Craft Studio: For Those About to Rock: A Road Map to Being in a Band by Dave Bidini
What I Was Reading
You may know Dave Bidini from his career in music with Rheostatics and now Bidiniband, or you may know him as the author of Tropic of Hockey or Writing Gordon Lightfoot: The Man, the Music, and the World in 1972 (among other titles). For Those About to Rock combines Bidini’s passion for music with his skill as a writer. It is a combination of memoir, music history, and advice to aspiring musicians.
In the chapter, “The Myth of Making It,” Bidini explains, “There’s no rock-and-roll blueprint. It’s not like studying a manual and learning how to build a Battlebot. You can’t diagram it and watch it come to life.” Instead of a how-to manual, For Those About to Rock is a roadmap. When I opened the book to check out the Table of Contents, I appreciated how it was organized:
Introduction
Let There Be Rock
The Mythology of Making It
And the Fickle Fruit of Fame
A Very Slow Hand
Your First Instrument
Playing in a Travelin’ Band (more…)