Search - Henry Rollins :: Everything

Be Bop story telling with a attitude

07/15/1998

(4 out of 5 stars)

"In responce to his award winning "Get in the van" CD out pops Everything. The CD is a abridged version of the book "Eyescream" composed of stories and prose that flow. The reading is very intense and on some occassions too melodramatic, but you could expect this from Rollins' style of writing. I found it the CD great and loved the background music. The background music is reminiscence of the '50 beatnik days and a delightful addition to Rollins writing. The music not only stands out, but actually flows with the reading and adds to the entire CD..if you loved Get in the Van..then you have to listen to EveryThing"

One of the greatest pieces of art I've ever encountered

brycepunk1 | New Paltz, NY United States | 09/02/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I've been a Rollins fan for years. In Everything, as oppsesd to some spoken word stuff, the only real humor is pure cynicism. These two cd's are quite possibly some of the purest reflections of the world I have ever encnountered. Reading the book was difficult, but with Rollins's voice and emphasis exactly where he intended, the punch is just right (for me... many of my friends found it a bit too intense... perhaps too real and in-your-face.)
From the start this pice is relentless. After a quick into Rollins thrusts you into his world, the world, into everything. "The other night on Lincoln Blvd. A mexican man with a bag of plastic racing cars went from store to store trying to sell the garbage. What the hell was he thinking? I wonder what the man who sold him the cars told him. That he was going to make alot of friends and get rich? That if no one bought this 'curd' he'd be stuck with it? His family was walking behind him. Two filthy children and his carbon monoxide-dulled wife. The rent is always due around here."
The theme is everything. It is all the things that drive people to do the horrible, seemilgly innevitable things they do. The weight of everything: drugs, cops, fear, deception, pain... all the emotions people try to forget Rollins cultivates in so many quick snaps it becomes an incredible thought that society hasn't imploded by now. That more people haven't simply snapped from all the things they have to deal with.
"How about that guy who took some potshots at the White House? How fullfilling it must have been to think that up in his kitchen, buy the guns and drive to DC, marvel that it looks just like he'd picured it, just like he'd seen it on TV, and then let loose and watch the white plaster fly. Most of us never get to realize a dream one tenth that intense."
At first it took me several sessions to get all the way through the bombardment of dark images and stories. The wild jazz-noise soundtrack adds to the chaos and feeling of uneasiness. But after completing the journey I found myself returning. Now I have most of the thing memorized.
This is not a piece of art for people who have a fragile view of life. Or maybe that is who it should be given to. The emotions in here are more intense than most people like to feel (top 40 lovesongs, compiled for 50 years, could not come close to sixty seconds of emotion in this piece.) I've dared friends to get all the way through just once and few make it... not because it is bad, but because it hits so 'darn' hard that few want to take the rest of the journey. Truly a masterpiece."