Friday, January 9, 2009

Getting in Tune by Roger Trott


It’s the fall of 1976, and 20-year-old guitarist Daniel Travers’s life is a mess. His band, the Killjoys, is essentially going nowhere; the pills he’s popping are making him crazy; and the voices banging around his head have him convinced that he’s a bleedin’ quadropheniac. On top of everything, what he calls the Real Me, his true self, has disappeared—and he’s lost without it. Then the phone rings, a new agent offering a weeklong gig at the exotic Mai Tai Hotel, in Puente Harbor, Washington. Told by the agent that Jimi Hendrix and Heart started out at the Mai Tai, Daniel sees the gig as his best chance to get the Killjoys on the road to success—and also to ditch his own troubles. Getting in Tune is a novel that captures the fire of the rock ‘n’ roll dream as well as the dream that music can transcend chaos, that it can bring perfection to our daily mess. And for Daniel, it’s about finding—as his unlikely guru, the Who’s Pete Townshend, whispers to him—the Universal Chord, the perfect set of notes that blesses life with essential harmony. A book full of the low grit of small-club rock ‘n’ roll and the high spirit that the music soars upon, Getting in Tune captures the fire of the rock ’n’ roll dream as well as the tantalizing notion that music can transcend chaos, that it can bring perfection to our messy lives.
Meghan Harvey says that Getting in Tune “is one of those music books that are about as necessary to any book collection as Houses of The Holy is to any album collection”. This book definitely is a music lover’s must read. Although I must admit I’m definitely not a guru when it comes to rock and roll, Roger Trott’s insight into the subject was fascinating to read. I, along with the main character, Daniel, have a great love of music and use it to get us through hard times. Trott’s writing was simple and concise, showing what it’s really like to be in a band, clearly written from personal experience. If you love rock and roll and a great read, then Getting in Tune is the book for you.

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