Book Synopsis

In Fever, music critic Tim Riley argues that while political and athletic role models have let us down, rock and roll has provided enduring role models for men and women. From Elvis Presley to Tina Turner to Bruce Springsteen to Kurt Cobain and Courtney Love, Riley makes a persuasive case that rock and roll, far from the corrosive force that conservative critics make it out to be, has instead been a positive influence in people's lives, laying out gender-defying role models far more enduringly than movies, TV, or "real life."

Review Quotes

"Riley is at his very best." --The New York Observer

"Tim Riley's Fever combines brainy and audacious cultural analysis with genuine musical understanding--a combination rare enough to inspire exhilaration." --Tim Page, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Tim Page on Music

"In his new book, Fever, Tim Riley goes beyond his unique fusion of technical music knowledge and stunningly perceptive emotional exegesis of lyrics to a wider-angle social vision." --Ron Rosenbaum, The New York Observer

"Fever is a fascinating look at the ways rock has shaped how we think about sexual identity....Riley presents serious academic points within a rock-critic analysis of icons that even a layperson would appreciate....Witty, acerbic, and smart." --Charles R. Cross, author of Heavier Than Heaven

About the Author

Tim Riley is the author of Tell Me Why and Hard Rain. His commentary on pop culture has appeared in The Washington Post, Boston magazine, The Boston Phoenix, Salon, and Feed. He is currently the pop critic for NPR's Here and Now. He lives in Boston, Massachusetts.