Rock On - By Howard Waldrop Page 0,1

include the last.)

Musicians often play roles in the work of Charles de Lint, but most would not term them rockers. Still, some of the flavor is there, especially in The Onion Girl.

Stephen King—who obviously wanted to grow up to be a rock star—frequently makes references to rock in his novels and it’s integral to at least one short story (“You Know They Have a Helluva Band”). He’s yet to write a novel with music integral to the plot; Christine, however, comes close to having a beat you can dance to.

Author Michael Moorcock has been closely connected to rock through the band Hawkwind and, to a lesser extent Blue Öyster Cult—he wrote lyrics for both, performed with the former as well as other bands—his fiction is often informed by rock, but seldom about it. Even though his enduring character Elric is the epitome of a rock-and-roll nihilist anti-hero, he’s not a rock star. Another Moorcock character, Jerry Cornelius, manages to get involved in the music business in a non-genre novel written based on the the Sex Pistols mockumentary movie The Great Rock ’n’ Roll Swindle.

Another nongenre novel, Spider Kiss (originally Rockabilly), was one of the first (1961) fictional dissections of rock-and-roll’s ruinous lifestyle; it tells of the rise and fall of a manufactured rocker. Written pre-Beatles when rock looked like a passing fad (Buddy Holly died in 1959, Little Richard sang gospel from 1957-1962, Elvis Presley was in the army between March 1958 and March 1960, Jerry Lee Lewis was in disgrace, Alan Freed’s career was over due to a payola scandal . . . ) it presents an interesting perspective.

The Bordertown series of anthologies, although not novels, should also be noted. [Will Shetterly’s YA novels Elsewhere (1992) and Nevernever (1993) also take place in the invented world, as does Emma Bull’s Finder (2003).] The stories are set in a world, created by Terri Windling, “where magic meets rock and roll.” In this city bordering both the human and the faerie worlds, neither magic nor technology follow any rules. Bordertown is famous for its music, and you can find just about any kind, but rock of many varieties is an important part of the mix. After a thirteen-year hiatus since the previous volume, anthology Welcome to Bordertown, edited by Holly Black and Ellen Kushner, was published in 2011.

Track 5: “(Don’t Even) Start Me Up”

Since this is an anthology of fiction, I’m not going to get into speculative fiction’s influence on rock—trust me, there’s plenty of it. Science fiction fed rock from Sheb Wooley’s “Purple People Eater” to David Bowie’s The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars to Parliament’s Mothership Connection to Radiohead’s OK Computer to Nine Inch Nails’ Year Zero to Janelle Monáe’s The ArchAndroid . . . and continues to do so.

The same with fantasy: prog rock could never have progged without it, Led Zeppelin must have smoked J. R. R. Tolkien, Robert E. Howard still lives in heavy metal, H. P. Lovecraft has inspired numerous bands, and Alice Cooper was only the first to personify dark fantasy on stage with a backbeat. Hell, the roots of rock are tangled in fantasy: Robert Johnson supposedly met the devil at a crossroads and worried about a hellhound on his trail.

And no, I will not discuss “wrock.”

Track 6: “Don’t Get Me Wrong”

There are minor aspects to some of the older stories herein that demonstrate that speculation is just that: speculating. Who needs sockets in a wireless world? Digitized recording, downloads, Guitar Hero, Garage Band, iPods, and smartphones that can hold 28,000 songs, do-it-yourself distribution—who knew? Ultimately, old tech doesn’t affect the heart and soul of any of these stories and there’s still tech-yet-to-come (maybe) in many, in others the speculation has been at least somewhat fulfilled. Of course there’s supernatural doings in some stories—but rock itself is magical and transformative.

Track 7: “Are You Experienced?”

[Test . . . test . . . one, two, three . . . rock and rollll!]

Welcome to the first (and, so far, only) anthology ever of science fiction and fantasy stories about rock and roll . . . although about may not be the proper word. Some of the stories are certainly about rock, others are more informed by the music, but rock and roll is integral to them all. Like the music itself, some stories are nice and easy, but some of these go to eleven . . . or maybe twelve.

Horns up!

Paula Guran

June 2012

Flying Saucer Rock and Roll

Howard Waldrop

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