A Dream About Lightning Bugs: A Life of Music and Cheap Lessons
(Adobe EPUB eBook, Kindle Book, OverDrive Read)
“A Dream About Lightning Bugs reads like its author: intelligent, curious, unapologetically punk, and funny as hell.”—Sara Bareilles
NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY NPR AND PASTE
Ben Folds is a celebrated American singer-songwriter, beloved for songs such as “Brick,” “You Don’t Know Me,” “Rockin’ the Suburbs,” and “The Luckiest,” and is the former frontman of the alternative rock band Ben Folds Five. But Folds will be the first to tell you he’s an unconventional icon, more normcore than hardcore. Now, in his first book, Folds looks back at his life so far in a charming and wise chronicle of his artistic coming of age, infused with the wry observations of a natural storyteller.
In the title chapter, “A Dream About Lightning Bugs,” Folds recalls his earliest childhood dream—and realizes how much it influenced his understanding of what it means to be an artist. In “Measure Twice, Cut Once” he learns to resist the urge to skip steps during the creative process. In “Hall Pass” he recounts his 1970s North Carolina working-class childhood, and in “Cheap Lessons” he returns to the painful life lessons he learned the hard way—but that luckily didn’t kill him.
In his inimitable voice, both relatable and thought-provoking, Folds digs deep into the life experiences that shaped him, imparting hard-earned wisdom about both art and life. Collectively, these stories embody the message Folds has been singing about for years: Smile like you’ve got nothing to prove, because it hurts to grow up, and life flies by in seconds.
Praise for A Dream About Lightning Bugs
“Besides being super talented, and an incredibly poignant and multifaceted musician, Ben Folds is a fantastic author. I couldn’t put this book down—and not just because I taped it to my hand. Ben takes us into his mind and into his process from the very beginnings of his childhood to where he is today—one of the greatest musicians and writers that has ever graced the art.”—Bob Saget
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Ben Folds. (2019). A Dream About Lightning Bugs: A Life of Music and Cheap Lessons. Random House Publishing Group.
Chicago / Turabian - Author Date Citation (style guide)Ben Folds. 2019. A Dream About Lightning Bugs: A Life of Music and Cheap Lessons. Random House Publishing Group.
Chicago / Turabian - Humanities Citation (style guide)Ben Folds, A Dream About Lightning Bugs: A Life of Music and Cheap Lessons. Random House Publishing Group, 2019.
MLA Citation (style guide)Ben Folds. A Dream About Lightning Bugs: A Life of Music and Cheap Lessons. Random House Publishing Group, 2019.
| Library | Owned | Available |
|---|---|---|
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- bioText: Ben Folds is an American musician who has created an enormous body of genre-bending music that includes pop albums with Ben Folds Five, multiple solo albums, a classical piano concerto, and collaborations with artists ranging from Regina Spektor to William Shatner. Folds, who was also a judge for five seasons on NBC’s acclaimed a capella show The Sing-Off, was named the first ever artistic advisor to the National Symphony Orchestra at the Kennedy Center in 2017. He is an outspoken champion for arts education and music therapy, serving on the distinguished Artist Committee of Americans for the Arts, and as chairman of the national ArtsVote 2020 initiative.
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- NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • From the genre-defying icon Ben Folds comes a memoir that is as nuanced, witty, and relatable as his cult-classic songs.
“A Dream About Lightning Bugs reads like its author: intelligent, curious, unapologetically punk, and funny as hell.”—Sara Bareilles
NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY NPR AND PASTE
Ben Folds is a celebrated American singer-songwriter, beloved for songs such as “Brick,” “You Don’t Know Me,” “Rockin’ the Suburbs,” and “The Luckiest,” and is the former frontman of the alternative rock band Ben Folds Five. But Folds will be the first to tell you he’s an unconventional icon, more normcore than hardcore. Now, in his first book, Folds looks back at his life so far in a charming and wise chronicle of his artistic coming of age, infused with the wry observations of a natural storyteller.
In the title chapter, “A Dream About Lightning Bugs,” Folds recalls his earliest childhood dream—and realizes how much it influenced his understanding of what it means to be an artist. In “Measure Twice, Cut Once” he learns to resist the urge to skip steps during the creative process. In “Hall Pass” he recounts his 1970s North Carolina working-class childhood, and in “Cheap Lessons” he returns to the painful life lessons he learned the hard way—but that luckily didn’t kill him.
In his inimitable voice, both relatable and thought-provoking, Folds digs deep into the life experiences that shaped him, imparting hard-earned wisdom about both art and life. Collectively, these stories embody the message Folds has been singing about for years: Smile like you’ve got nothing to prove, because it hurts to grow up, and life flies by in seconds.
Praise for A Dream About Lightning Bugs
“Besides being super talented, and an incredibly poignant and multifaceted musician, Ben Folds is a fantastic author. I couldn’t put this book down—and not just because I taped it to my hand. Ben takes us into his mind and into his process from the very beginnings of his childhood to where he is today—one of the greatest musicians and writers that has ever graced the art.”—Bob Saget - reviews
- premium: False
- source: Sara Bareilles
- content: "A Dream About Lightning Bugs reads like its author: intelligent, curious, unapologetically punk, and funny as hell. This intimate look at his life from his own unique perspective is a rare and unforgettable gift that does what Ben Folds always has done for me as an artist and a friend: encourages me to be more myself, with a lot of swear words."
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July 1, 2019
A memoir of sex, drugs, and rock 'n' roll that's long on wry humor and short on--well, sex, drugs, and rock 'n' roll. North Carolina-raised Folds describes himself, with a kind of literary crooked smile, as the sort of person who's likely to be seen pacing around in his boxer shorts in his front yard, coffee cup in hand, working out the lyrics or melody to one of his songs. A master of the short story in song--see "Army" on the 1999 album The Unauthorized Biography of Reinhold Messner--Folds writes of growing up obsessed by music and bursting with creativity, which landed him in a psychologist's office in a blue-collar South in which " 'artsy' things would normally have been written off as being 'for queers.' " A fierce advocate and ally was his mother, who, with his father, indulged him "as I terrorized the household with painfully long sessions of repeated phrases at the piano or snare drum." Clearly gifted, he enrolled in an alternative high school with patient music teachers. Later in the book, the author encourages his fellow musicians to take up the cause of music teachers "unless you really believe you learned nothing from them," in which case, he gamely ventures, they should take up the cause of reforming anti-marijuana laws. There are nice notes throughout the text, including an early pledge to himself not to perform anyone's songs but his own and the excitement of releasing his first album, which, he writes, might not be a masterpiece but still found his band, Ben Folds Five, giving their all: "From then on we would only do exactly what felt right." What felt right led him to a kind of cult-classic status, to say nothing of friendships with the likes of Neil Gaiman and William Shatner, the latter of whom provides some entertaining anecdotes. Ultimately, Folds delivers an amiable and low-key memoir without the tawdry pyrotechnics of most rock biographies. A pleasure for fans and encouragement for novices to tune in.COPYRIGHT(2019) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
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July 15, 2019
In these delightful reflections, singer-songwriter Folds explores the ways in which music shaped his life and offers glimpses into the process of making music. At age three, he dreamed of a jar of fireflies; looking back, he realizes that the glowing jar is an image of his view of artistry and art: “making art is about following what’s luminous to you and putting it in a jar, to share with others.” Folds weaves in autobiography, from growing up in 1970s Greensboro, N.C., and his years at the University of Miami (he dropped out just credits shy of graduation), to his early days of making music in Nashville in the 1990s, and his world tours with the Ben Fold Five and on his own. Along the way, Folds ruminates on songwriting: “often the music fools me into something I’d rather not have revealed lyrically.” With self-deprecating humor, he characterizes himself as a singer who was forced to sing: “I had to grow a pair, or lose a pair, whatever—it’s all so confusing.” Folds’s fans will take great pleasure in this charming and insightful memoir.
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June 21, 2019
The world may not need another memoir describing how a "male, middle-class, and white" musician made it in the record industry, but at least this one is written with the same charming self-awareness that Ben Folds brings to his music. In 1997, an earnest piano-based ballad about a teenage couple's decision to get an abortion became an unlikely rock radio hit for Chapel Hill, NC, trio Ben Folds Five. Folds tells the story of the relationship that begat the song "Brick" and reveals other events that informed his particular brand of punk-inspired piano rock. Bespectacled music nerd Folds may not fit the mold of the stereotypical rock front man, but his determination to turn his musical obsession into a career is inspiring. Folds gives credit to those who helped him along the way, such as his hardworking parents and school music teachers. VERDICT Folds's memoir is much like his songwriting--straightforward, wickedly smart, and with a heavy dose of self-deprecating humor.--Amanda Westfall, Emmet O'Neal P.L., Mountain Brook, AL
Copyright 2019 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
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“A Dream About Lightning Bugs reads like its author: intelligent, curious, unapologetically punk, and funny as hell.”—Sara Bareilles
NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY NPR AND PASTE
Ben Folds is a celebrated American singer-songwriter, beloved for songs such as “Brick,” “You Don’t Know Me,” “Rockin’ the Suburbs,” and “The Luckiest,” and is the former frontman of the alternative rock band Ben Folds Five. But Folds will be the first to tell you he’s an unconventional icon, more normcore than hardcore. Now, in his first book, Folds looks back at his life so far in a charming and wise chronicle of his artistic coming of age, infused with the wry observations of a natural... - sortTitle
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