art music: josh ritter kings of leon lists music the book of lists
by david
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listing
When I was young, my parents had a book called The Book of Lists.
It was a favourite for bedtime reading - lists about baseball players, presidents, actors, science, criminals, and animals.
In the tradition of the best striptease, the lists suggested a story, but only a hint. My imagination was required for the rest. Nothing was more captivating to my adolescent mind than the list of the people who had died during sex or the list of the most popular positions for intercourse.
Around the same time, Billy Joel released the album Storm Front with the song “We Didn’t Start the Fire,” a song that lists dozens of historical events over the course of his life to that point - piecing together the political and cultural history of the world.
My dad loved this song and I remember him telling me that lists were where it was. That wasn’t necessarily where the money was, but people liked reading them.
Even though I was proof of that, it never clicked. It still hasn’t, really. But I remember it all the same.