“So what kind of music do you listen to?”
Such a loaded question. It was an all-important question in school. Think carefully now. Your reputation is on the line as well as your standing in the community and possibly your entire identity.
Here at Fish Out of Water Books, we love music and we love stories. So what could be better than true life tales centered around all things music?.
We are looking for true life tales: coming-of-age, slice-of-life, and anecdotes based around music—not about the music and bands, but tales of your own exploits and escapades around the music. Poignant, humorous, weird and wacky. Road trips. Concerts. Good drugs. Bad Drugs. Cups of tea. The importance of owning the right records, not owning the wrong records, having the right band logo on your school bag or knowing the exact track list for a specific album. And—if you’re as old as us—recording songs off the TV while telling your mum “shhhhhh . . . quit talking . . . mum, I’m trying to record a song. Aarggh! Bloody ‘ell, mum, you’ve ruined it!”
If music is an important part of your life: if you spent way too much time and money at used record shops or loved to rifle through friends’ record collections; if you went a ton of concerts and got up to some nutso crap; if you’re in (or were in) a band and have a crazy on-the-road story — send us a short story and help us build a “repository for musos” where we can celebrate the fact that this trivial, ephemeral noise can in fact mean everything.
“Around the Music” is a complete labor of love and we are not able to offer payment to contributors—nor do we intend to profit in any way. Our goal is simply to share entertaining stories about something to which we can all relate: a love of music; and stories; and stories based around music. We will promote your story here on our website, share it across our social media platforms and e-mail list, and generally sing your praises from the mountaintops.
Submit your true life tale — anywhere from a couple of paragraphs up to 2,000 words as a rough guide — to us at fowbooks@gmail.com along with a brief bio, (optional) photo(s). Pics from “back in the day” would be brilliant!
To keep up with the latest “Around the Music” happenings, give us a “like” on Facebook and sign up for our e-mail list.
- In “1984,” a slumber party revelation led twelve-year-old PATTI F. SMITH and her best friend on a quest to see the five “members” of Duran Duran go “doing!”
- Did you know that Morrissey helped JULIE HAMILL to deliver the newspapers in Airdrie, Scotland, in 1983? Read all about it in “THE SMITHS: THE SOUND OF THE PAPER ROUND.”
- BILL KOPP describes how Lynyrd Skynyrd helped save him and his bandmates’ hides in 1980s Kennesaw, GA in “MY WORST GIG EVER.”
- “We think of music as part of a collective experience . . . but for me, discovering a band was like eyeballing a new surreptitious corridor in a dusty old mansion.” In “ONE ON ONE: FURTIVE MUSIC,” NATHAN LESLIE takes us on a musical journey through his high school years, providing important advice such as: avoid the “grits” and never proclaim your love for Simon and Garfunkel out in public.
- In 1978, ABBA sang “If you change your mind, I’m the first in line.” Eleven-year-old JON WILSON didn’t quite hear it that way. Read “TAKING A CHANCE ON AGNETHA.”