The title of Mitch Myers’s The Boy Who Cried Freebird: Rock & Roll Fables and Sonic Storytelling pretty much says it all: a collection of fictional stories and legends that relate to music and rock idols. Obviously, this book has the potential to either be wonderful or quite atrocious. You’d think that the fact that Myers is related to the legendary Shel Silverstein might swing you in Myer’s favor, but unfortunately, this isn’t the case.

Before I go any further, it should be known that Myers is primarily a storyteller, and it is indicative of his writing technique. Myers has had commentaries broadcast on NPR’s All Things Considered and maintains the Shel Silverstein archive in Chicago. Ergo, given his background, Myers is best understood as an oral storyteller. Not a written storyteller. And the difference is imperative.

The problem is that the conventions of the oral tradition do not usually translate well into writing. Oral storytelling is absolutely dependent on the person telling the tale. A storyteller tends to depict narratives in oversimplified terms as an effort to relate to every listener. Details and important character-driven information is forgotten in order to tell a more interesting story and not bore those listening. The storyteller also uses vocal inflection and exaggerated gestures for auditory and visual emphasis. These elements don’t exist in literature. And that simplistic usage of language and lack of detail defines Myers’s writing style. In a sense, it’s great that Myers is being given another medium to share his stories. Unfortunately, because of the medium, the stories consistently stop short of being great.

In conjunction with the format, the stories don’t fulfill their potential. “Who Will Save the World” ponders what would happen if rock music actually could save the world. In this tale, aliens have invaded the earth, and apparently first-generation analong tapes of Black Sabbath’s “Paranoid” makes the aliens melt into goo. (My first problem with this idea is that it’s almost the exact same story as the movie Mars Attacks!, but what are you gonna do.). Oh, mind you, it’s great that Ozzy appears and is intended to play the song as a heroic gesture. However, the story actually ends before anything happens, and Myers concludes with a snarky comment. He does that to end more than half of these stories, making them feel both pointless and formulaic. While the story “Something Freaky This Way Comes” has enormous potential, it again falls flat. Here, young children visit a freak show at a carnival. They manage to sneak into the musical freak show as well, where they see Wesley Willis and Daniel Johnston playing a song together in completely different keys and tempos. Syd Barrett is just watchingTV. Cute way to praise music’s oddballs, although a bit unnerving, considering the notion of pointing and laughing at the mentally ill. However, again, that’s how the story ends.The idea calls for so much more but doesn’t deliver. The story I was most interested in was “Erector Set,” about a group of young boys who gather to listen to the Mekons and participate in a circle jerk. Sadly, the dialogue is leagues more advanced than any 9-year-old boy would be capable of, but again, the idea behind the story is engaging. Especially when the main character is more intrigued by his friend’s record collection than by getting off.

Oddly enough, it’s when Myers steps out of fictional storytelling that he is rather successful. Throughout Freebird are nonfiction essays about various musical movements and idols. Richard Meltzer is given attention, as is Allen Ginsberg, Aretha Franklin, and Albert Ayer. The essays delve into the work relationships these idols endured, often in excrutiating detail. Among the most interesting essays is one on Lou Reed’s infamous Metal Machine Music. Myers conducts interviews with various people (even those close to him) to gain perspective on the album, resulting in extreme perspectives.

Given such a gap in genre and range in subject matter, The Boy Who Cried Freebird feels awkward and disjointed. The collection certainly has its moments but many times has the potential to seem insipid to the reader. Nevertheless, I’m sure Freebird would see much greater success as an audio book, where Myers can perform these stories in an environment more apropos to his style.

Buy The Boy Who Cried Freebird from HarperEntertainment.