Crank Up the Volume and Hit the Road With the Killjoys in Roger Trott’s Getting in Tune November 29, 2008
Davis, California
Getting in Tune, Trott's first novel, is based on his experiences playing gigs with West Coast rock bands, from San Francisco to Washington’s Olympic Peninsula.
Author Roger Trott will be available to sign copies of his recently released book, Getting in Tune. His dynamic personality and quick wit will make this an enjoyable event.
-- Rock musician and former music critic Roger L. Trott’s new novel, Getting in Tune, is a wild romp through the world of ‘70s rock ’n’ roll and pop culture. Propelled forward by the whispered wisdom of the Who’s Pete Townshend, Getting in Tune follows the driven but erratic Daniel Travers as the 20-year-old guitarist drags his unwilling band onto the road in pursuit of fame and Townshend’s vision of the elusive Universal Chord.
As Kathi Kamen Goldmark, author of And My Shoes Keep Walking Back to You and founder of the Rock Bottom Remainders, describes it, “Good gigs and bad gigs, girlfriends and groupies, poseurs and punks: Getting in Tune will ring deliciously true if you’ve been in a band—and deliver a rare glimpse behind the curtain if you’ve ever longed to be. Crank up the volume and enjoy Roger Trott’s wild rock & roll ride.”
It’s the fall of 1976, and Daniel Travers’s life is a mess. His band, the Killjoys, is essentially going nowhere; the pills he’s popping are making him crazy; and the voices banging around his head have him convinced that he’s a bleedin’ quadropheniac. On top of everything, what he calls the Real Me, his true self, has disappeared—and he’s lost without it.
Then the phone rings, a new agent offering a weeklong gig at the exotic Mai Tai Hotel, in Puente Harbor, Washington. Told by the agent that Jimi Hendrix and Heart started out at the Mai Tai, Daniel sees the weeklong gig as his best chance to get the Killjoys on the road to success. And for Daniel, it’s about seeking—as his unlikely guru, Pete Townshend, whispers to him—the redemptive promise of the Universal Chord, the perfect set of notes that will restore harmony to his life.
A novel full of the low grit of small-club rock ’n’ roll, Getting in Tune captures the fire of the rock ’n’ roll dream as well as the tantalizing notion that music can transcend chaos, that it can bring perfection to our messy lives.
Official Website: http://www.rogertrott.com
Added by Amicus Books on October 24, 2008
Comments
Amicus Books
Getting in Tune
Is it worth risking everything to fulfill your dreams?
There is something endlessly fascinating about seeing the early growth of an artist one knows and follows. It's like having a peek at the childhood sketchbook of an old master, or the early Play-doh work of a great sculptor. Wouldn't it be great to sit in on some of Led Zeppelin's practices in 1968? Or follow Jimi Hendrix around London as he played obscure clubs before creating the Experience? Roger Trott's new novel Getting in Tune offers readers this sort of fascination as they follow Daniel Travers and the Killjoys to their first big gig and an opportunity at rock band stardom. More than just a fascinating peek at the growth of a band at a seminal point in the history of rock and roll, this is a good story.
Every good story is one part comedy, one part drama, one part love story, one part adventure – nearly every genre should make an appearance. If we could add something like 'Introspective' to the genre list, it would also apply here along with the others. The dynamics of the Killjoys brings out a few laughs, though a couple band mates appear wooden beside the depth of Mick, Rob, and Daniel. The tension created by the various relationships in the novel, especially that of Daniel, Nita and Kitten and Rob and Candi kept me interested, but the adventure of the band on the road and Daniel's inner journey seem the highlight of the book.
Daniel's psychological growth is central to the novel, representing in his transition not only the artistic transition of rock music to punk music, but the personal transition of many people in his generation who felt frustrated and alone. Luckily, Daniel has the company and the advice of an internalized personal guide, a bit like Don Juan to his Carlos Castaneda, who has taken the form of Peter Townshend from The Who. The difference is that Daniel's prefers uppers to peyote, and Peter Townshend is only in his head, ironically helping Daniel to find the "Real Me", the essence of who he is among an amalgamation of discordant elements, here in the form of band squabbles, misdirected affection, substance abuse, and dishonesty that when arranged in the right way creates the "Perfect Chord", if only for a moment.
Much like Daniel's transcendent realization about the "Perfect Chord", Roger Trott's Getting in Tune brings together comedic, dramatic, romantic (not the cheesy sort), and adventurous elements into an arrangement that harmonizes well with my literary tastes. Listen closely, and you'll hear it, too.
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David M Glines
Literary Lounge Book Reviewer