Drivin’ Sideways: The Story of the Band DANGER DANGER
By: Aaron Joy
- Paperback: 336 pages
- Publisher: Lulu.com (January 1, 2020)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0359527051
- ISBN-13: 978-0359527052
- Product Dimensions: 6 x 0.8 x 9 inches
THE USUAL book about bands follows a predictable course of action: Band meets. Band plays together. Band makes album. Band has millions of adoring fans. Band gets in trouble, usually with drugs or women or something of that nature. Band breaks up. Band gets back together later, and all love each other, and start writing again. Band’s new album sucks. Nobody believes band is all forgiven. Everyone loses interest in band, so someone writes a book about it. Blah, blah, blah.
Some people really like that style of biographical band research. They like the idea of treating the band like it’s a literal discography, a timeline of events that seemed crammed into a specific order. Seldom, if ever, is life – and history – that neat, nice, and simple. If that’s your only reference of band biographies, then let me introduce you to something better: an intimate portrait of a band, composed over several hundred hours’ of research, detailing, and interviews that contain the actual words of band members. Enter in: Drivin’ Sideways: The Story of the Band DANGER DANGER.
I admit that DANGER DANGER wasn’t a band I was particularly familiar with prior to reading Aaron Joy’s work. Though familiar to a certain extent with the 80s metal scene, largely in part because my late husband was a huge metal fan (and saw many of the bands in person when he was still in his teens), DANGER DANGER wasn’t ever on my radar. Now that I’ve read it, I feel like I sat down and personally talked with each member of this band. Instead of presenting a timeline of events, Aaron does something unique with his book: he focuses on members of the band, one at a time, as well as the album creation and thoughts about the final product from the members themselves. Instead of just talking about their experiences with the band, he also provides an extensive background on their musical history, other bands and musical acts they were part of at different parts of their careers, including Michael Bolton, Megadeath, Savatage, Trans-Siberian Orchestra, Mahogany Rush, Alice Cooper, UFO, and beyond.
Aaron Joy holds back nothing in his honest assessments and critiques of the band, while still presenting the band’s story as their own, from their own words. From their early days with the moderate hit, BANG BANG, to their dark days of grunge’s sound with their album, Dawn, to reunions, quasi-reunions, breakups, and new members, the group’s entire history is found within its pages, written in a way that lets the band speak for themselves. Documented from hundreds of interviews, each band member’s thoughts are found in this book. Uncensored, raw, and sometimes shocking, you are able to hear exactly what the band thought about their own projects, their songs, what they thought was best or worst, what they enjoyed most, what they disliked, and how they feel about themselves, growing from DANGER DANGER now to the quasi-reunion present in the group, The Defiants.
It’s evident the author is a fan; not just of the band, but of many of the band’s members, and that can be heard in his commentaries, historical details, and array of knowledge that can only be had when one truly enjoys the music as well as the people. Sincere, intimate, and candid, the book reflects as if you aren’t just learning a band’s basics, but about the members of the band, themselves. After all, isn’t that what makes great music – feeling like you know the artists, rather than just ideas about them?
For those who are interested in band information, the book contains the group’s complete discography, a list of each member who was a part of DANGER DANGER, along with additional bands each member of the group belonged to at some point in time or another. The book also contains reviews of each album, tour locations, and a list of songs covered by the band throughout their history.
Unique to this writing is the “Closing Notes by the Author.” In it, Aaron shares why this book wasn’t just any old biographical writing; it is a reflection not just of the band, but of something he wanted to do, for a long time, and now set forth to do it. Helping to pull him through the confines of a difficult relationship, Drivin’ Sideways wasn’t just about giving the band a heads up, but also about a mutual achievement: reaching goals, completing things we always say we want to do, but never get around to doing, and accomplishing dreams, even when things seem impossible.
More than just a biography about a band, the author provides a true backdrop of the interconnected nature of the music industry. Through his essential detailing, I felt like I learned not just about a group, but also about how the music industry works: the good, the bad, and the hard, laborious work it takes for a band to go from status as unknown to having a devoted fan base. It’s not as simple as writing great songs, playing in huge arenas, and having thousands of adoring fans. There are details of production, songs that get written and then rewritten, fights and disagreements, and the inevitable way life enters the picture of musical fantasies and illusions: marriage, divorce, being broke, drugs, and the like, all of which have a way of influencing the music and the way a band is perceived.
If you are an 80s metal lover (even if you weren’t a fan of DANGER DANGER themselves), if you like music biographies, if you are interested in hearing where many of your favorite current bands are from (such as Trans-Siberian Orchestra), if you enjoy an “intimate portrait” of a group that influenced music, even if it was by accident, or you just like things that are real, cool, and different, this is the perfect book for you. Fresh enough to give an old band a new look – and even peer into their current through The Defiants, Drivin’ Sideways has all the components for a literary journey back into the 80s, through the 90s, the early 2000s, and today.
(Reviewed by Lee Ann B. Marino)
Book can be purchased here: https://www.amazon.com/Drivin-Sideways-Story-Band-Danger/dp/0359527051
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