Staff Pick
What a great introduction to a new series! I read this in the same 24-hour period during which I watched the new Todd Haynes-directed Velvet Underground documentary, and what an excellent pairing they made for each other. I loved Joshua Clover's poetic style and exciting observations about Roadrunner. The book took surprising turns (Cornershop, M.I.A.) that now look inevitable in the rearview mirror. I will gladly read any and every book in this series. Recommended By Adam P., Powells.com
Synopses & Reviews
Jonathan Richman and the Modern Lovers' 1972 song "Roadrunner" captures the freedom and wonder of cruising down the highway late at night with the radio on. Although the song circles Boston's beltway, its significance reaches far beyond Richman's deceptively simple declarations of love for modern moonlight, the made world, and rock & roll. In Roadrunner, cultural theorist and poet Joshua Clover charts both the song's emotional power and its elaborate history, tracing its place in popular music from Chuck Berry to M.I.A. He also locates "Roadrunner" at the intersection of car culture, industrialization, consumption, mobility, and politics. Like the song itself, Clover tells a story about a particular time and place — the American era that rock & roll signifies — that becomes a story about love and the modern world.
Review
"In this fascinating discursive journey, Clover discusses Boston-area car culture's impact on the lyrics and music of 'Roadrunner' and other road and highway songs; he also laments social changes wrought by the emphasis on industrialization and, more recently, financialization, at the expense of substantive production... Clover demonstrates a sweeping command of his material..." Barry Zaslow, Library Journal
Review
"Roadrunner is incisive, poetic, and full of life, a beautifully circuitous meditation that mirrors how obsessive music fandom feels. Joshua Clover is in his finest critical form here." Jessica Hopper, author of The First Collection of Criticism by a Living Female Rock Critic
About the Author
Joshua Clover is Professor of English and Comparative Literature at the University of California, Davis, and author of Riot. Strike. Riot: The New Era of Uprisings; 1989: Bob Dylan Didn't Have This to Sing About; and other books.