In this Book
- Bar Yarns and Manic-Depressive Mixtapes: Jim Walsh on Music from Minneapolis to the Outer Limits
- Book
- 2016
- Published by: University of Minnesota Press
Bar Yarns and Manic Depressive Mix Tapes distills thirty delirious, jam-packed years of some of the best music writing ever to come out of the Twin Cities. As a writer and musician, the ever-curious Jim Walsh has lived a life immersed in music, and it all makes its way into his columns and feature articles, interviews and reviews, including personal essays on life, love, music, family, death, and, yes, the manic-depressive highs and lows that come with being an obsessive music lover and listener.
From Minneapolis’s own Prince to such far-flung acts as David Bowie, the Waterboys, Lucinda Williams, Parliament-Funkadelic, L7, the Rolling Stones, the Ramones, U2, Hank Williams, Britney Spears, Elvis Presley and Nirvana, Walsh’s work treats us to a chorus of the voices and sounds that have made the music scene over the last three decades. The big names are here, from Rosanne Cash to Bruce Springsteen to Bob Marley and Jackson Browne, but so are those a little shy of superstardom, like the Tin Star Sisters and Uncle Tupelo, Son Volt, the Gear Daddies, Semisonic, and The Belfast Cowboys.
The book is also a tour (de force) of the Twin Cities' most celebrated music venues past and present, from the Prom Ballroom to Paisley Park to Duffy's. When Walsh isn't celebrating the sheer magic of live music or dreaming to tunes blasting from the car console, he might be surveying the scene with the Hamm's Bear at Grumpy's or the Double Deuce or singing the last night at the Uptown Bar blues. Whether he's dishing dirt with Yoko Ono or digging the Replacements' roots, giving an old rocker a spin or offering a mic to the latest upstart, Jim Walsh reminds us that in the land of a thousand lakes there are a thousand dances, and the music never dies.
Capturing the pure notes and character of the sound of the Twin Cities and beyond, with a keen eye for trends and the telling detail, his book truly is a mix tape of thirty years of unforgettable music.
Table of Contents
- Title Page, Copyright Page
- pp. i-iv
- Summerteeth
- pp. 2-5
- Fly Me to the Moon
- pp. 6-10
- Chickery Chick
- pp. 11-13
- We Could Be Heroes Just for One Day
- pp. 14-16
- Nye’s: The Long Good-bye
- pp. 17-20
- 1. Spirit in the Night
- pp. 21-23
- We’re Going to Be Friends
- pp. 24-26
- Baptism by Bruce
- pp. 27-31
- Taken by a Photograph
- pp. 32-35
- For a Dancer
- pp. 36-37
- 2. On the Road to Find Out
- pp. 38-39
- No Direction Home
- pp. 39-42
- Side of the Road
- pp. 43-46
- All Down the Line
- pp. 47-53
- Legalize It
- pp. 54-56
- 3. Mix #1: Crush on You
- pp. 60-61
- Singing in My Sleep
- pp. 61-64
- Short Man’s Room
- pp. 65-71
- After the Dance
- pp. 72-74
- All about Chemistry
- pp. 75-77
- I Saw the Light
- pp. 78-79
- Times Like This
- pp. 80-81
- Partners in Crime
- pp. 82-84
- 4. Bar Yarns
- pp. 85-87
- From the Land of Sky-BlueWaters
- pp. 87-90
- Uptown Bar Blues
- pp. 91-93
- Closing Time
- pp. 94-98
- Ballad of the Tin Star Sisters
- pp. 99-103
- Driftwood Nights
- pp. 104-108
- 5. Showmen’s Rest
- pp. 109-111
- Are You Lonesome Tonight?
- pp. 111-119
- All Apologies
- pp. 120-122
- Do You Remember Rock ’n’ Roll Radio?
- pp. 123-124
- Meeting across the River
- pp. 125-127
- 6. Mix #2: Teenage Kicks
- pp. 128-129
- This Is the Sea
- pp. 137-139
- All My Life
- pp. 140-143
- Beautiful Day
- pp. 144-145
- 7. The Beautiful Ones
- pp. 146-147
- The Gold Experience
- pp. 147-151
- Salesmen and Racists
- pp. 152-155
- Put a Little Love in It
- pp. 156-159
- 8. Mix #3: Heart and Soul
- pp. 164-165
- I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For
- pp. 165-169
- Peace on Earth
- pp. 170-171
- The Ballad of Paul and Sheila
- pp. 172-176
- Signed, Sealed, Delivered
- pp. 177-179
- Love Is the Law
- pp. 180-181
- I Am the Cosmos
- pp. 184-186
- Georgia on My Mind
- pp. 187-188
- 9. Minneapolis Confidential
- pp. 191-193
- Geese of Beverly Road
- pp. 193-196
- Greetings from Lake We Be Gone
- pp. 197-200
- Phantom of First Avenue
- pp. 201-203
- Winter of Our Swedish Fiddler
- pp. 204-206
- All These Weeks
- pp. 207-209
- 10. Mix #4: Funky Ceili
- pp. 210-211
- Free Your Mind...
- pp. 211-214
- Grindstone
- pp. 215-217
- Ballad of El Goodo
- pp. 222-224
- Second to No One
- pp. 225-229
- 11. Prince in the ’90s
- pp. 230-231
- Emancipation
- pp. 231-241
- Give Up the Funk
- pp. 242-246
- Everyday People
- pp. 247-251
- I Wish U Heaven
- pp. 252-255
- 12. Mix #5: Float On
- pp. 256-257
- Bittersweet Symphony
- pp. 257-260
- How to Fight Loneliness
- pp. 264-269
- She’s So Heavy
- pp. 270-277
- Looking for the Northern Lights
- pp. 278-279
- If You Want to Sing Out, Sing Out
- pp. 283-286
- Acknowledgments
- pp. 287-288