Sunday, September 25, 2011

Talking to Girls about Duran Duran by Rob Sheffield

Talking to Girls about Duran Duran.  One Young Man's Quest for True Love and a Cooler Haircut by Rob Sheffield

Hey to all the ladies who grew up in the eighties (gents too), this book is for you.  Talking to Girls about Duran Duran is a trip down musical memory lane.  Remember big hair, bobby socks and stirrup pants. Remember the movies Pretty in Pink, The Breakfast Club and Ferris Bueller's Day Off.  Do you remember how cute John Taylor from Duran Duran was?  I named a beloved fish after him when I was in high school. 

Rob Sheffield has written a fun, new wave memoir on his life growing up in the eighties.  Rob was 13 in 1980 and 23 when the eighties turned into the 90's.  Rob grew up with eighties music as his life's backdrop and he shares all that he learned from the musical artists of his generation.

Each chapter in Talking to Girls about Duran Duran begins with a year and a song.  Madonna hits the music scene in the eighties, Prince makes Purple Rain and Duran Duran is Hungry Like a Wolf.  The world is changing and the nuclear age of fear is ending.  Life in the eighties is a time like no other, and I, like Rob Sheffield and Loverboy, were Lovin Every Minute of it.

Some of my fondest memories take place during the eighties and I loved this fun romp through musical history.  Music came in two forms, on a cassette tape or on a vinyl record album.  MTV hit the music scene and you couldn't drag teens away from the Top 20 countdown.  I attended tons of concerts, dressed like Madonna and loved Dancing in the Dark with Bruce.  To be a teen in the eighties meant you were free to like any music you wanted, you could be Punk, New Wave, Rock, Pop or any combination. 

Sheffield's memoir is full of literary references and how music shaped a young man.  You will laugh out loud and remember being a teen in love with life and music.

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