The Current's Rock and Roll Book Club: Bob Boilen's 'Your Song Changed My Life'
by Anna Reed
April 12, 2016
What I knew about Bob Boilen as I first cracked his new book was that he was the host and creator of NPR Music's All Songs Considered and the smarty pants behind the wonderful Tiny Desk Concert Series. If you're like me, you have lost hours of your life going deep into an internet hole around those touching, intimate performances.
I thought his book, Your Song Changed My Life, might include musings on how songs from his favorite artists have affected his life. And while there are elements of that going on, it's really quite the opposite. The book instead focuses on the very songs and instances that have changed artists' lives and helped them become who they are today.
I loved reading about exactly what song, instrument, or moment turned some of my favorite artists into the people they are today. Whether it was Jenny Lewis' beloved Run-D.M.C cassette tape, Carrie Brownstein's deep affection for The Replacements, Justin Vernon's life-altering experience with an Indigo Girls song so good he tattooed it on his chest, or Cat Power's unforgettable experience watching Aretha Franklin footage on PBS, this book offers a chance to truly leap into these artists' formative moments.
As the Associate Producer for The Current's Oake & Riley in the Morning, I was lucky enough to sit in on an interview with Bob where we got to ask him all sorts of questions about writing this book. Here's what he had to say, which you can also listen to up above. And keep your eyes peeled for Your Song Changed My Life which is released April 12.
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Brian Oake: You obviously encountered so many artists whether as part of the Tiny Desk Series or interviews you've done or the show itself over the years. Is this a book you went out of your way to see if you can amass this information or did it sort of compile itself or reveal itself to you?
Bob Boilen: The thing that I noticed - and I was like many interviewers when I go into an interview - I used to write down questions, think about what's the thing that everybody wants to know, and I realized that was the last thing that most artists wanted to talk about and that they actually didn't really enjoy talking directly about their own music. But you get them to talk about somebody else's music and through that you can find their story, and then they're more open and more personable and it's more conversation than interview. I don't know, I just liked it more.
Jill Riley: This is something that everybody has a story of - a song that changed their life - and you start the book with your own story.
BB: Yeah, I mean I was a kid growing up in Brooklyn, like, born in '50 - I'm an old guy - so I was right at the cusp - right at 12-years-old-ish when the Beatles came to America - and how they changed everything and it's cliche but it's true. The track they took from simple songs like "I Want to Hold your Hand" and "She Loves You" in '63-'64 to what they did not three and a half, four years later, with a record like Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band and on that record was the song "A Day in the Life", which was the one that really did it for me.
JR: I call it your book, Bob, but really you're telling other people's stories. You've interviewed so many musicians - Jimmy Page, Jenny Lewis, St. Vincent, Smokey Robinson, it had to have been really cool to just hear people's stories. Was there one in particular that really stands out to you?
BB: There were two things that would happen when I would sit down and talk to the artists. One of them was that they would pick a song that was sort of a little bit the department of obvious, not that there's really anything wrong with it, so Lucinda Williams, and in fact Josh Ritter, picking Bob Dylan, right? That makes sense. Trey Anastasio picking Leonard Bernstein's music from West Side Story? That doesn't make sense, right? So I would do these interviews and think, "Bob, make the connection. What is the connection between Bernstein and Phish?" And so that's what I tried to do in the book is to not only just interview and find the stories but then think about the artists like Cat Stevens picking "Twist and Shout" by the Beatles or Courtney Barnett picking "Handshake Drugs" by Wilco. What did that do to them? That's sort of what's behind the book.
BO: What sort of was the straightest line for people between the song that they referenced and where they are and who they are today?
BB: It's about wanting to belong to something and feeling a part of something and feeling a connection usually at an early age that you never felt before.
JR: Bob before we let you go, the Tiny Desk Concert, that's something that you host in your office. This is something that has such a big connection to Minnesota. A big story was how Duluth artist Gaelynn Lea was part of the Tiny Desk Concert. Can you tell me how that came together?
BB: Well first you gave me chills, just thinking about Gaelyn's music. For those who don't know, Gaelyn's music it's just absolutely breathtaking. She was one of over 6,000 people who entered a contest and the winner would play at my desk. We had judges from the girls from Lucius to Son Little and Dan Auerbach, and they all independently watched big chunks of videos and we were all just taken aback by the melody and the beauty in her music. And then I discovered her history and that she has something called brittle bone disease which makes her a very small person, about the size of her violin - she plays her violin like a cello. She has a lot of challenges to overcome but that's not why she won. She won because her music is extraordinary. And then we learned she plays with Alan Sparhawk of Low and that was a beautiful part of the story too and we brought him in for the Tiny Desk Concert that she got to play here in Washington D.C. and that was very moving.
JR: If you could just pick maybe one artist from the book that you talked to and a band or a song that changed their life then we could go out on that song.
BB: How about if I get local? Well this isn't going to sound local because it's Colin Meloy and he grew up in Helena, Montana but he makes basically folk music in essence and one of his influences was a woman named Shirley Collins who I was sure he was going to pick her - this great old British folky - to be the song that changed his life but he didn't do that at all. He told me stories of his uncle who used to make mix tapes for him and his sister and one of the mix tapes had a song by an artist named Husker Du. So Colin Meloy actually picked "Hardly Getting Over It" by Husker Du as a song that just like, shook him. At first it was hard for him to understand how it all worked and why this music made sense but sometimes that's the way it works. The music that's the hardest to get into is the most rewarding and that was true for Colin Meloy.
JR: Bob Boilen is on the line, from All Songs Considered. His new book Your Song Changed My Life - from Jimmy Page to St. Vincent, Smokey Robinson to Hozier: 35 beloved artists on their journey and the music that inspired it. Congratulations on the book, Bob. It was really nice to talk to you.
BB: Thanks both!