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| With the Turtles' Flo (at right) and Eddie backstage at the Bottom Line, probably on or around New Year's Eve 1990. |
The Catholic news site Crux today features an interview with me about my new memoir Sunday Will Never Be the Same. Here's a taste:
The book has an interesting title. Why did you want to drive home the point that “Sunday will never be the same”? What does your choosing this title reveal about your conversion experience?
It reveals, first of all, that I love Sixties pop music, for “Sunday Will Never Be the Same” is the title of a classic hit by Spanky and Our Gang.
The song is part of a genre called sunshine pop that I helped popularize as a rock historian during the late 1980s and 1990s - yes, I started during my teens! I tell about that time of my life in Sunday Will Never Be the Same, partly because it was also a time when God was trying to reach me. But I also discuss it because I don’t think converts such as myself should despise our past loves when those loves weren’t sinful in themselves.
In my case, God used my love of Sixties pop - including artists like the Zombies, the Kinks, and the Left Banke - to stir up my desire for what songwriter Robyn Hitchcock calls a “Shimmering Distant Love.” The music’s beauty made me hope that there was something transcendent that I could attain to and find happiness. And that is in fact what happened - only not as I originally hoped, which was simply that I would find a husband who liked the same music that I did.
My memoir’s title is also meaningful because, in times past, Saturday night was the highlight of my week. It was then that I would go out to hear live music, whereas Sundays were for sleeping in. But once I became Catholic, Sunday became a day for communing with Jesus in the Eucharist. So Sunday truly never will be the same for me.Read the entire interview at Crux.
Sunday Will Never Be the Same is available from Catholic Answers, Amazon, and wherever fine books are sold.
Would you like me to tell my story at your parish, university, or other venue? Write me at the email address at the bottom of my Contact page.
