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Chuck Klosterman X
- The Audio Companion to a Highly Specific and Defiantly Incomplete History of the Early 21st Century
- Narrated by: Chuck Klosterman
- Length: 2 hrs and 56 mins
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Publisher's summary
New York Times best-selling author and cultural critic Chuck Klosterman presents a unique audio companion for Chuck Klosterman X, in which he contextualizes and reads from the collection of his best articles and essays, providing both a fascinating tour of the past decade and an ideal introduction to the mind of one of the sharpest and most prolific observers of our unusual times.
Klosterman has created an incomparable body of work in books, magazines, and newspapers and on the Web. His writing spans the realms of culture and sports while also addressing interpersonal issues, social quandaries, and ethical boundaries. Klosterman has written nine previous books, helped found and establish Grantland, served as the New York Times Magazine ethicist, worked on film and television productions, and contributed profiles and essays to outlets such as GQ, Esquire, The A.V. Club, Billboard, and The Guardian.
Chuck Klosterman X collects the most intriguing of those pieces, and, for this audio companion, Klosterman offers intimate and exclusive commentary about each piece, telling stories about each one, reading excerpts, and relating unexpected asides and digressions. Subjects include Breaking Bad, Lou Reed, zombies, KISS, Jimmy Page, Stephen Malkmus, steroids, Mountain Dew, Chinese democracy, the Beatles, Jonathan Franzen, Taylor Swift, Tim Tebow, Kobe Bryant, Usain Bolt, Eddie Van Halen, Charlie Brown, the Cleveland Browns, and many more cultural figures and pop phenomena.
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Purple Rain is a song, an album, and a film - each one a commercial success and cultural milestone. How did this semiautobiographical musical masterpiece that blurred R&B, pop, dance, and rock sounds come to alter the recording landscape and become an enduring touchstone for successive generations of fans?
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A Must-Read For Any PRINCE Fan
- By Bryan K. Chavez on 05-06-16
By: Alan Light
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Reveal: Robbie Williams
- By: Chris Heath
- Narrated by: Joe Jameson
- Length: 17 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
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An intimate, funny and frank account of the moments behind the music, of the truth behind the headlines and of the fascinatingly complicated man behind the imperious entertainer, Reveal is Robbie Williams as you've never seen him before. Best-selling author Chris Heath has been working closely with Robbie for many years to create a personal and raw account of fame, fortune, family and music - a vivid and detailed story of the real highs and lows as Robbie has found his way forward, that is unprecedented in its intimacy and honesty.
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Absolutely Briliant!
- By L. Elder on 10-01-17
By: Chris Heath
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All These Things That I've Done
- My Insane, Improbable Rock Life
- By: Matt Pinfield, Mitchell Cohen
- Narrated by: Mike Chamberlain
- Length: 7 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
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Matt Pinfield is the ultimate music fan. He's the guy who knows every song, artist, and musical riff ever recorded, down to the most obscure band's B-side single on its vinyl-only EP import. As a child, music helped Pinfield make sense of the world. Later he would approach his music idols after concerts and explain why he loved their music. As an adult, rock music inspired his career, fueled relationships, and, at times, became a life raft.
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great listen
- By nilda v. on 08-28-20
By: Matt Pinfield, and others
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You Herd Me!
- I'll Say It If Nobody Else Will
- By: Colin Cowherd
- Narrated by: Colin Cowherd
- Length: 7 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
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In this age of billion dollar athletic marketing campaigns, “feel good” philosophy with no connection to reality, and a Sports Media echo chamber that’s all too eager swallow whatever idiotic notion happens to be in vogue at the moment, it’s tough to find people who aren’t afraid to say what they’re really thinking.
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Great book, Repeats majority of themes from radio
- By Troy on 01-20-14
By: Colin Cowherd
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Beatles '66
- The Revolutionary Year
- By: Steve Turner
- Narrated by: Simon Vance
- Length: 12 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
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The year that changed everything for the Beatles was 1966 - the year of their last concert and of Revolver, their first album created to be listened to rather than performed. This was the year the Beatles risked their popularity by retiring from live performances, recording songs that explored alternative states of consciousness, experimenting with avant-garde ideas, and speaking their minds on issues of politics, war, and religion. Music journalist and Beatles expert Steve Turner investigates the enormous changes that took place in the Beatles' lives and work during 1966.
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Great listen
- By Tad Davis on 07-28-18
By: Steve Turner
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Light & Shade
- Conversations with Jimmy Page
- By: Brad Tolinski
- Narrated by: Robert Fass, John Lee
- Length: 7 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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More than 30 years after disbanding in 1980, Led Zeppelin continues to be celebrated for its artistic achievements, broad musical influence, and commercial success. The band's notorious exploits have been chronicled in bestselling books; yet none of the individual members of the band has penned a memoir nor cooperated to any degree with the press or a biographer.
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Production History, FY!
- By Amy Peacock on 02-21-17
By: Brad Tolinski
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Dreaming the Beatles
- A Love Story of One Band and the Whole World
- By: Rob Sheffield
- Narrated by: Rob Sheffield
- Length: 9 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
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Dreaming the Beatles is not another biography of the Beatles or a song-by-song analysis of the best of John and Paul. It isn't another exposé about how they broke up. It isn't a history of their gigs or their gear. It is a collection of essays telling the story of what this ubiquitous band means to a generation who grew up with the Beatles' music on their parents' stereos and their faces on T-shirts. What do the Beatles mean today? Why are they more famous and beloved now than ever? Find out.
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Wonderful ramble
- By Tad Davis on 05-18-17
By: Rob Sheffield
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Uncommon People
- The Rise and Fall of The Rock Stars
- By: David Hepworth
- Narrated by: Matthew Lloyd Davies
- Length: 10 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
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The age of the rock star, like the age of the cowboy, has passed. Like the cowboy, the idea of the rock star lives on in our imaginations. What did we see in them? Swagger. Recklessness. Sexual charisma. Damn-the-torpedoes self-belief. A certain way of carrying themselves. Good hair. Interesting shoes. Talent we wished we had. What did we want of them? To be larger than life but also like us. To live out their songs. To stay young forever. No wonder many didn't stay the course.
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INSIGHTFULL!
- By CLAUDIA R KENNEDY on 02-18-18
By: David Hepworth
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The Football Ramble
- By: Marcus Speller, Pete Donaldson, Luke Aaron Moore, and others
- Narrated by: Marcus Speller, Pete Donaldson, Luke Aaron Moore, and others
- Length: 7 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
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Downloaded over 10 million times a year, The Football Ramble podcast has established itself as the essential independent voice of football punditry. The weekly podcast has resonated with supporters around the world, and their sold-out live shows have been a massive hit with supporters. This audiobook is a collaboration by all four presenters and tackles the real issues from fans you won't see or hear on Sky Sports - or anywhere else, for that matter.
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Best Performance
- By Amazon Customer on 11-15-16
By: Marcus Speller, and others
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Anger Is an Energy
- My Life Uncensored
- By: John Lydon
- Narrated by: Derek Perkins
- Length: 18 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
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John Lydon is an icon - one of the most recognizable and influential cultural figures of the last 40 years. As Johnny Rotten, he was the lead singer of the Sex Pistols, the world's most notorious band. The Pistols shot to fame in the mid-1970s with songs such as "Anarchy in the U.K." and "God Save the Queen". So incendiary was their impact at the time that in their native England, the Houses of Parliament questioned whether they violated the Traitors and Treasons Act.
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I Just Can't
- By notamatopoeia on 12-30-15
By: John Lydon
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Fantasy Life
- The Outrageous, Uplifting, and Heartbreaking World of Fantasy Sports from the Guy Who's Lived It
- By: Matthew Berry
- Narrated by: Matthew Berry
- Length: 8 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
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In Fantasy Life, Berry celebrates every aspect of the fantasy sports world. Brilliant trash talk. Unbelievable trophies. Insane draft day locations. Shake-your-head-in-disbelief punishments. Ingenious attempts at cheating. And surprisingly uplifting stories that remind us why we play these games in the first place.
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Fun but repetitive
- By T. Myers on 01-09-14
By: Matthew Berry
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Luck or Something Like It
- A Memoir
- By: Kenny Rogers
- Narrated by: Taber Burns
- Length: 9 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
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A remarkable story of a boy who couldn't stop singing, and a man who knew how to hold 'em. For more than half a century, Kenny Rogers has been recording some of the most revered and beloved music in America and around the world. In that time, he has become a living legend by combining everything from R&B to country and gospel to folk in his unique voice to create a sound that's both wholly original and instantly recognizable.
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Fun to listen to.
- By b.sea on 07-25-19
By: Kenny Rogers
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Walk This Way
- Run-DMC, Aerosmith, and the Song That Changed American Music Forever
- By: Geoff Edgers
- Narrated by: Geoff Edgers
- Length: 6 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
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Washington Post staff writer Geoff Edgers takes a deep dive into the story behind "Walk This Way", Aerosmith and Run-DMC's legendary, groundbreaking mashup that forever changed music.
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A MUST LISTEN/READ
- By Aron Teo Lee on 05-17-19
By: Geoff Edgers
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Therapist Victoria Vick is contacted by a cryptic, unlikable man who insists his situation is unique and unfathomable. Vick becomes convinced that he suffers from a complex set of delusions: Y__, as she refers to him, claims to be a scientist who has stolen cloaking technology from an aborted government project in order to render himself nearly invisible. Unsure of his motives or honesty, Vick becomes obsessed with her patient....
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9.6 out of 10
- By Nils J. Rasmussen on 01-23-13
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We live in a culture of casual certitude. This has always been the case, no matter how often that certainty has failed. Though no generation believes there's nothing left to learn, every generation unconsciously assumes that what has already been defined and accepted is (probably) pretty close to how reality will be viewed in perpetuity. And then, of course, time passes. Ideas shift. Opinions invert. What once seemed reasonable eventually becomes absurd, replaced by modern perspectives that feel even more irrefutable and secure - until, of course, they don't.
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Another bad review for the narrator
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It was long ago, but not as long as it seems: The Berlin Wall fell and the Twin Towers collapsed. In between, one presidential election was allegedly decided by Ross Perot while another was plausibly decided by Ralph Nader. Landlines fell to cell phones, the internet exploded, and pop culture accelerated without the aid of technology that remembered everything. It was the last era with a real mainstream to either identify with or oppose. The ’90s brought about a revolution in the human condition, and a shift in consciousness, that we’re still struggling to understand.
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A Very White Middle-class Take On The Nineties
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Eating the Dinosaur
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In Eating the Dinosaur, Klosterman is more entertaining and incisive than ever. Whether he's dissecting the boredom of voyeurism, the reason why music fan's inevitably hate their favorite band's latest album, or why we love watching can't-miss superstars fail spectacularly, Klosterman remains obsessed with the relationship between expectation, reality, and living history. It's amateur anthropology for the present tense, and sometimes it's incredibly funny.
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Hillarious & Disturbing In (almost) Equal Measure
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What listeners say about Chuck Klosterman X
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Anonymous User
- 11-18-17
Eh, It was nice.
This was cool. Just kinda wish he would've simply read the articles rather than talk about them. I guess thats my bad for not reading the description. Probably the worst Chuck Klosterman book I've listened to, which means it's still very good.
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- P.
- 04-17-18
a fun companion by Chuck himself.
I'm sure people have already noted this is not the book itself; but as someone who will download and listen to any interview or podcast with Chuck Klosterman, I found it very enjoyable nonetheless.
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- Aurora
- 02-04-19
Klosterman keeps me thinking
I continue to enjoy Chuck Klosterman not only because he is an entertaining writer but I see him as the thinking man's writer who doesn't just talk about the what but the why, the larger cultural context or significance behind the band Kiss, death, and celebrityism and how these ideas have evolved. Klosterman is able to draw connections between events and people that seem irrelevant at first until you think differently a little like Malcolm Gladwell. It's helpful how he summarizes certain articles down to their essence in this book but in audio form it all goes by a little too fast. I was left wishing this piece was longer.
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- Harvey Lime
- 09-28-17
Fantastic companion to the book
I love that Chuck recorded this himself.
This is a great companion to the book because its like a behind thebscenes of what his motivations were when he was writing these pieces. The cotext he gives is really great.
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- thexhuckg
- 07-19-18
Companion to Full Collection
This is a audio companion, or more so summarized version of the essay collection. I would have preferred a straight read through, but the commentary was very enjoyable.
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- David Hausser
- 01-14-23
Retrospective for Fans
I love Chuck Klosterman, particularly is ability to tell thoughtful stories in articulate manners. This book certainly does that and informed me about a variety of his pieces that I hadn’t known existed. However, it’s not up to the level of his other book. This is mainly reviews of short pieces he has written in the early 2000s without the depth or narrative to tie them together. This is his Spaghetti Incident. For true fans only.
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- Log Jammin
- 05-16-17
not entire book -analysis by chuck k himself
I've read all of chuck klosterman's books and this is my first audio experience. it was awesome since chuck klosterman, himself, presents a brief 3-5 minute segment about each of the 30ish essays in the hard copy. nearly all are available for free online if you want the original essay.
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- Christine H.
- 11-24-17
Not the full text
I am a huge fan of Klosterman and really enjoy listening to him talk, usually on a podcast these days. So discovering this was not actually him reading “X...” but more just providing commentary on the essays themselves was not totally disappointing, but I feel like I may have thought twice about buying the audiobook if I had realized this. I guess I felt a little cheated although I don’t think it was anyone’s intention. Right from the get-go he says that he is not going to read the book and I did observe that the length of this audiobook is considerably shorter than others I own, so I am sure this info is available. I would call this a fine companion to the book, probably best listened to after reading the full text.
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- Amazon Customer
- 07-14-24
Bait and Switch
I was expecting him to read the Essays not to talk about the Essays
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- Chris Lee
- 08-02-18
Not the actual book
This is presented as the full book, but it's actually just an audio companion to the full book. It's cool that there's a different experience for audio, but when it's this much less content than the actual book, it should cost much less. Kind of feel topped off.
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