I Shot a Man in Reno

Reviews / Votes

Compelling...Divided into chapters covering everything from the common teenage penchant for suicide songs to the evolution of murder ballads and gangsta rap, Thomson displays considerable knowledge of music past and present. * Publishers Weekly * Rock songs...are as much about death as they are about love, argues Greame Thomson in his brilliant I Shot a Man In Reno. -- Henry Carrigan * ForeWord * Over the course of this thoughtful essay, Thomson... is a surefooted guide through the musical graveyard. His writing is never dry or academic, but he smartly puts each song into its sociological and psychological context. It's fascinating to see how concepts of death changed over the decades, as Thomson points out trends such as the explosion of death songs during the psychedelic era.... He makes excellent use of quotes from some A-list songwriters; he interviewed Mick Jagger, Paul McCartney, Will Oldham and Nick Cave, and he draws on other sources for remarks from other musicians..... At first, it may seem puzzling that songs on this grim topic have become hits and even popular standards, but Thomson persuasively shows that death very much belongs in pop music. * Signal To Noise * It's evident from I Shot A Man in Reno that author Graeme Thomson possesses an undying obsession with songs of mortality. To pursue the subject through such terrain as murder ballads, gangsta rap and '50s teen schmaltz, and to make it a topic of conversation with musicians ranging from Ron Sexsmith to Ice-T, one almost has to. ...The book becomes increasingly compelling with each grim avenue it explores.Thomson's well-organized essays provocatively plumb everything from rock n' roll's self-destruction myth to funeral top 10s (really!), but the book is at its strongest when the author supports his own thoughts with those of his interviewees. While the casual, colloquial prose is far from deathless, better musical surveys are hard to find, and the results are positively life affirming. -- Reid Davis * Paste Magazine * The long subtitle is a tad inaccurate. This isn't a history; it's a commentary. Damned good one, too, by a journalist who knows his stuff and struts it by spanning recorded death ditties from the English folk song "John Barleycorn," which covers its morbidity by "really" being about growing and preparing the ingredients of beer, to gangsta rap. Refreshingly, he refrains from rock-critic snideness in chapters focused on the teen death songs of the 1950s and 1960s, murder ballads, metaphysical trips to the other side from the high '60s, suicide songs, afterlife musings, gangsta's urban reclamation of the murder song, and mourning songs. He wisely sticks to the genuinely demotic song tradition, ignoring the so-called classic popular songs of Tin Pan Alley and the musical theater (the work of schooled composers), and primarily to the products of that tradition's commercial devolution since the rise of sound recording. Enthralling from the first page, he guarantees rereaders with a penultimate chapter on Europe's top 10 funeral songs and an appendix of his own, an annotated top 40 of death. -- Ray Olson * Booklist * [Thomson] moves beyond profile to entertain readers with the long-running and continually fascinating story of deadly mayhem as narrated in song lyrics...his fascination with the lyrics comes with a dry sense of humor, making the subject just as much fun for readers. * Bloomsbury Review * it's short and readable though intelligent and erudite. -- Tommy Udo * Classic Rock Magazine , 1 february 2009 * Through brilliant prose and exhaustive research, [Thomson] presents a potted cultural history which argues that songs about death reveal just as much about how we live... In addition to his own articulate and persuasive thoughts, Thomson's interviews with top table musos such as Paul McCartney, Nick Cave, Richard Thompson and Neil Finn result in one of the most informative and fulfilling music books you're ever likely to read. An essential volume for anyone interested in pop as an all-pervasive social force that soundtracks our lives right up to our last breath. * Record Collector, December 2008 * This is an interesting book, full of lists and little facts that make for some interesting conversations, but it's also thought provoking-you may not always agree with him, but he really knows his stuff and you can't refute that he has a dizzying amount of knowledge of music of every genre to draw upon. There's plenty to keep you reading and thinking. * Buzz * In the end, death comes to us all. But, the incremental approach of the Grim Reaper through popular song is a phenomenon that has just recently crept into the imaginations of music journalists. I Shot a Man in Reno takes a decidedly academic path toward this subject and the professional distance provides for a smart and scholarly read. It's a tragical history tour of the last hundred-plus years of Western songwriting. From St James Infirmary, around Dead Man's Curve, to the city of Compton, Thomson takes us on a macabre and often hilarious ride. By the time you reach the epilogue of The 40 Greatest Death Records, you'll be ready to discuss the importance of Leader of the Pack and Cop Killer. It's another fine book from Continuum who, along with their 33 1/3 Series, is reshaping the way we read about music. * Under the Radar Magazine * Positive review on Popmatters.com -- Andrew Gilstrap The difference between a good movie and a great movie is effort and soul. The Soul of Screenwriting: On Writing, Dramatic Truth, and Knowing Yourself is a guide for improving one's screenplay by infusing the core of the story and its characters with the human voice and enthusiasm that takes a movie into legendary status. Advising against the formulaic writing many screenwriters fall into, The Soul of Screenwriting is motivating and highly recommended reading for any aspiring screenwriter. * The Midwest Book Review * Graeme Thomson's book is more than just cornucopia of the splendidly grim and myriad ways we speak of death in rhyming couplets backed with a catchy beat. It's a brain-teasing query into the strange, abstract place death occupies in our culture. * Eyeweekly * Thomson persuasively shows that death very much belongs in pop music. If music is about the human experience, death must be in there, along with everything else. ...Thomson is a surefooted guide through this musical graveyard. His writing is never dry or academic, but he smartly puts each song into its sociological and psychological context. It's fascinating to see how concepts of death changed over the decades, as Thomson points out trends such as the explosion of death songs during the psychedelic era. * Signal To Noise, Fall 2008 * It's evident from I Shot A Man in Reno that author Graeme Thomson possesses an undying obsession with songs of mortality. To pursue the subject through such terrain as murder ballads, gangsta rap and '50s teen schmaltz, and to make it a topic of conversation with musicians ranging from Ron Sexsmith to Ice-T, one almost has to. Though at times it comes off as a magazine think piece that's vastly outgrown its 3,000-word slot, the book becomes increasingly compelling with each grim avenue it explores. Thomson's well-organized essays provocatively plumb everything from rock n' roll's self-destruction myth to funeral top 10s (really!), but the book is at its strongest when the author supports his own thoughts with those of his interviewees. (Richard Thompson almost deserves co-authorship credit for his perceptive contributions.) While the casual, colloquial prose is far from deathless, better musical surveys are hard to find, and the results are positively life affirming. -- Reid Davis * Paste Magazine * Intriguing, intelligent analysis...Thomson's real strength is his understated empathy and common sense, most prominent in his excellent chapter on emo. * Time out, October 2008 * This is an interesting book, full of lists and little facts that make for some interesting conversations, but it's also thought-provoking... [Thomson] really knows how stuff... There's plenty here to keep you reading and reading. * Buzz, Autumn 2008 * Mention -Book News, November 2008 Title mention in an article written by the author in The Observer, November 2008