Recalling Nick Hornby's Songbook and Rob Sheffield's more
recent Love is a Mix Tape, Lafargue's memoir chronicles life events
major and minor through the prism of the music he loves and hates.
Lefargue found the genesis for his book while struggling through
the aftermath of a failed engagement, during which he discovered
Stevie Wonder's breakthrough double album, Songs in the Key of
Life. Beginning with the miraculous turnaround that album inspired,
the professor and Brooklyn resident recounts, among other amusing
anecdotes, his mother's mad crush on mid-1980s sensation Billy
Ocean; his own impressions and imitations of Michael Jackson, "who
danced like Fred Astaire, sang like Jackie Wilson, had the suave
good looks of a young Sam Cooke, and dressed like Liberace"; and
the link between Stanley Kubrick's film Full Metal Jacket and 2
Live Crew's "obscene, misogynist, and offensive" album As Nasty as
They Wanna Be. The book's biggest weakness may be Lefargue's lack
of credentials; without rock critic Sheffield's reputation or
Hornby's fan base, readers may wonder why they should care about
one man's taste in music. Lafargue may not provide that reason, but
he does have a sincere, honest voice and a story that any pop music
fan is sure to nod along with.
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