What I've Read: Fargo Rock City

About two weeks ago my Summer of Klosterman came to an end. It was a great ride, but it had to end since I ran out of books. And there was no better way to end the journey than starting at the beginning with Chuck's first book.

Fargo Rock City is mainly his autobiography of growing up in the '80s in North Dakota. More specifically, it's about his unabashed love for metal music that sustained him while growing up in the '80s in North Dakota. This is book is definitely geared toward a certain crowd. You have to have grown up and loved Motley Crue, Poison, Ratt, Warrant, Skid Row and various other
one-hit wonder bands. Also means you have to appreciate the godfather of them all, Guns n Roses. All of these bands, and many more, bring back memories of my childhood.

• Listening to Mr. Brownstone for the first time in Ben's basement and having no idea what Axl was so excited about (apparently it was 8,000 pounds of cocaine).


• Hanging out at Scott's listening to the Misfits and Danzig and the first time I was coerced into holding a snake on my arm and promptly wanting to piss my pants and vomit.


• Watching Headbanger's Ball on MTV on weekends at Aaron's place, then watching late-night ECW wrestling and nearly breaking everyone's backs with poorly executed wrestling moves.


• Smoking our first cigarettes at the ridiculously stupid age of 11 down at The Creek and listening to AC/DC.
  
  
• Being in the 8th grade and having the my graduating class vote for Skid Row's "I'll Remember You" to be our graduation song. This was an annual tradition at St. Raphael and ours was the first year in memory that the school overrode our vote. The principal chose for us and picked some shitty Kenny Rogers song. It sure as hell wasn't The Gambler, which would have rocked. We pseudo-protested by everyone not singing the song at the end of graduation per tradition, and when we had the party afterward we rocked Skid Row and GnR and everything else all night, and also cheered when our pregnant classmate arrived (oh yeah, she was 14 and pregnant and barred from being in the graduation ceremony in the church). Classy times.

This was just a skimming of the times I had growing up listening to metal. It was the mid-80s that first introduced me to Aerosmith, my favorite band of all time, and that Klosterman lavishes praise on for influencing every metal band that arrived in the 80s. Nice to see my choice in music validated.

It's a great book, and any guy (or girl) who was born in the '70s should read it because there will definitely be a chapter (or five) that resonate strongly with you. It's great stuff, and it definitely made me start re-listening to some of these bands again, for better or worse.