Porcelain: A Memoir

Last updated

Porcelain: A Memoir
Moby - Porcelain - A Memoir.png
Cover to the hardcover edition
Author Moby
Audio read by Moby
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Subject
Genre Memoir
Set in1990s New York City
Publisher Penguin Press
Publication date
17 May 2016 (2016-05-17)
Media type
Pages416
ISBN 978-1-59420-642-9 (hardcover first edition)
OCLC 919858692
782.42166092
Followed by Then It Fell Apart  
Website Official website OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg

Porcelain: A Memoir is a 2016 memoir by American house musician Moby. Covering his youth in the 1970s until his worldwide success in the late 1990s with Play , the book also discusses the author's spiritual struggles as a Christian, initial avoidance of and eventual recreational drug use, [1] and interest in animal rights and veganism. The book has been met favorably by critics. He had plans for a future volume covering the following decade, which he eventually released in 2019 under the title Then It Fell Apart . [2] [3]

Contents

Plot

Chapters are centered around short stories, which Moby modeled after the sort of casual conversations that he would have at a bar, intending each one to end with a defined punch line. [4] [2] The book opens in 1976 with the author as a youth living with his mother in Darien and Stratford, Connecticut. After discussing some of his foundational memories of popular music, including Led Zeppelin and disco, [5] the book jumps ahead to 1989, after he has been living in an abandoned factory for two years. He eventually ends up doing regular gigs DJing at New York house clubs such as Limelight and Mars and begins recording his first songs as Voodoo Child. The book follows his personal relationships and recording career as he tours internationally in the mid 1990s and eventually becomes famous with the release of Play in 1999.

Reception

The book has received positive reviews from critics and authors. Rock critic Greg Kot of the Chicago Tribune called the book "exceptional and incisive". [4] The New York Journal of Books review by Paul LaRosa calls Moby a "shrewd, thoughtful, and insightful" author and ends, "This memoir has plenty of charm and if you grew up in the ’90s, this one’s for you. If not, well, it’s not THAT charming." [6]

Music from Porcelain

Music from Porcelain
Mixtape by
Moby and various artists
Released17 May 2016 (2016-05-17)
RecordedVarious
StudioVarious
Genre
Language
  • English
  • instrumental
Label Little Idiot
Because Music
Producer Various
CompilerMoby
Moby chronology
Long Ambients 1: Calm. Sleep.
(2016)
Music from Porcelain
(2016)
These Systems Are Failing
(2016)

To coincide with the release of the book, Moby assembled a compilation of songs he recorded during the period the book covers as well as a mixtape of others' music.

Track listing

Moby music
  1. "Mobility"
  2. "Go!" (woodtick mix)
  3. "Ah Ah"
  4. "Next Is the E"
  5. "Rock the House"
  6. "Thousand"
  7. "Feeling So Real"
  8. "God Moving Over the Face of the Waters"
  9. "Come On Baby"
  10. "That's When I Reach for My Revolver"
  11. "Honey"
  12. "Natural Blues"
  13. "Bodyrock"
  14. "Why Does My Heart Feel So Bad?"
  15. "Porcelain"
More music
  1. Raze  – "Break 4 Love"
  2. 808 State  – "Pacific State"
  3. A Tribe Called Quest  – "Scenario"
  4. Precious  – "Definition of a Track"
  5. Jungle Brothers  – "I’ll House You"
  6. Audio 2  – "Top Billing"
  7. Aly-us  – "Follow Me"
  8. Big Daddy Kane  – "Raw"
  9. Darryl McDaniels  – "Pause"
  10. Joey Beltram  – "Energy Flash"
  11. T.99  – "Anasthesia" (Out of History mix)
  12. Dream Frequency  – "Feel So Real"
  13. Jaydee  – "Plastic Dreams"
  14. Strafe  – "Set It Off"

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Moby</span> American musician

Richard Melville Hall, known professionally as Moby, is an American musician, songwriter, singer, producer, and animal rights activist. He has sold 20 million records worldwide. AllMusic considers him to be "among the most important dance music figures of the early 1990s, helping bring dance music to a mainstream audience both in the United States and the United Kingdom".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paul Auster</span> American writer and film director

Paul Benjamin Auster is an American writer and film director. His notable works include The New York Trilogy (1987), Moon Palace (1989), The Music of Chance (1990), The Book of Illusions (2002), The Brooklyn Follies (2005), Invisible (2009), Sunset Park (2010), Winter Journal (2012), and 4 3 2 1 (2017). His books have been translated into more than forty languages.

<i>Animal Rights</i> (album) 1996 studio album by Moby

Animal Rights is the fourth studio album by American musician Moby, released on September 23, 1996. The album was a temporary style shift from the electronica music that Moby had previously released to an alternative rock sound influenced by the hardcore punk music that he had enjoyed as a teenager. The album was released to mediocre critical reviews and commercial performance.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paul Bowles</span> American composer and writer (1910–1999)

Paul Frederic Bowles was an American expatriate composer, author, and translator. He became associated with the Moroccan city of Tangier, where he settled in 1947 and lived for 52 years to the end of his life.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alan Johnson</span> British Labour politician

Alan Arthur Johnson is a British politician who served as Secretary of State for Education and Skills from 2006 to 2007, Secretary of State for Health from 2007 to 2009, Home Secretary from 2009 to 2010, and Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer from 2010 to 2011. A member of the Labour Party, he was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Kingston upon Hull West and Hessle from 1997 to 2017.

<i>Play</i> (Moby album) 1999 studio album by Moby

Play is the fifth studio album by American electronic musician Moby. It was released on May 17, 1999, through Mute Records internationally and V2 Records in North America. Recording of the album began in mid-1997, following the release of Moby's fourth album, Animal Rights (1996), which deviated from his electronica style; Moby's goal for Play was to return to this style of music, blending downtempo with blues and roots music samples. Originally intended to be his final record, the album was recorded at Moby's home studio in Manhattan, New York.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Porcelain (song)</span> 2000 single by Moby

"Porcelain" is a song by American electronic musician Moby. It was released as the sixth single from his fifth studio album Play on April 25, 2000. Written by Moby, who also performs vocals on the recording, "Porcelain" is a melancholic song with lyrics reflecting on the breakup of a relationship. It features a lush musical backing that incorporates reversed strings and various synthesized elements. While Moby initially expressed disdain over the song and its production, he was eventually talked into including it on Play.

Douglas Century is a Canadian author and journalist. He was educated at Princeton University.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Margo Jefferson</span> American writer and academic (born 1947)

Margo Lillian Jefferson is an American writer and academic.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Maggie O'Farrell</span> Irish-British novelist, born 1972

Maggie O'Farrell, RSL, is a novelist from Northern Ireland. Her acclaimed first novel, After You'd Gone, won the Betty Trask Award, and a later one, The Hand That First Held Mine, the 2010 Costa Novel Award. She has twice been shortlisted since for the Costa Novel Award: for Instructions for a Heatwave in 2014 and This Must Be The Place in 2017. She appeared in the Waterstones 25 Authors for the Future. Her memoir I am, I am, I am: Seventeen Brushes with Death reached the top of the Sunday Times bestseller list. Her novel Hamnet won the Women's Prize for Fiction in 2020, and the fiction prize at the 2020 National Book Critics Circle Awards.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Maggie Nelson</span> American writer

Maggie Nelson is an American writer. She has been described as a genre-busting writer defying classification, working in autobiography, art criticism, theory, feminism, queerness, sexual violence, the history of the avant-garde, aesthetic theory, philosophy, scholarship, and poetry. Nelson has been the recipient of a 2016 MacArthur Fellowship, a 2012 Creative Capital Literature Fellowship, a 2011 NEA Fellowship in Poetry, and a 2010 Guggenheim Fellowship in Nonfiction. Other honors include the 2015 National Book Critics Circle Award in Criticism and a 2007 Andy Warhol Foundation/Creative Capital Arts Writers Grant.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Honey (Moby song)</span> 1998 single by Moby

"Honey" is a song by American electronic musician Moby. It was released as the lead single from his fifth studio album Play on August 24, 1998. The song samples the 1960 recording "Sometimes" by American blues singer Bessie Jones. Moby first heard "Sometimes" on a box set collection of folk music compiled by Alan Lomax, and subsequently composed "Honey" around vocal samples from the Jones song.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert Hilburn</span> American journalist

Robert Hilburn is an American pop music critic, author, and radio host. As critic and music editor at the Los Angeles Times from 1970 to 2005, his reviews, essays and profiles appeared in publications around the world. Hilburn has since written a memoir and best-selling biographies of Johnny Cash and Paul Simon. He was a member of the nominating committee of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame for more than 20 years and lives in Los Angeles.

<i>Chronicles: Volume One</i> 2004 memoir by Bob Dylan

Chronicles: Volume One is a memoir written by American musician Bob Dylan. The book was published on October 5, 2004, by Simon & Schuster.

<i>Hitch-22</i> 2010 memoir by Christopher Hitchens

Hitch-22: A Memoir is a memoir written by author and journalist Christopher Hitchens.

<i>Waging Heavy Peace</i> Book by Neil Young

Waging Heavy Peace: A Hippie Dream is the first autobiography by the rock musician Neil Young, published in 2012. Featuring a non-linear narrative, the book covers aspects of his career, family life, hobbies, and non-musical pursuits. It was generally well-received among critics.

<i>Who I Am</i> (book) 2012 memoir by Pete Townshend

Who I Am is a memoir by rock guitarist and composer Pete Townshend of the Who. It was published by HarperCollins in October 2012 in both book and e-book format, plus an unabridged 15-CD audiobook read by Townshend. The book chronicles Townshend's upbringing in London, the formation and evolution of the Who, and his struggles with rock stardom and drugs and alcohol. The title is a play on words, referring to the Who's hit single, "Who Are You" as well as the album of the same name.

<i>The Sellout</i> (novel) 2015 novel by Paul Beatty

The Sellout is a 2015 novel by Paul Beatty published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux, and in the UK by Oneworld Publications in 2016. The novel takes place in and around Los Angeles, California, and muses about the state of racial relations in the U.S. today. In October 2016, it won the Booker Prize, making Beatty the first US writer to win that award.

<i>Then It Fell Apart</i> Book by Moby

Then It Fell Apart is a 2019 memoir by American electronica musician Moby. Moby had previously written a memoir called Porcelain: A Memoir, published in 2016, which covered his life pre-fame. Then It Fell Apart covers the subsequent decade from 1999 to 2009 when Moby released the album Play to acclaim and success.

<i>All Visible Objects</i> 2020 studio album by Moby

All Visible Objects is the seventeenth studio album by American musician and singer-songwriter Moby, released on May 15, 2020 on Little Idiot and Mute Records. The album includes the singles "Power Is Taken", "Too Much Change", "My Only Love", "Morningside", "Rise Up in Love", "Forever", “Tecie" and “Refuge”.

References