(Not Really) Suggested Reading: "Fargo Rock City" by Chuck Klosterman (2003)

Fargo Rock City : A Heavy Metal Odyssey in Rural North Dakota by Chuck Klosterman

My rating: 2 of 5 stars


When I picked this book up for $1 at a local thrift shop a few weeks back, I figured that since "Fargo Rock City" author Chuck Klosterman and I grew up a mere 239 miles from each other (Klosterman grew up in Wyndemere, ND and I grew up just a few hours away in Aitkin & Grand Rapids, MN) during the height of the 1980's hard rock/heavy metal explosion, we'd have a bit in common and I'd REALLY enjoy this book. I was wrong. I was only mildly amused and more than somewhat agitated by it.

Not that Klosterman isn't a good writer. Quite the contrary, he is a great writer. He knows how to tell a story and he has a great sense of humor. But the impression I got from reading Klosterman's tales from his metal-drenched teenage years was that at some point after he graduated from high school and went off to college, some of his new poindexter college buddies must have told him "Metal IS NOT cool. It's dumb." And it seems that, although he still professes to love the music he grew up on, he has taken this observation to heart and fully agrees with it.

In almost every instance in this book while he's telling you how great a band is (his favorites seems to be Guns 'N' Roses, Motley Crue and Kiss), two sentences later he's telling you WHY they and their music were dumb. And maybe some of the music some of these bands released WAS dumb. But to read such a whiplash-inducing critique of so many of these bands...it just seemed like Chuck "outgrew" his metal phase, even though he says he still loves the music. But after reading "Fargo Rock City," I can't for the life of me figure out WHY he still loves the genere if he thinks it is so "dumb."

And to make matters worse, he seems to really have been mostly into mainstream pop-hair-metal. Not that that that's a bad thing. But he slams Yngwie Malmsteen. He slams Metallica. Maybe those bands were just a bit too cerebral for youg Chucky to understand. No mention of Slayer or Testament. Oh, L.A. Guns, Warrant (his first concert), Damn Yankees, Stryper, Poison, Dokken, Ratt, they're all here. But no mention of more obscure bands like House of Lords, Icon, Seduce, Fates Warning, Manowar...the list of bands he ignores is long. One of my favorite 80's hair bands, Autograph, is roundly dismissed with two words: "They sucked." Excuse me, but I happen to think that their debut album, "Sign In Please" is maybe one of the finest examples of the hair metal genere. I could go on and on and on, but I won't bore you with my opinions. And that's just it - I guess we each have our own opinions of music and some people's opinions change over the years, sometimes due to the influence of new peer groups.

I realize this review may seem a bit nit-picky, negative, defensive and imature and that's probably the case. But it seems I wasted almost a week reading this book, only to find so many of the bands both Klosterman and I grew up listening to are held in such low esteem by the author now that he's "all grown up." And that does bother me just a bit.

Maybe I'm just a 40-something metal head at heart who will never really grow up (although I HAVE developed other musical tastes in the past 20 years) and as I did when I was in my teenage years, I sometimes feel like an attack on the music of my youth is an attack on me personally. That's how much I loved - and still love - so many of these bands. I've been flying the metal flag for most of my life and I will continue to do so until the day I die I guess. Hard rock and heavy metal are in my blood. It's just the way it is. And when I read some smarty-pants author dismissing the music and bands I still love as "dumb" and "stupid," well, it kinda gets under my skin just a bit.

Others will no doubt find this book amazing reading, and good for them. It certainly got lots of great reviews upon it's release. I, on the other hand, having finished reading the book over a week ago, still find myself a bit worked up over it and insulted by it.

"Fargo Rock City" is NOT the story I thought it would be.