A Dream About Lightning Bugs: A Life of Music and Cheap LessonsNEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • From the genre-defying icon Ben Folds comes a memoir that is as nuanced, witty, and relatable as his cult-classic songs. “A Dream About Lightning Bugs reads like its author: intelligent, curious, unapologetically punk, and funny as hell.”—Sara Bareilles NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY NPR AND PASTE Ben Folds is a celebrated American singer-songwriter, beloved for songs such as “Brick,” “You Don’t Know Me,” “Rockin’ the Suburbs,” and “The Luckiest,” and is the former frontman of the alternative rock band Ben Folds Five. But Folds will be the first to tell you he’s an unconventional icon, more normcore than hardcore. Now, in his first book, Folds looks back at his life so far in a charming and wise chronicle of his artistic coming of age, infused with the wry observations of a natural storyteller. In the title chapter, “A Dream About Lightning Bugs,” Folds recalls his earliest childhood dream—and realizes how much it influenced his understanding of what it means to be an artist. In “Measure Twice, Cut Once” he learns to resist the urge to skip steps during the creative process. In “Hall Pass” he recounts his 1970s North Carolina working-class childhood, and in “Cheap Lessons” he returns to the painful life lessons he learned the hard way—but that luckily didn’t kill him. In his inimitable voice, both relatable and thought-provoking, Folds digs deep into the life experiences that shaped him, imparting hard-earned wisdom about both art and life. Collectively, these stories embody the message Folds has been singing about for years: Smile like you’ve got nothing to prove, because it hurts to grow up, and life flies by in seconds. Praise for A Dream About Lightning Bugs “Besides being super talented, and an incredibly poignant and multifaceted musician, Ben Folds is a fantastic author. I couldn’t put this book down—and not just because I taped it to my hand. Ben takes us into his mind and into his process from the very beginnings of his childhood to where he is today—one of the greatest musicians and writers that has ever graced the art.”—Bob Saget |
Contents
File Under Music | 3 |
Erase and Rewind | 17 |
Measure Twice Cut Once | 33 |
The Summer of Love | 50 |
Cheap Lessons | 63 |
Plan A from Outer Space | 71 |
Mt Labor | 87 |
Of Mace and Men | 103 |
Wanna Be | 202 |
Reinhold | 221 |
Going It Alone | 243 |
Rock This Bitch | 247 |
Follow the Brown | 254 |
Benny What Is COOL?? | 263 |
Time to Grow Up Wait What? Again? | 270 |
Way to Normal | 279 |
My Semester Overseas | 120 |
Where Oh Where Is My Voice? | 136 |
Frozen on a Suitcase | 156 |
The First AlbumBoth of Them | 170 |
Hand Me That Piano | 187 |
Music for the Mating Age | 289 |
The EverPopular VH1 Behind the Music | 298 |
Following Interest | 307 |
Photo Credits | 313 |
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actually Alan Anna artist asked audience baby grand bass bass guitar Ben Folds Five Bitches Ain't Shit called cassette cool couple creative visualization damn Darren demo door drums Fear of Pop feel felt Folds Five friends fucking funny going guitar head hear heard imagine interest jazz John Mayer kids kind knew learned listening live looked Ma-Maw Majosha move music business musicians Nashville never night North Carolina okay onstage orchestra Papa parents piano piano rock play pop music radio record Reinhold Messner rock and roll Rockin seemed shit shitty singer singing sleep solo someone song Songs for Silverman songwriting sound studio stuff Suburbs teacher tell there's thing thought told took tour turns University of Miami vocal voice wanted week WILLIAM SHATNER