Green Suede Shoes: An Irish-American Odyssey
"I often wonder what Lester would think of it all," Kirwan ruminates at the beginning of the 10th chapter of his rock memoir, the chapter in which music critic Lester Bangs tells Kirwan of his first seeing the Clash play live. Such unabashed longing for better days permeates Kirwan's memoir, which relates his journey from County Wexford, Ireland, to the streets of Greenwich Village. The bulk of the volume covers Kirwan's time in New York, chronicling his many years as a rock 'n' roll performer, particularly with the Major Thinkers (who last performed together in 1985) and currently with the political band Black 47. At times, the book leaps headlong into politically charged subjects, such as prisoner Bobby Sands's death at the end of a 66-day hunger strike and the differences between "brash and unfashionable" Irish-Americans and the "narrow-minded and biased" Irish Diaspora. But typically, Kirwan's tales focus on gritty New York City, touching on his experiences with heroin addiction, with getting paid to teach Cyndi Lauper how to dress, with sordid characters in low-rent districts and with nights out at the Bowery and CBGB's, where he crossed paths with the Talking Heads, Debbie Harry, Iggy Pop, the Ramones, Suicide and Television ("the best band on the Lower East Side"). Kirwan's tone occasionally becomes preachy, as when he laments the "institutionalized" and banal world of modern rock 'n' roll, and when he rails against "tawdry consumer-driven society," its short attention span and its disdain for complexity. But despite these defects, Kirwan's prose is often lively and always readable. He has wrought a refined tale of a raw existence, filled with colorful characters and vivid accounts of the sights and sounds of the New York club scene.Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.