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A Dream About Lightning Bugs

A Life of Music and Cheap Lessons

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A Dream About Lightning Bugs

By: Ben Folds
Narrated by: Ben Folds
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About this listen

Ben Folds is an internationally celebrated musician, singer-songwriter and former front man of the alternative rock band, Ben Folds Five, beloved for songs such as ‘Brick’, ‘You Don’t Know Me’, ‘Rockin’ the Suburbs’ and ‘The Luckiest’.

In A Dream About Lightning Bugs Folds looks back at his life so far in a charming, funny and wise chronicle of his artistic coming of age, infused with the wry observations of a natural storyteller. He opens up about finding his voice as a musician, becoming a rock anti-hero, and hauling a baby grand piano on and off stage for every performance.

From growing up in working class North Carolina childhood amid the race and class tensions that shaped his early songwriting to painful life lessons he learned the hard way, he also ruminates on music in the digital age, the absurdity of life on the road, and the challenges of sustaining a multi-decade, multi-faceted career in the music business.

A Dream About Lightning Bugs embodies what Folds has been singing about for years: Smile like you’ve got nothing to prove, because it hurts to grow up, and life flies by in seconds

©2019 Ben Folds (P)2019 Simon & Schuster UK Entertainment & Celebrities Celebrity Dream Funny

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Though having been a Ben Folds fan for a long time, I've lapsed a bit recently with keeping up with what he's doing. I took a bit of a chance on this, and I absolutely loved it. His narrating style is great, there are loads of amusing little interludes along the way and I'm sorry it's finished. Would highly recommend.

Loved it

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Interesting book with funny insights. I really enjoyed it, hope he makes some more soon !

Good for fans and music lovers

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Learning about a hero isn't always enjoyable. in this case it was wonderful as it gave an insight into the person and the songs and the creativity.

Another Ben Folds Masterpiece

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Fascinating, satisfying, hilarious book. Compulsory reading for fans and highly recommended for anyone who’s any kind of creative. The final chapter will blow your dick off. Ben Folds is the best kind of human being.

Warning: You’re about to fall in love...

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If you know who BF is and enjoy his work, then this is a great insight into his life. I'd recommend it. AND it's narrated by BF himself!

It's Ben Folds

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As an occasional fan of Folds' music, I found his memoirs to be interesting, and sometimes stimulating and amusing. It's probably fair to say that he's always been a bit of an unusual man -- some might say selfishly devoted to his compulsions. Those compulsions have spurred him to develop and exploit a huge musical talent, at a frequent cost to his wellbeing and the wellbeing of those around him. He acknowledges this with openness and honesty, as he tells his often fascinating story.

This book is best when Folds is sticking to a recollection of his life's story, instead of the occasional forays into his philosophies on songwriting (or abstract life philosophies in general), which I found to be a bit too esoteric. But it's clear that he has spent the last decade or so examining his life and motivations, so it's understandable that he would want to share these insights. Maybe an editor could have helped to abridge these parts of the book.

Folds is a good voice narrator. At first I found his delivery to be a bit monotone, but I got used to that after a while, and he does a good job of telling his own story.

So overall this was a good and engaging listen.

A mostly interesting story, well-told

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What can one say, it was a very interesting insight into Bens life with the background stories about the songs and his struggle along the path of success.

Wished it was longer.

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Loved it from start to finish, would recommend to anyone. It’s a great insight and a great story.

Fantastic

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Really enjoyed this and it went the extra mile with little sound effects, excerpts of songs and details that made it stand out from the basic 'read it and be done' biographies. You don't have to know anything about Ben Folds for it to take you on a journey, I knew very little other than liking some of the music and especially enjoyed the chapters on his earlier years and childhood. It's well written, well-read and an interesting insight into the life of a musician who is still learning cheap, and increasingly more expensive, lessons.

Enjoyable with lovely little extra sound touches

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Absolutely loved this. Part autobiography part Music process, craft and production guide . Ben Folds and in particular Ben Folds Five mean memories of a better time. Very irreverent and Fun

One angry dwarf and a brick

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