Too Much Too Late by Marc Spitz

Too Much Too Late is the story of The Jane Ashers, a band named after the British actress who dated Paul McCartney. In the early 90’s, the band starts to get some attention, and after playing some small shows and recording a demo, they finally manage to schedule their first big gig, opening for Liz Phair. However, due to some events in the personal lives of the band members, the gig is never played, and The Jane Ashers are put on a halt for 13 years. Fast forward to 2005: the guys are in their late thirties, and after not speaking to each other for a great number of years they decide to reunite and re-record the demo just for posteriority's sake. Well, with the help of – yes – the blogging world, the band gains momentum once again, and all the success they just missed in the 90’s is finally theirs.

This is a book that any music fan will most likely enjoy. There are a lot of references to bands, from Pavement, The White Stripes, Cat Power or The Pixies to The Rolling Stones, David Bowie and The Beatles. Being a big music fan myself, I got a kick out of these. The book also gives you a glimpse of the process of writing songs, especially in the first part of the story, which describes how the band was formed. The process of songwriting intrigues me. I think that in a way it’s very different from writing a novel, a story or even a poem. With those, once you’ve written them, they are written. But a song… a song is performed, it is played live countless times, and it often changes in the process. In that way, it is more like drama than any other literary genre.

I remember that earlier this year, when I saw Will Oldham aka Bonnie “Prince” Billy in concert, he said that he writes songs mostly to perpetuate something - a moment, an emotion, a specific memory, a relationship. And then when he plays them, night after night, he has to put himself in that place again, emotionally. And after a while, doing that ends up stealing the event in question from his life, and he ends up feeling a little scattered. I can imagine how that may happen, just like I can imagine not being able to play a song if you are unable or unwilling to put yourself in that emotional place again. At some point in the novel, the lead singer of the band, Harry Vance, says he has to write new songs because the old ones just aren’t true anymore.

Another thing I found very interesting is the way this story examines just what it takes for a band (or a writer, or any other kind of artist) to become big. Is it just luck – being in the right place at the right time, meeting the right people? Or is it endurance – making sure you’re always in the right place, until the right time finally comes? And could it be that if it takes too long, when it finally comes you discover that what you thought you wanted the most just isn’t right for your life anymore?

This book is about bands and the music world, but it’s also about people growing up and trying to find their places in life, regardless of what age they happen to be. The tone is casual, funny, bittersweet, and full of nostalgia for both what was and what might have been. Here is my favourite passage:

Do you know that feeling, when you’re in a crowd yourself, and the band onstage plays a song and everyone knows it? You’ve been walking around thinking you’re the only person in the world that feels that strongly about that music, and when you’re exposed to this communal recognition and you realize that that song means something to the guy next to you too, and you’re all here together, that’s a celebration: I’m not the only one who listened to this album alone in my room when I was sad.

Yes, I do know that feeling very well, and I absolutely love it.

This novel will certainly appeal to fans of movies like Almost Famous, or books like Nick Hornby’s High Fidelity. I must confess I was a little suspicious of Marc Spitz because he is also a music critic, and I tend to be a little wary of those. But no, he is a great writer, and his obvious passion for music is very present in the book. He has written another novel, How Soon is Never, which is about a disenchanted man in his thirties who is convinced that getting The Smiths back together will change his live. I have a feeling I will love it even more than this book.