While I have never been a fan of electronic music, I'll be damned if this memoir didn't make me a fan of Moby. Here's a guy I just couldn't help but like, even when I disagreed with his choices and philosophies......and I've learned over many memoirs that is usually not the case.
Here's a guy who grew up poor in Connecticut with a hippie mom who then later squatted in an abandoned industrial building learning his craft while crack addicts died just outside his window. Here's a guy who dreamed of NYC as his "dirty Mecca" and began DJing anywhere he could get a gig.....even at sexual fetish parties and nearly empty basement clubs. Here's a guy who as a young Christian admitted that he liked to make the other richer Christian kids feel guilty about their circumstances. Here's a guy who later began to question his beliefs and then lived a life of complete debauchery of alcoholism and strippers after his mother died. Here's a strict vegan who recycled used beer cans to buy fruit and milk and then made sandwiches to give to the homeless on the street. Here's a guy who thought his brief career was pretty much over in the late 90's and then went out to make one of the biggest records of the decade, Play.
Seriously, there's a lot to take in from this book but it's also fairly simple. In one anecdote, Moby is describing the difficulty in abstaining from sex in order to be a good Christian and then years later having sex standing up in the middle of a crowded dance floor. He'll relate the story of water skiing with friends on a sunny day and then remember the morning as he watched the sun rise over a rave in Europe after 3 different gigs in one bleary-eyed night. Then there's his drunken meeting with David Bowie in which he asks the late-great artist "how are you feeling?" to the time he met Madonna and she said succinctly with arms crossed across her chest "you're very talented". Oh, and don't forget the time he saw a young Jeff Buckley play in a quiet NYC coffee house. There's also a brief time of living in a loft with its own mob "protection" and wild times on tour with Lollapalooza.
All of this from a nerdy, white, skinny, vegan kid with a receding hairline. Don't forget that.
It's also amazing how pervasive Moby's music is. While reading the book I went online to listen to song samples and I realized I'd heard it in various places over years and years......in commercials, movies, as bumper music for radio programs.....everywhere. Some of it is light and airy and some of it is as loud and ferocious as you would expect to hear in the clubs where it was played. I think the music is a lot like the man himself: a study of contrasts, a portrait of light and dark, a duality of peacemaker and provocateur, a man who is both content and still seeking.
This book is worth the time whether the music is to your taste or not. I don't say this about many books, especially memoirs, but I think I actually learned something here. So, thanks for that, Moby.