Fanatic! by Henry Rollins

WARNING...THIS IS A BOOK REVIEW

Still reading this? Cool.

I just finished up Fanatic! by author, musician, actor, spoken-word artist, and sometimes stand-up comedian (really) Henry Rollins. Back in 2004, Henry had a weekly radio show on Indie 103.1 FM called Harmony In My Head which ran for 27 shows. On the show, Rollins played whatever he damn well pleased, going all over the place ranging from punk, blues, jazz, metal, hard rock, bluegrass and some spoken word stuff, mostly from his own personal collection. After each show, he posted his playlist along with his fan-boy notes about the artists.

The book is the published collection of notes with new additions & follow-ups. Rollins is very knowledgeable about obscure punk singles and little-known jazz & blues artists. This may not appeal to some of the posters on a 'metal' board, but for those of you whose taste falls outside of the 'metal realm' or if you have read some of his other works, you may find this quite enjoyable. It really opened up my eyes to other forms of music and some cool websites chock full of information.

You can check out his current playlists at: http://harmonyinmyhead.com/index.html

One of the few human beings I can whole-heartedly say I completely
admire. I have been inspired by Mr. Rollins since I was in my
early teens, in the early 80's. I have every spoken word album,
music cd, various boots, dvds, a dozen of his books, and have seen him
perform numerous times.



I am happy to hear someone else on this forum also digs this artist.

While I have a few of his muiscal cd's, I'm more impressed with his books and spoken-word appearances. I've read and re-read most all of his books and have several dvd's. I have yet to see him live, but I hope to someday. Whenever he comes to Philly, he always plays very small venues that sell-out almost immediately.

i always thought Black Flag took a nose dive when Rollins joined. that's all i care to know about him.

Quote :

i always thought Black Flag took a nose dive when Rollins joined. that's all i care to know about him.

And since you were 3 years old at the time, it must have had a HUGE impact on your opinion of BF.

how old i was when i first heard Black Flag is irrelevant. it has nothing to do with my opinion of their material.

who is this rollin guy anyway. his name always remings me of a teacher i had at school who commited suicide becuase he hated his nose (not funny but true)

everyone who knows about him seems to worship him

He was the lead singer of the punk band Black Flag, then leader of the Rollins Band. He's been in some movies, writes books, does spoken word/stand-up routines, and currently hosts a talk show on the Independant Film Channel. Quite the renissance man.

It should also be noted that he's very opinionated and people tend to love him or hate him. There's no middle ground.