by Brian Boone

Penguin, $13.95, 210 pages

Oregon-based author, Brian Boone’s excellently named book I Love Rock ‘N’ Roll {Except When I Hate It}: Extremely Important Stuff About the Songs and Bands You Love, Hate, Love to Hate, and Hate to Love is a book of lists.  Need to know how many rock songs were written about George Harrison’s ex-wife? Ten.  What Is Life, Breathe on Me, Layla, Wonderful Tonight, Bell Bottom Blues, Pretty Blue Eyes, Golden Earring, Pretty Girl and Never Make You Cry.

Rather than being just a dry list of songs, Boone adds pithy comments, and remarks about the actual history of Rock.  From the sublime (The pretentious, and hella-lame 90’s Alt-Rock act), to the ridiculous (Did you know that the Grateful Dead once recorded a Disco album?).It’s fun to read, and if by chance you were to meet the author, and tell him that his book makes for excellent reading in the bathroom, I’m sure he wouldn’t be insulted.  Brian Boone is a contributing editor of  Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader.  If you, or somebody you once met, has ever turned on a radio, listened to an MP3, or was interested in how Bauhaus, and Love & Rockets are actually the same band, this book will be a mildly amusing trip around the music industry.

Reviewed by Brad Wright