Summary: Focuses on the boyfriends, husbands, bandmates, exes, heroes, celebrities, fathers, sons, and even complete strangers who inspired 50 of rock's greatest songs. There are minibiographies of each muse-- some short and sad, others longer and inspirational.
Booklist Reviews
The authors follow up The Girl in the Song (2010) with this obligatory—but also entertaining—sequel. It's pretty well known that Eric Clapton's "Tears in Heaven" was written about his son (who died tragically at the age of four), and that the Jude in the Beatles' "Hey Jude" was Julian Lennon, but the genesis of some other hit songs, while not hidden, hasn't become common knowledge. When Springsteen sang about "Bobby Jean," he was making reference to guitarist Steve Van Zandt, an old friend and E-Street Band colleague; the "you" in Dolly Parton's "I Will Always Love You" was country-music legend Porter Wagoner (although their relationship was professional, not sexual); Boy George wrote "Do You Really Want to Hurt Me" about Culture Club's drummer, Jon Moss. The authors also look at some songs whose references aren't clear: Carly Simon's "You're So Vain," for example, is commonly thought to be about Warren Beatty, but there are other likely candidates; and Alanis Morissette's "You Oughta Know" could be about several guys (including Full House's David Coulier or former NHL player Mike Peluso). Perfect fodder for a rock-trivia game and a nice companion piece to the first book. Stand by for The Kid in the Song? Copyright 2012 Booklist Reviews.
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