ROB SHEFFIELD

Music journalist / author says Love is a Mix Tape

By Rob Turbovsky

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Music journalist Rob Sheffield, currently a Rolling Stone contributing editor, fell in love with fellow critic Renée Crist in 1989. Eight years later, she died suddenly in their kitchen from a pulmonary embolism while he was making French toast. A Boston native, Sheffield wrote his first book Love is a Mix Tape as an ever-changing soundtrack about the nervous excitement of their love and the paralyzing grief of his loss. Each chapter begins with a different track listing from his past, blending memory and alt-rock minutiae with candor, humor and, at times, remarkable anguish. Sheffield's story is music all by itself, generously sharing wondrous moments and lingering like a last note. We talked on the phone about the times, the tunes and "Louie, Louie."

How do you know when you're finished writing a book like this?

To tell the truth, I didn't really know I was done. I just had to draw the line somewhere. At one point in my drafts, the book was three times the size it is now. I thought I could write thousands of pages, and I still wouldn't scratch the surface about what made this person amazing and what made having that connection to her amazing. I just had to give up on the idea of truly completing the book.

How did writing about those memories and experiences change you?

When you're writing about memories and you're telling the stories, it changes your relationship to it in a way—but so does trying to cover it up and not tell the story. It seems like the story moves through you, and you either cooperate with that or you resist it. In any kind of grief experience, I think you're going to have the fear that memories will die. One of the really rewarding parts of the book for me is that a lot of our friends, a lot of Renée's friends, have told me stories about her that they haven't told before. The book kind of jogged their memories. That's gratifying because I think part of the reason that we feel the need to tell these stories is we don't want to forget. We don't want the world to forget.

You write about how you felt after first hearing Pavement. Is there something special about loving bands that are making music now?

Definitely. That's part of the reason to love rock and roll, as opposed to waltzes or tangos or lots of equally excellent music. To hear these bands, it was amazing that this was happening right now. That their best album was the one they were about to make, that their best song was the one they were about to write. That's part of the thrill of being a fan, that's why you're a fan of bands that are still doing it, still in the middle of the adventure.

You don't play an instrument. I've always thought that every rock critic did.

Almost all of them do and talk constantly about the awesome records they'd make because they know how, if only they had a few more chords or a little more free time. I'd love to be able to play, but I could never remember chords. When I was 20, I actually remembered three chords at the same time, and I made a tape of myself playing "Wild Thing" and "Louie, Louie." Those were the only songs I could play with those chords, and I played it on tape for like half an hour because I knew that I'd never be able to duplicate that feat.

Are you inspired or depressed by bands like Jet that also can't play three chords?

Inspired, definitely. Not so much Jet, but I'm always inspired by triumphs of incompetence. They're fighting the good fight for all of us.

ROB SHEFFIELD

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