Reviews for Boyz II Men

The average rating for Boyz II Men based on 2 reviews is 5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2011-04-29 00:00:00 Zeek Chase Now, a two star review for this book is not a two star review for Bruce Springsteen. It's a two star review for this book. The way I see it, rock and roll began as a music of sensuality and power, full of sinful swagger, racial tension, and illicit seduction. Later, it became so many more things -- from the innocent harmonies of the Beach Boys to the Satanic power of the Rolling Stones, from soulful grooves of Motown to the laid back jams of the Grateful Dead. And among those things, most certainly, was the working class drama of Bruce Springsteen's greatest songs. Funny like THE HONEYMOONERS, tragic like ON THE WATERFRONT, Bruce is as much a dramatist as a musician, and just about everyone from Presidents to prostitutes agrees he deserves to be known as The Boss. The problem is, Dave Marsh, in making a case for Springsteen, has to make a case AGAINST everyone else. The whole point of this book is that rock and roll is and can only be what Bruce Springsteen's music happens to be, which is white working-class protest music. The problem is, rock and roll is a lot bigger than Bruce Springsteen. And Marsh being Marsh, he has to indulge in little Stalinist purges every three pages or so just to clear the way for the dictatorship of the proletariat. The Beach Boys were spoiled rich kids. The Who created rock opera. The Rolling Stones fiddled with sitars. Obviously, not all of these experiments were successful, but rock and roll doesn't grow when Dave Marsh's inferiority complex is the only measure of success. It's painfully obvious throughout this book that Marsh in a big hurry to declare "The Sixties" a mistake, an aberration, a crime that needs to be forgotten. Bear in mind this is a guy who did not serve in Vietnam, sanctifying a rock artist who also did not serve in Vietnam. But there are approximately 345 cheap shots aimed at "hippies" in this book. About five of them are legitimate. The sad thing is, Springsteen really is great. But not great enough to make Dave Marsh into a Vietnam veteran, or a working class hero, or even someone who can write a compelling account of a true rock legend.

Review # 2 was written on 2020-07-08 00:00:00 Marc Prilliman Even though I'm reading Marsh's Two Hearts, which includes both of his Springsteen books and a fair amount of new material, I wanted to review Born to Run on its own. In the intro to Two Hearts, Marsh writes about having set out to create a new genre, the "Rock Book," incorporating biography, fan's notes, photos (sadly not reproduced in Two Hearts), music biz book, discography, and tour chronology. BTR did/does all that, but most importantly, it captures the energy of Springsteen's emergence, the reasons why he mattered then, which have been the foundation of why he matters now. I'm teaching the book to a class full of freshmen, only a few of whom were real fans when they signed up; most are there because their parents are fans and/or they're interested in music more generally or the 70s and 80s in historical perspective. Three weeks in, most of them get it. That's partly listening of course (and tonight we're watching a full concert video from 1975), but it's also because Marsh frames things so deftly. BTR, like the record its named for, communicates the vision of rock and roll (and the soul which is so much a part of Bruce's sound and sensibility) as something that can save your life. Jungleland and Backstreets got me through some very difficult times and BTR knows how and why. If you're a Springsteen fan and haven't read it, do. Upgraded my review from the four stars it was in memory to the five it deserves for being a crucial point of reference.