Roadrunner

Joshua Clover

Published by Duke University Press 2021

Roadrunner

Joshua Clover

In the series Singles

https://doi.org/10.1515/9781478021698

Overview
Contents

About this book

Cultural theorist and poet Joshua Clover examines Jonathan Richman and the Modern Lovers' 1972 song “Roadrunner,” charting its place in rock & roll history and American culture.

Author / Editor information

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.

Reviews

“Roadrunner is a wonderful book: unique, passionate, sardonic, and as intellectually playful as it is rigorous. It is thrilling to be in the presence of a writer realizing all of his gifts—and yet he and the reader never lose sight of the song or cease to hear it. In that sense, Joshua Clover has not only realized himself as a writer; he has realized the song.”

-- Greil Marcus, author of The History of Rock ‘n’ Roll in Ten Songs

“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

"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

"In a brisk 100-plus pages, he pulls off a kind of critical jiujitsu, linking a song about driving past the Stop & Shop 'with the radio on' back to Chuck Berry's classic songs about riding along in an automobile, and forward to Cornershop's 'Brimful of Asha' and M.I.A.'s 'Paper Planes,' both of which reference 'Roadrunner.' . . . Like the song, Clover's lengthy essay steps on the gas from the on-ramp and keeps pushing."

-- James Sullivan Boston Globe

"Roadrunner, Clover's book, has plenty of warmth; in fact, it runs positively hot as the poet and cultural theorist veers off onto one exit ramp after another."

-- Jay Gabler The Current

"It’s heady stuff, for sure, but it’s also as ecstatic as the music it celebrates—an inspired, inspiring tribute to what Greil Marcus once called 'the most obvious song in the world, and the strangest.'"

-- Marc Hogan Pitchfork, Best Music Books of 2021

"Poet and critic Joshua Clover’s book-length exploration of 'Roadrunner' stays true to Richman’s “faster miles an hour” gospel, thrillingly pursuing connections backward and forward, from Chuck Berry to Cornershop to M.I.A. . . . Even if you’ve heard 'Roadunner' a million times, this book will make it sound newly present and alive."

-- Jon Dolan Rolling Stone, Best Music Books of 2021

"Clover perceptively emphasizes how postwar suburbanization changed the face of American life forever, spreading it out from the density and unease of the city into the kinds of spacious highways Richman celebrates. . . . Clover’s radical politics make him especially sensitive to the ways in which capital and urban planning changed the landscape of America during the postwar boom. In some ways, Clover’s historical analysis is quite sharp and certainly relevant to today’s concerns."

-- Matt Hanson The Smart Set

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
CONTENTS Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
01. Rock & Roll Radio, 1980 Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
02. Faster Miles an Hour, 1972 Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	7
03. That Highway Sound, 1955 Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	29
04. The Main Streets and the Cinema Aisles, 1997 Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	61
05. World Runner, 2007 Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	81
06. In Love with the Modern World, 1972 Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	105
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	121
NOTES Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	123
BIBLIOGRAPHY Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	125
INDEX Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	127

Language: English
Publisher: Duke University Press
Audience: General/trade;
Pages
- Main content: 144

eBook

Published: July 13, 2021
ISBN: 9781478021698