'Turn Around Bright Eyes: The Rituals of Love and Karaoke' by Rob Sheffield
Rob Sheffield is the kind of true-blue music nerd who'll pause in his latest memoir - one with a subtitle promising a book about "the rituals of love & karaoke" - to address the topic of Rod Stewart.
by Rob Sheffield
It Books
3.5 stars
Mikael Wood
Rob Sheffield is the kind of true-blue music nerd who'll pause in his latest memoir - one with a subtitle promising a book about "the rituals of love & karaoke" - to address the topic of Rod Stewart.
Not how much he loves Stewart - rather, his chapter on the singer, titled Hot Legs, examines Stewart's merry progression from "a rambling rock&roll rogue" to "an LA roué trapped in (a) crusty catsuit".
Hot Legs contains other insights into Stewart and his music, not to mention a level-headed takedown of the infamous stomach-pump story that's trailed the singer for decades. Sheffield demonstrates that Stewart's journey is in fact an allegory for how a man maintains a successful marriage: Hot Legs is all about the rituals of love.
Turn Around Bright Eyes is a kind of sequel to Love is a Mix Tape, Sheffield's 2007 debut book about life after the tragic death of his wife. What's remarkable about this new work is how deep he gets writing about how karaoke - bellowing pop songs to the accompaniment of canned backing tracks - lifted him out of his existential gloom.
He examines the healing power of communal singing and wonders why certain songs (most of them by Bon Jovi) work so well in this setting. And, as in the chapter about Stewart, he follows thoughts that start out in some dingy karaoke bar down unexpected paths. There are funny, touching passages here about his parents, his stint at LA's Rock'n'Roll Fantasy Camp and his eventual courtship of another woman.