to re-listen to songs as Roger sits alone in his room, picking them apart, trying to figure them out, and pondered each track while he proudly explains how it fits his life, his attitude toward the world, and his fucked up situation. By the end, I wished someone would write a book like this for every album.

The reason it’s so effective isn’t because it the most outstanding story you’ve ever read. Roger’s difficulties and depression aren’t radically different than lots of kids’ problems, or lots of adults’ for that matter, his circumstances are just more extreme. This book work harder than most things written about music with how genuine it is. Darnielle’s method mostly skips over comparisons, influences, process, or any of the trivia you might get from another 100-pages on a single album, and cuts right to the heart of the fan. He exposes what the music means to the people who love it.

By telling a story instead of simply writing criticism, he lets us see the music through the eyes of someone who has a deep emotional connection to it. To that person, the music isn’t just guitars and drums and words, but the soundtrack to their life, and the voice of someone who understands. Seeing the role it plays in their lives is especially helpful in understanding the power of something you wouldn’t relate to otherwise, or even necessarily enjoy. For latecomers to the Sabbath party, it’s much more enlightening and rewarding to read than interviews and liner notes, and for the duration I found myself convinced, like Roger, that this album fucking rules.

……….

If this were solely a book review, I would have stopped right there. Darnielle tried something different in music criticism, and it worked insofar as it did something unique and effective, even if there were trade-offs. But then, several weeks after reading the book, I also happened to get to see a reading he did at Book Soup in Hollywood.

[Quick side story: For a seven o'clock reading, I arrived almost exactly on time, to find the room completely empty save for one older, roadie-looking gentleman who assured me I was in the right place. I suspected he was more into Sabbath than the Mountain Goats. But as minutes passed and Mr. Darnielle came in with an employee to prepare, I had a moment of terror -- what if no one shows up? It could be a golden opportunity to sit down and have a personal chat with a favorite musician, but that's a lot of pressure. On the other hand, this guy sells out respectable music venues every time he comes to LA, so would it be too embarrassing and awkward for him to even stay? Does anyone want to be there to see one of their heroes absolutely flopping? I considered bolting, but luckily postponing for half an hour allowed the room to fill out comfortably. As usual, I should have known that in Los Angeles, 'on time' is actually 'uncomfortably early'.]

A friend recently asked me what the point is in going to book readings if you’ve already read the book, and the obvious answer is just to see someone you admire in person. But what’s most interesting is finding out what sections they choose to read, and the way they read them. Although you could argue great writing shouldn’t need a live reading to ‘get it right’, hearing the words delivered exactly as the author imagined as they were writing does bring you that much closer to the story.

In this case, Darnielle’s selections were less about the music, and more about the intense personal story of the character he’d created — which, he interjected, he briefly considered naming after himself. His reading was very urgent, almost stream of consciousness, and it was apparent that he identified very strongly with his protagonist. Listening to his version, Roger’s pain felt sharper and his frustration more tragic.

Afterward, he also read an excerpt from a new book he’s working on, though he warned us he’d already decided to cut that selection in favor of a better idea. He’d hinted at the new project on his site and in some recent interviews, remarking that he wanted to tell another story about these kind of kids, who often get unfairly grouped together as the same for being metal fans. I won’t go into details he obviously doesn’t see fit to print, but the handful of typed pages dealt with issues that were troubling and hard to swallow in a very honest way, and had the potential to be a another great read.

I included all this not because I wanted to review his reading in addition to his book, but because the reading sparked some new ideas about the book itself. I realized as he read certain entries in the diary — the ones having very little to do with the album — that although the book works great as a 33 1/3 entry, and as a fresh way to write about music, when it comes down to it the story is the central driver. Instead of a book that makes Master of Reality so real to someone who’d never heard it before, he could have feasibly written about another album, from another metal band, and accomplished just as much.

It’s possible that a short novel wasn’t just a creative way to do criticism; criticism was an excuse to write a short novel. Perhaps he saw it as an opportunity to test the waters, starting with one foot still in the music writing world, before jumping fully into outright fiction. Based on the book, his reading, as well as his enormous body of music, he obviously has a strong kinship with the quote/unquote ‘troubled’ youth character, and hasn’t forgotten what it feels like to be that person. Some of his best songs have come out of that familiarity. We’ve got a fascinating piece of hybrid music criticism out of it. And if he’s so brimming with stories that he goes on to write a successful full-length novel to boot, this might only be the start of those many volumes finally tumbling onto our shelves.

……….

A few notes:

For more on the book and writing, this Nerve interview is highly recommended.

Also check out the Hipster Book Club for a review as well as an interview by Kyle, whom I have seen a Mountain Goats secret show with and am jealous of for getting to talk to the man himself.