stephen king c/d?

EASY TIGER

It was, Ryan Adams says, this girl he’s been spending time with; the title of this album is her fault. “She wanted to go out to dinner at eight; I wanted to go right away. She said, ‘Easy, Tiger.’ And that hit me. It stuck with me to the point where I called up Neal [that would be Neal Casal, guitarist of The Cardinals] and left a message on his answering machine with those two words. ‘Don’t forget this,’ I said, ‘cause I want to use it.’ ”

Adams laughs and adds, “I think he’s still got that message.”

And I understand that. Some things you just save, because they’re worth playing over again.

I think there are really only two kinds of pop music CDs these days. There are the ones you listen to only once or twice, maybe downloading the single good song to your iPod or computer; then there are others that grow stronger, sweeter, and more necessary each time you play them. Gold was that way; Cold Roses was that way; so was Jacksonville City Nights. I won’t say Adams is the best North American singer-songwriter since Neil Young…but I won’t say he isn’t, either. What I know is there has never been a Ryan Adams record quite as strong and together as Easy Tiger; it’s got enough blue-eyed, blue-steel soul (with the faintest country tinge) to make me think of both Marvin Gaye and the Righteous Brothers. Probably ridiculous, but true. And the songs themselves are beautiful—the lyrics tightly focused and brief, the feeling one of melancholy calm that will probably be a revelation to fans that remember the old, sometimes angry Ryan Adams.

He agrees that the tone of Easy Tiger is different — not dark, just different—and suggests in passing that it may have something to do with both sobering up and growing up (he’s 32). Then he goes on to talk about the process, which is clearly something close to his heart. “I write on a manual typewriter,” he says. “I get up, I have a cup of coffee, I sit down at the typewriter. I never spent a useless day behind a typewriter.”

I say amen to that, but he’s already going on.

“It’s like—I don’t know, sometimes it’s like chasing a pretty girl on the beach. And things I never thought I could do…I can do.”

I mention how prolific he is, aware that I might be touching a sore point. After all, there are plenty of critics who seem to think that’s a bad thing. Adams, however, just laughs.

“Yeah, yeah, in America people give you shit for working hard,” he says. “But…it’s process, that’s all. I process things. I went into the dream business. If people need ‘em, I’ve got extra.”

He talks enthusiastically about all the unreleased material he hopes to set free in a box set, maybe at the end of the year (“If people hear it all, then they’ll get the connections,” he says), but that’s then. Now there’s this, maybe the best Ryan Adams CD ever. And I know you want to listen to it right away. But slow down. Take your time. This album asks for that, and it will reward your full attention.

In other words—easy, Tiger.

--Stephen King

― MRZBW, Friday, 11 May 2007 01:01 (6 years ago) Permalink

they don't care, since the stuff is going to sell like mad anyway.

bingo.

Yeah I really wouldn't start out with the Stand. Soo big. Start with something a bit more managable to get a feel for him before you dive into an epic.

I started reading him when I was 8 and my mother never said shit. Then I would've thought that was cool now I think it sucks.

― Ms Misery, Friday, 11 May 2007 01:20 (6 years ago) Permalink

I think his inability to effectively end a story actually worked to his advantage in Needful Things.
-- HI DERE, Thursday, 10 May 2007 18:56 (Yesterday)

I'm curious as to your rationale behind this. I only ask because I was a huge SK fan as a youth and Needful Things was the first time I realized that he couldn't wrap up his novels. I began to lose my taste for him with the ending of this book. How did it work to his advantage?

― kingkongvsgodzilla, Friday, 11 May 2007 01:48 (6 years ago) Permalink

IIRC, at the end of Needful Things the entire town is in shambles and the nascent relationship that had been budding throughout the book is in total shambles; all of the survivors are sitting around completely shellshocked and at a loss as to what they're going to do next... and then the novel just stops. It was more unsettling than the total freakout Armageddon that preceded it.

(I admit I may be mixing in parts of the end of The Dark Half here.)

― HI DERE, Friday, 11 May 2007 03:00 (6 years ago) Permalink

I was thinking as I was driving up to the Cities for class tonight that not much mention has been made (if any) of his non-fiction work. I love love LOVE Danse Macabre and On Writing. Hell, I love the little notes he writes to his "Constant Reader."

Also I sometimes enjoy reading his column for Entertainment Weekly... and attribute the fact that I realized that I had totally lost touch with current music and that I missed it to an article he wrote at the end of 2005 for that column. I even still have it bookmarked. Here:

http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,1052645,00.html

― Sara R-C, Friday, 11 May 2007 04:00 (6 years ago) Permalink

Danse Macabre is great! That alternate scene from 'Salem's Lot!

― HI DERE, Friday, 11 May 2007 04:09 (6 years ago) Permalink

My copy is in desperate need of a re-read; I'd forgotten all about that scene.

I used to use it as a reference for going to rent videos. Actually, I just bought a video copy of the original The Haunting... but he makes it sound so scary that I'm afraid to watch it. (yes, I'm a huge dork; I know this isn't news to you).

I've also taken book reading suggestions from it - the one I remember most is that Anne Rivers Siddons novel... ugh I can't remember the title right now. But it's about a house that is "haunted" in that the architect who designed it made it... wrong. It's pretty good.

The scene that sticks with me from On Writing is King's description of having his eardrum lanced as a child to treat infection. OMG, nothing could have made me more happy to be born in the post-discovery of antibiotics era... wow.

― Sara R-C, Friday, 11 May 2007 04:15 (6 years ago) Permalink

have picked up part 6 of dark tower thinking that i've come this far i may as well finish it (i read part one in the b&b after leaving home but before sorting out rented accomodation for first job in sept '89, 18 fscking years ago...). i have a dreadful feeling he's about to appear as a character himself. i hate it when they do that.

read everything of his up to delores claiborne(?) and only the dark tower since (on, and black house, which forced me to remember more stuff from 20+ years ago, the talisman).

i wish he'd update "danse macbare".

― koogs, Friday, 11 May 2007 08:24 (6 years ago) Permalink

and then the novel just stops. It was more unsettling than the total freakout Armageddon that preceded it.

Okay, I can get behind that. But what ruined it for me was the transformation that the bad guy goes through at the end, which IIRC takes all of two or three pages. I mean it's obvious throughout the book who the bad guy is, but doesn't he turn into a (spoiler alert) fucking magical goblin and just zoom off or something like that? It seemed like SK needed to wrap the book up really quick.

― kingkongvsgodzilla, Friday, 11 May 2007 14:41 (6 years ago) Permalink

Hahaha see, I'd read The Tommyknockers before this one and was there fully expecting a horrifically awful ending.

― HI DERE, Friday, 11 May 2007 14:49 (6 years ago) Permalink

I think part of the reason that my King re-reading project fell apart was that I just can't fathom re-reading The Tommyknockers, Insomnia, or Gerald's Game. (And yet they continue to sit on my shelf...)


i wish he'd update "danse macbare".

That would be soooooo awesome.

― Sara R-C, Friday, 11 May 2007 15:07 (6 years ago) Permalink

totally! danse macabre is easily one of my favorite things he's ever written

― latebloomer, Friday, 11 May 2007 15:09 (6 years ago) Permalink

His best story was in the New Yorker, around 01 I think. Called "All That You Love Will Be Carried Away." In that 'Everything's Eventual' collection.

That story made me lose my shit. So well-written, so darkly melancholic, yet so funny and mundane at the same time. I still think about the line, "Save Russian Jews, Collect Valuable Prizes" ALL THE TIME.

Anyone who hasn't read it, plot synopsis here.

I didn't realize the russian jews line was in it... now i should re-read that.

― the table is the table, Friday, 11 May 2007 20:15 (6 years ago) Permalink

Completely agree with that, table. "All That You Love Will Be Carried Away" is astonishing. Didn't realise it made the New Yorker, though. King's slowly been receiving more literary kudos of late, not that it matters.

Sara, I'm still thinking about the sadism thing! If I get a minute, I'll post more thoughts.

― Lostandfound, Sunday, 13 May 2007 07:52 (6 years ago) Permalink

i've only read a couple of short stories by SK ("the jaunt" and that one about the kid whose grandmother is a witch) and they both freaked the hell out of me. i don't think i've got the constitution to make it through a whole novel.

― J.D., Sunday, 13 May 2007 08:34 (6 years ago) Permalink

OMG THE WITCH ONE, BRRRRRRR

― HI DERE, Sunday, 13 May 2007 13:07 (6 years ago) Permalink

Isn't that one called "Gramma?" Completely creepy.

I've seen two or three Stephen King short stories in The New Yorker. One of which was some kind of gangster story set in the area I grew up... and which mentioned a certain Spiral Bridge that used to be there. That was weird.


Sara, I'm still thinking about the sadism thing! If I get a minute, I'll post more thoughts.

Okay! Really, Misery was my huge example, but Dan reminded me of the scene that didn't make it into Salem's Lot... and now I'm thinking of a nasty scene with The Kid that's in the unabridged version of The Stand...

Still, I'm kind of in love with the idea that sadism is in the eye of the beholder now. :)

― Sara R-C, Sunday, 13 May 2007 15:19 (6 years ago) Permalink

One of which was some kind of gangster story set in the area I grew up...

okay WAHT??????????

― HI DERE, Sunday, 13 May 2007 17:25 (6 years ago) Permalink

It's also in Everything's Eventual. The story is titled "The Death of Jack Hamilton." It's set in St. Paul (which, you have to admit, is certainly near Hastings). Here's the paragraph that REALLY got my attention, though:

We crossed the Mississippi about twenty miles downriver from St. Paul, and although the local cops were all on the lookout for what they called the Dillinger Gang, I think we would have been all right if Jack Hamilton hadn't lost his hat while we were making our escape. He was sweating like a pig - he always did when he was nervous - and when he found a rag on the backseat of the carpenter's car he whipped it into a kind of rope and tied it around his head, Injun style. That was what caught the eye of the cops parked on the Wisconsin side of the Spiral Bridge as we went past them, and they came after us for a closer look.

― Sara R-C, Sunday, 13 May 2007 17:50 (6 years ago) Permalink

Wait, the Wisconsin side of the Spiral Bridge? lol the spiral bridge must have been HUEG!

― HI DERE, Sunday, 13 May 2007 17:56 (6 years ago) Permalink

i don't know if he's a sadist, but he's really good at spending 200 pages making you fall in love with a character and then spending the remaining 400 pages beating them to death with a stick. i always felt that way about john irving too. i suppose that's the nature of horror though. or tragedy. in king's case. melodrama in irving's case.

― scott seward, Sunday, 13 May 2007 18:00 (6 years ago) Permalink

I don't know if he's a sadist himself, I just think there's a lot of sadistic stuff in his books! John Irving, I don't know... he has a lot of dark humor in his books, though. (I love "Sorrow," the dog in Hotel New Hampshire...)

lol the spiral bridge must have been HUEG!

Dan, have you been out to the place in Hastings where the crazy guy has built a Spiral Bridge, a scaled down model of St. Boniface (the church I went to growing up), and all kinds of other weird stuff?

― Sara R-C, Sunday, 13 May 2007 18:26 (6 years ago) Permalink

omg YES! I think we took a school field trip to that place in 1st or 2nd grade!

― HI DERE, Sunday, 13 May 2007 18:36 (6 years ago) Permalink

A friend of mine got married at the St. Boniface model. I had no idea that place existed when we were in GRADE SCHOOL. Wow. (You should totally take J031 there.)

Hmmmm, you know if the Spiral Bridge were further south than really was, it might have crossed from MN to WI. (I'm thinking of Prescott; I think it's still MN on the other side of the river there...)

― Sara R-C, Sunday, 13 May 2007 18:41 (6 years ago) Permalink

I'm pretty sure the Spiral Bridge was at the bottom of Hollywood Hill where the current bridge into Hastings is; in order to reach Wisconsin, it would have to cross the St. Croix, which, given where it was, = HUEG BRIDGE LOL

― HI DERE, Sunday, 13 May 2007 18:50 (6 years ago) Permalink

That would be a seriously WIDE bridge...

We can see that Mr. King was not from around Hastings. (Although, given much of his subject matter, he might as well have been...)

― Sara R-C, Sunday, 13 May 2007 18:55 (6 years ago) Permalink

Okay I just did some research and you are talking about something much newer and more insane than the historic model I saw, which may have been in city hall. WTF they moved St. Boniface there brick-by-brick???????????

― HI DERE, Sunday, 13 May 2007 19:01 (6 years ago) Permalink

Yeah, it's not the whole church, but its like a 2/3 model or something. My friend who got married there always wanted to get married at St. Boniface and she sort of got her wish... it's just not as big, so going in the proportions are all wrong compared to memory and I kind of thought it had a weird dream-like quality because of that.

― Sara R-C, Sunday, 13 May 2007 19:10 (6 years ago) Permalink

...which therefore makes it appropriate for Stephen King.

― Ned Raggett, Sunday, 13 May 2007 19:12 (6 years ago) Permalink

Good old Ned, bringing us back on-topic.

I should restart the Dark Tower series, since it's now done and all.

― HI DERE, Sunday, 13 May 2007 19:14 (6 years ago) Permalink

Exactly Ned! By not visiting Hastings' many interesting sites, Stephen King is overlooking a vast amount of scary story material.

And to think that I've always felt nervous about visiting Maine due to reading Stephen King novels.

I think the Dark Tower series might be my summer vacation reading. Maybe.

― Sara R-C, Sunday, 13 May 2007 19:16 (6 years ago) Permalink

I sort of feel like my high school years WERE a Stephen King story.

― HI DERE, Sunday, 13 May 2007 19:18 (6 years ago) Permalink

Fear not, people, you've inspired me to start this thread:

http://www.ilxor.com:8080/ILX/ThreadSelectedControllerServlet?boardid=40&threadid=53682

― Ned Raggett, Sunday, 13 May 2007 19:18 (6 years ago) Permalink

lol, you're not the only one. (I'll meet you guys later, over by the Standpipe, okay?)

― Sara R-C, Sunday, 13 May 2007 19:19 (6 years ago) Permalink

PS Ned, you're awesome.

― Sara R-C, Sunday, 13 May 2007 19:21 (6 years ago) Permalink

Delayed roffles at "Hastings' many interesting sites" because the first thing that popped into my head was "Dairy Queen!"

― HI DERE, Sunday, 13 May 2007 19:22 (6 years ago) Permalink

That DQ isn't as mundane as it seems on the surface, Dan.

― Sara R-C, Sunday, 13 May 2007 19:23 (6 years ago) Permalink

Great, I'm now imagining a soul-stealing Mr. Misty. Thanks.

― HI DERE, Sunday, 13 May 2007 19:24 (6 years ago) Permalink

"What secrets lie behind the facade of the neighborhood ice cream shop? Find out as Stephen King spins another spine-chilling tale of deception, betrayal and soft-serve ice cream in The Freeze. (July 2009)"

― HI DERE, Sunday, 13 May 2007 19:27 (6 years ago) Permalink

Sure, it tastes good going down, but...

(omg I'm having a flashback to a really unpopular horror movie called The Stuff now... THANKS DAN)

― Sara R-C, Sunday, 13 May 2007 19:30 (6 years ago) Permalink

This is I think the third time someone has brought up "The Stuff" this week! hahahahaha

― HI DERE, Sunday, 13 May 2007 19:31 (6 years ago) Permalink

So Sara, it tastes good going down, you say.

― Ned Raggett, Sunday, 13 May 2007 19:32 (6 years ago) Permalink

Well, what can I say, I'm a sucker for a hot fudge sundae.

― Sara R-C, Sunday, 13 May 2007 19:33 (6 years ago) Permalink

That looks like a promo pic from a movie that's a Stephen King/extreme porn hybrid.

― HI DERE, Sunday, 13 May 2007 19:34 (6 years ago) Permalink

lol, there are just so many layers to this...

― Sara R-C, Sunday, 13 May 2007 19:37 (6 years ago) Permalink

Another memorable King short story: "Quitters, Inc." Again, it seems like the idea has a bit of sadism in it, but hey, if you really want to quit smoking...

― Sara R-C, Sunday, 13 May 2007 22:45 (6 years ago) Permalink

Paul Sorvino AND Michael Moriarty?? I want to see this now.

― tokyo rosemary, Sunday, 13 May 2007 23:27 (6 years ago) Permalink