Hey! Nietzsche! Leave Them Kids Alone!

by Craig Schuftan

Hey! Nietzsche! Leave them Kids Alone! Why do goths wear black? Why do rock singers make that 'jesus' shape on stage? Why do songs about death and despair make us feel good? And why can't you get no satisfaction? According to Craig Schuftan, it all began about two hundred years ago. HEY, NIETZSCHE! is the first book to uncover the hidden roots of rock and roll in the romantic movement. Schuftan picks up a clue in My Chemical Romance's 'Welcome the Black Parade', and follows it into a world where Keats meets the Cure, Wordsworth hangs with Weezer, and Byron exchanges haughty glances with Bowie. From Schopenhauer's darkest days to Queen's greatest hits, HEY, NIEtZSCHE! is a wild ride through the nineteenth century with the best mix-tape in the world on the car stereo.

Genres: Music, Nonfiction, Philosophy, History

358 pages

First published January 1, 2009

About the author

Author, broadcaster, radio producer from Sydney, Australia

Reviews

[Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hey! Nietzsche! Leave them kids alone!: The Romantic Movement, Rock & Roll, And The End Of Civilisation As We Know It by Craig Schuftan is a non fiction book on the links between The Romantic Movement and Modern Rock music. I absolutely loved this book, it took me 6 months to read because of all the research I did along with it. But I now have a new found obsession with the Romantic Movement and have been reading a lot of great poems from the period.

This book is on the top of my Non Fiction List.

[Kate Walton · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting premise, but it jumped around too much to keep me focused - Gerard Way to David Bowie to Nietzsche to Way to Wagner to Bowie to Way, etc etc. Could have done with better structure. I also probably needed more background knowledge on the Romantic poets and writers to properly benefit from this book.

[Hugh Treharne]

Who knew, the romantic period gave birth to emo

[E. · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was genuinely intruiged by this. I enjoy romantics from time to time, I love all kinds of rock music and I am a sucker for intertextual analysis— all if done well, of course. Sadly, this book left a lot to be desired. Instead of an organised insight into the development from romantic poetry to ‚emo’ music, this book is a series of fragmented anecdotes, jumping back and forth between time periods, places and genres. While I do understand a lot of the parallels the author draws, the whole thing would have seriously benefitted from a more systematic approach with proper analytic structure and chapters and sub-chapters. As it is, there are a lot of comparisons drawn, but also a lot of connections that should have been mentioned, but are not. I understand the constraints of a book, but the selections seem at points almost random.

Unlike other reviewers, I do not mind the very obvious focus on My Chemical Romance. (All of the focus points seem mostly selected based on the authors preferences, not necessarily because they were outstandingly poignant.) But I cannot excuse the blatant Ray Toro erasure when talking about MCR’s beginning: "He, his brother Mikey and neighbourhood friend Frank Iero banded together as My Chemical Romance. Their mission? ‘To deal with the post-traumatic stress disorder of 9/11.’"

Overall there seems to be a tendency to reduce bands to their lead-singers and in turn the song lyrics (or poems) are always presented as the singers (poets) personal thoughts and experiences. This surely is the case sometimes, but other times a differentiation between author and the lyrical subject of a work would have been useful.

Finally, I have to be slightly nitpick with the German:
1. The Berlin district which was home to Isherwood and later Bowie and Iggy Pop is called Schöneberg, not Schoneburg.
2. ß ("große[…] Schmerzen") can be typographically replaced with ss, not sz.
3. ü ("Künstler") can be typographically replaced with ue, not u.

On a different note, this book keeps coming back to the downfall of rockstars and in particular the death of the Black Parade. It would be interesting to hear the authors perspective on this now that MCR have basically revived the Black Parade and also added tons of new lore, with a lot of totalitarian aesthetics, which would fit in well with this book’s section on fascism (in which Wagner is suspiciously absent, even though he was discussed at length in previous sections).

[Xanthi · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fascinating read . I found myself engrossed. I got a bit bogged down here and there but overall, the pages flew by. This isn’t just another book about music. There’s a whole lot more going on here - philosophy, art movements, politics, history, films, literature, architecture... The author segues from one to the next in such a fluid manner.
But at the core of all this is My Chemical Romance. The author keeps coming back to this band and one song of theirs in particular. That was a problem for me, as I had never heard any of their music. I had heard of them but just to heard their music. The author also keeps circling back to Weezer and I’ve only heard one of their songs. Almost all the rest - no problem. I was either familiar or a fan. The exception was Magazine’s “Song from under the floorboards “.
So I had to educate myself. Book paused, I listened to the music. I discovered that emo is not for me. MCR and AFI are not for me. But Magazine proved to be a winner, so all was not lost.
Despite these discoveries of where my musical tastes lean towards or away from, I still found this book worth reading and I am now going to have to track down the author’s other books.

[Gwen Chavarria · Rating 3 out of 5]

This isn't the type of book I would normally select, but I read it on a recommendation from Wisecrack. I learned a lot about the thinking of romantic era philosophers and artists, and how certain modern musicians can find their roots in that romantic era thinking rings true. But still, the attitude in both centuries is despairing and hopeless, and I just want to shake them and tell them that they are created noble souls, that they have positive contributions to make to the world so, in short, arise.

On a more pedestrian level, the book is well written except for one frequent and distracting weirdness, the use of "lead" as the past tense of lead, which, of course should be "led," not the metal. I wonder why the editor said nothing about this.

[Yani · Rating 2 out of 5]

Originally reviewed on my LibraryThing account:

Not bad, although in the end it somewhat ends up being a love letter to My Chemical Romance. It seems a little bit all over the place in parts though, but interesting enough.

[Liz · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent read for anyone interested in the story of rock & roll and how one artist influences many.

[Jay · Rating 3 out of 5]

This isn't as good as The Culture Club, but it's entertaining enough. I read it at an excellent time, because I was taking a course of Romanticism. It helped explain and introduce the ideas/texts of the Romantics, and the comparisons to modern music assisted my understanding. Let's just hope I don't fail the exam I've yet to take.

[Sharon]

Intresting, and at times quite funny. This woman makes me feel, that I'm not so bad a mother, and I'm not the only one who thinks the way I do.

Maybe the fact that my kids are not at the teenage stage, means that I can't relate to this book as well as I may have if I had teens.

[Rachael Wilson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved it!

Didn't always did the Emo music references, but it was a fantastic historical and philosophical introduction to the significance of the Romantic movement.


Recommend... If you can get hold of a copy

[Tess · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was... well, it was interesting. I really enjoyed the read but it didn't really seem to go anywhere. It was like an essay in novel-form. Worth the read though.

[Mark · Rating 3 out of 5]

Worth the rad but the guys My Chemical Romance obsession gets a bit tiring