31 Songs
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
31 Songs (published in the United States as Songbook) is a 2003 collection of 26 essays by English writer Nick Hornby about songs and (more often) the particular emotional resonance they carry for him.
The music varies from established classics like Bruce Springsteen and Bob Dylan to independents like Ani DiFranco, Top 40 pop like Nelly Furtado, and a few songs with special meaning only to Hornby. Song by song, Hornby delves into what makes music catchy or classic, and how it can come to play an integral role in a person's emotional life.
Proceeds from the book go to the TreeHouse Trust, a UK charity operating a school for children with autism and communications disorders, which Hornby's son attends; as well as to 826 Valencia, a U.S.-based learning center offering writing workshops and tutoring.
The hardcover edition of Songbook published in the U.S. by McSweeney's includes a CD with 11 of the songs featured in the book. In the UK, Sony released a stand-alone CD, A Selection of Music from 31 Songs, featuring 18 songs.
The paperback edition of Songbook adds a few music-related Hornby essays from other sources.
[edit] Contents
There are 31 songs, but only 26 essays; in a few instances, multiple songs are discussed within a single piece.
- Teenage Fanclub - "Your Love is the Place Where I Come From"
- Bruce Springsteen - "Thunder Road"
- Nelly Furtado - "I'm Like a Bird"
- Led Zeppelin - "Heartbreaker"
- Rufus Wainwright - "One Man Guy"
- Santana - "Samba Pa Ti"
- Rod Stewart - "Mama, You Been On My Mind"
- Bob Dylan - "Can You Please Crawl Out Your Window" / The Beatles - "Rain"
- Ani DiFranco - "You Had Time" / Aimee Mann - "I've Had It"
- Paul Westerberg - "Born for Me"
- Suicide - "Frankie Teardrop" / Teenage Fanclub - "Ain't That Enough"
- J. Geils Band - "First I Look at the Purse"
- Ben Folds Five - "Smoke"
- Badly Drawn Boy - "A Minor Incident" (from the About a Boy movie soundtrack)
- The Bible - "Glorybound"
- Van Morrison - "Caravan"
- Butch Hancock and Marce LaCouture - "So I'll Run"
- Gregory Isaacs - "Puff, the Magic Dragon"
- Ian Dury and the Blockheads - "Reasons to be Cheerful, Part 3" / Richard and Linda Thompson - "Calvary Cross"
- Jackson Browne - "Late for the Sky"
- Mark Mulcahy - "Hey Self-Defeater"
- The Velvelettes - "Needle in a Haystack"
- O.V. Wright - "Let's Straighten It Out"
- Röyksopp - "Röyksopp's Night Out"
- The Avalanches - "Frontier Psychiatrist" / Soulwax - "No Fun" / "Push It"
- The Patti Smith Group - "Pissing in a River"
[edit] Paperback additions
- "It's a Mann's World", a review of Aimee Mann's album Bachelor No. 2, from The New Yorker
- "Alternative Earle", an essay on Steve Earle
- "Sweet Misery"
- "The Entertainers", an essay about the Los Lobos box set El Cancienero Mas Y Mas
- "Pop Quiz"
