# Help find fantasy/rock and roll book **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 12, 2009, 4:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-find-fantasy-rock-and-roll-book/509793 "2009-09-12T04:26:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2009, 4:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-find-fantasy-rock-and-roll-book/509793/1 "2009-09-12T04:26:54Z")
The premise is that this guy listens to rock and roll albums by a dead artist, hears a _new_ song by said artist then gets transported to a timeline where said artist never dies. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Plastic\_Ninja](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f07891/32.png) [@Little\_Plastic\_Ninja](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Plastic_Ninja)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2009, 4:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-find-fantasy-rock-and-roll-book/509793/2 "2009-09-12T04:51:41Z")
That one I don’t know. It reminds me of Spider Robinson’s short story “The Law Of Conservation of Pain” though – a story about a time traveler who falls in love with a blues singer who makes the most poignant, painful, beautiful music because of the tragic life she’s led and goes back in time to make it better. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2009, 6:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-find-fantasy-rock-and-roll-book/509793/3 "2009-09-12T06:15:49Z")
It’s probably not George R.R. Martin _Armageddon Rag_… but you should read that. ---
**Author:** ![Cisco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ccd318/32.png) [@Cisco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cisco)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2009, 7:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-find-fantasy-rock-and-roll-book/509793/4 "2009-09-12T07:05:58Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > The premise is that this guy listens to rock and roll albums by a dead artist, hears a _new_ song by said artist then gets transported to a timeline where said artist never dies. I do not know that book, sorry. ---
**Author:** ![Oakminster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/77aa72/32.png) [@Oakminster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oakminster)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2009, 7:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-find-fantasy-rock-and-roll-book/509793/5 "2009-09-12T07:10:57Z")
I can’t help either, but if someone can identify the book, I want to read it. Sounds interesting. Would it be a fictional artist, or based on someone real? ---
**Author:** ![Manwich](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e480ec/32.png) [@Manwich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Manwich)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2009, 7:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-find-fantasy-rock-and-roll-book/509793/6 "2009-09-12T07:44:33Z")
Sounds like you are talking about \*Glimpses \*by Lewis Shiner. I quite enjoyed it and it is apparently quite well researched. If you are interested in the Beatles, Beach Boys and/or Jimi Hendrix, you should like it. A warning though - it is quite hippy-flavoured, if that sort of thing puts you off. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Some\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ad7895/32.png) [@Just\_Some\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Some_Guy)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2009, 9:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-find-fantasy-rock-and-roll-book/509793/7 "2009-09-12T09:13:45Z")
> [@Manwich](#): > > Sounds like you are talking about \*Glimpses \*by Lewis Shiner. I quite enjoyed it and it is apparently quite well researched. If you are interested in the Beatles, Beach Boys and/or Jimi Hendrix, you should like it. A warning though - it is quite hippy-flavoured, if that sort of thing puts you off. That’s the one I was thinking of though in _Glimpses_ it was the main character who was creating the new songs through some ability he possessed; he could think about the situation that would make a timeline where the lost song would be produced and then make it play out of a nearby speaker. Eventually he does use this ability to apparently travel through time to meet an artist but in this case the artist was still alive when he traveled. And that middle third of the novel where he wanders off to have an affair and gets taught about how terrific wicca is just plain terrible. ---
**Author:** ![Meurglys](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/258eb7/32.png) [@Meurglys](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meurglys)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2009, 10:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-find-fantasy-rock-and-roll-book/509793/8 "2009-09-12T10:52:47Z")
It sounds like _Glimpses_ to me, as well. Major spoilers for the book:Initially he hears a different production of a Beatles song from _Let It Be_ coming through his hi-fi as he repairs it (he’s a hi-fi repairer and it’s set well before all the releases of different studio takes, etc.) and manages to make a bootleg release of it. Later he does the same sort of thing with awkward albums for the Beach Boys and the Doors (but actually gets to meet them and go to their studios) and eventually meets Hendrix but then the novel kind of stops. All the band stuff was really well done, and I rated the other aspects of the novel higher than J **ust Some Guy** did! If it’s not _Glimpses_, I don’t know what it might be. ---
**Author:** ![Manwich](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e480ec/32.png) [@Manwich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Manwich)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2009, 12:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-find-fantasy-rock-and-roll-book/509793/9 "2009-09-12T12:42:40Z")
> [@Meurglys](#): > > All the band stuff was really well done, and I rated the other aspects of the novel higher than J **ust Some Guy** did! > > If it’s not _Glimpses_, I don’t know what it might be. Yeah, I really enjoyed reading it but at the same time thought it was pretty cheesy. It was pure music fan “what if” fantasy. ---
**Author:** ![Meurglys](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/258eb7/32.png) [@Meurglys](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meurglys)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2009, 2:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-find-fantasy-rock-and-roll-book/509793/10 "2009-09-12T14:29:37Z")
I suppose, but I really like **Shiner** as a writer and I’m sure I read at least one section as a short story a couple of years before the novel came out. He has another ‘music biz’ novel called _Say Goodbye_, about a female singer/songwriter _almost_ making it big… ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2009, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-find-fantasy-rock-and-roll-book/509793/11 "2009-09-12T15:13:38Z")
Thank you all-_Glimpses_ is the book I’m looking for.