Stay Fanatic!!! Hectic Expectorations For The Music Obsessive

by Henry Rollins

Fanatic! Thank you for getting this book. I wanted to take this space to tell you about how it came to be. You might remember Fanatic! volumes 1-3, which were published between 2004 and 2007. I had a radio show at a station called Indie 103.1. I was there from 2004 to early 2009 when they signed off. I made extensive notes for each show and annotated each song. I thought that they might be useful for people who were curious about music and they were really fun to write. The Fanatic! books were comprised of these notes. When Indie closed its doors in 2009, I felt bad for the station and that all the people who had put so much into making it great were suddenly out of a job. Selfishly, I felt bad for myself as I really dug having a radio show. Playing music for people is something I’ve always liked. Having this as an actual job was incredible. Whenever I’d get a letter from someone who said they appreciated the show, it made my day. The idea that someone would take the time to check out the broadcast and actually liked it was the best thing. I started missing my radio show as soon as it was over. A few days after Indie was history, I was rescued by Jason Bentley at 89.9 FM KCRW. He wrote and asked if I wanted a show at the station. Scarcely able to believe my good fortune, I replied immediately in the affirmative. By April of 2009, I was gainfully employed there and at the time of this writing, still am. I never know when I’ll be terminated but so far, Engineer X (my long standing sonic ally who I started with at Indie) and I seem to be in good standing with the bosses and haven’t been called into the office for a talk. I like being on KCRW. It’s where I learned how to do a radio show from the great Deirdre O’Donoghue, on her show SNAP, in the 1980s. Whenever I’m live at KCRW, I sit pretty much where I did when I was learning from her. You couldn’t imagine a better person to learn how to do a radio show from. If you have ever heard our show and liked it, the good parts are what I learned from Deirdre. I’ll tell you more about her some time. Since I was back in harness, I wondered if I should keep up the writing like I had been doing at Indie. There was no way I wouldn’t do some kind of pre-show notes but I thought they should be different. I found that I really liked writing about music, so I kept on typing up brief show notes, which I still do every week. However, I wanted to write about music beyond what I was doing for the radio show. I wanted to take advantage of the fact that I’ve been collecting records, flyers, set lists, clip- pings and other music related materials since the late 1970s. I wanted to be able to scan these pieces as images, imbed them on pages and write about them. I wanted to take the reader into a world of obsessive gathering and organizing. Otherwise, this stuff just sits in acid-free environments, for the most part, unseen. I also wanted to detail the record stores I go to all over the world, the epic searches I’ve embarked on to locate records and music related items, the shows I’ve been to, and so on. Basically a life of being a total music Fanatic. So, how to do it? I tried to come up with ideas as to how to put all the enthusiasm I had for music and records into a format that would be fun for me to write and enjoyable for someone to read. Over a period of several months, I made many attempts but didn’t like the results. Yet, the desire to write about music Fanatically wouldn’t leave me alone! At some point in 2013, I was finally able to get some traction. What I want to do, whenever possible, is to get in as deep as I can, to follow my obsession with records–different pressings, picture sleeves and a lot of the small facts that come with almost any release, write about it, show you images and provide way too much information.

Genres: Music

315 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2019

About the author

Henry Rollins (born Henry Lawrence Garfield; often referred to simply as Rollins) is an American singer-songwriter, spoken word artist, author, actor and publisher.

After joining the short-lived Washington, D.C. band State of Alert in 1980, Rollins fronted the Californian hardcore punk band Black Flag from 1981 until 1986. Following the band's breakup, Rollins soon established the record label and publishing company 2.13.61 to release his spoken word albums, as well as forming the Rollins Band, which toured with a number of lineups until 2003 and during 2006.

Since Black Flag, Rollins has embarked on projects covering a variety of media. He has hosted numerous radio shows, such as The Henry Rollins Show and Harmony In My Head, and television shows, such as MTV's 120 Minutes and Jackass, along with roles in several films. Rollins has also campaigned for human rights in the United States, promoting gay rights in particular, and tours overseas with the United Service Organizations to entertain American troops.

Reviews

[Sheena Forsberg · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well worth the read although I’m not even remotely as big a music nut as Rollins. Strikes me as a love letter to the music that shaped him +lots of fun info on his impressive collection. Like everything he writes this is also highly personal and surprisingly insightful. It has made me want to search out a lot of music I’ve missed +re-listen to the music I’ve enjoyed before. Can’t wait for the next installment.

[Shaun · Rating 5 out of 5]

This one was excellent and inspiring for me. I hold music to the same values. Music is better than people.

[Jennifer · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a fellow music fanatic, I find nothing more enjoyable than sharing that passion with others. Rollins does this with style, insight, and personal reflection throughout the book. His writing captures in the moment journal entries which makes it feel like he is right there with you in the room as you read. I enjoy his openness about his own personal journey which is about the music but so much more. The only downside is how many additional records I have now included in my wish list (insert frustrated sigh here).

[Joe · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reading this book really helped me to find some great music I had never heard before. It also reinvigorated my love of music. I really enjoyed this book, and look forward to re-reading it in a couple years to dig into it even more.

[Benjamin Van Buren · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fanatic! I’ve been reading Rollins’ books since I was 16 and there’s nothing better then when he’s talking about the music he loves and why. I kept ordering albums throughout the reading of this book (Adverts, Klaus Schulze, three Buzzcocks albums!) due to how passionately ol’ Hank wrote about them. This is a continuation of his ‘Fanatic’ book series (also great) and I’ll keep reading these as often as he puts them out. And he autographs all the pre-ordered copies so that was a nice little bonus.

[Matt Micucci · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really dig Henry Rollins and find his excitement for music not only infectious but inspiring. And that's the beauty of this book, through which he shamelessly shares his obsessive love for music - particularly of punk rock - and his close relationship to his expansive record collection. Sure, there's only so much reading about details on different vinyl editions of a record you can read about. But I find it awesome to know that there's someone like Rollins, who truly cares.