Title: A dream about lightning bugs :
Authors: Folds, Ben,
Date: 2019
Publisher: Ballantine Books,
Physical description: ix, 311 pages : illustrations ; 25 cm
Language: English
LC classification: M
Abstract: Ben Folds is a celebrated American singer-songwriter, beloved for songs such as "Brick," "You Don't Know Me," "Rockin' the Suburbs," and "The Luckiest," and is the former frontman of the alternative rock band Ben Folds Five. But Folds will be the first to tell you he's an unconventional icon, more normcore than hardcore. Now, in his first book, Folds looks back at his life so far in a charming and wise chronicle of his artistic coming of age, infused with the wry observations of a natural storyteller. In the title chapter, "A Dream About Lightning Bugs," Folds recalls his earliest childhood dream -- and realizes how much it influenced his understanding of what it means to be an artist. In "Measure Twice, Cut Once" he learns to resist the urge to skip steps during the creative process. In "Hall Pass" he recounts his 1970s North Carolina working-class childhood, and in "Cheap Lessons" he returns to the painful life lessons he learned the hard way -- but that luckily didn't kill him. In his inimitable voice, both relatable and thought-provoking, Folds digs deep into the life experiences that shaped him, imparting hard-earned wisdom about both art and life. Collectively, these stories embody the message Folds has been singing about for years: Smile like you've got nothing to prove, because it hurts to grow up, and life flies by in seconds.
Contents: File under "Music" -- A dream about lightning bugs -- Watch me eat this sandwich -- Erase and rewind -- A working-class tourist is something to be -- Hall pass -- Measure twice, cut once -- Big ears, thin walls -- A line and some clues -- 1979, the summer of love -- But for the grace of my music teachers -- Cheap lessons -- Plan A from outer space -- Dropped at exams in a cop car -- Drums in a lake -- Mt. Labor -- The existential chicken dance -- Of mace and men -- An accidental mentor -- Lederhosen to pink bow ties -- My semester overseas -- Creative visualization or useful delusion? -- Where oh where is my voice? -- Nashville: The best (preferred) way to fail -- Frozen on a suitcase -- BFF -- The first album (both of them) -- Welcome to the goddamn music business -- Hand me that piano -- Whatever -- I wanna be... -- Throwing stools (and other monkey business) -- Our turn to ride the bull -- Reinhold -- Stop the bus! -- Rockin' the suburbs -- Going it alone -- Rock this bitch! -- Follow the brown -- Vincibility -- Benny! What IS cool? -- Time to grow up... Wait. What? Again? -- Way to normal -- The fake album -- Music for the mating age -- After the flood -- The ever-popular VH1 Behind the Music artist-hits-bottom act -- Following interest.
Subject headings (LCSH): Autobiographies.; Folds, Ben, 1966-; Rock musicians--United States--Biography.