A Dream About Lightning Bugs: A Life of Music and Cheap Lessons

By Ben Folds

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • From the genre-defying icon Ben Folds comes a memoir that is as nuanced, witty, and relatable as his cult-classic songs.

“A Dream About Lightning Bugs reads like its author: intelligent, curious, unapologetically punk, and funny as hell.”—Sara Bareilles

NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY NPR AND PASTE

Ben Folds is a celebrated American singer-songwriter, beloved for songs such as “Brick,” “You Don’t Know Me,” “Rockin’ the Suburbs,” and “The Luckiest,” and is the former frontman of the alternative rock band Ben Folds Five. But Folds will be the first to tell you he’s an unconventional icon, more normcore than hardcore. Now, in his first book, Folds looks back at his life so far in a charming and wise chronicle of his artistic coming of age, infused with the wry observations of a natural storyteller. 

In the title chapter, “A Dream About Lightning Bugs,” Folds recalls his earliest childhood dream—and realizes how much it influenced his understanding of what it means to be an artist. In “Measure Twice, Cut Once” he learns to resist the urge to skip steps during the creative process. In “Hall Pass” he recounts his 1970s North Carolina working-class childhood, and in “Cheap Lessons” he returns to the painful life lessons he learned the hard way—but that luckily didn’t kill him. 

In his inimitable voice, both relatable and thought-provoking, Folds digs deep into the life experiences that shaped him, imparting hard-earned wisdom about both art and life. Collectively, these stories embody the message 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.

Praise for A Dream About Lightning Bugs
 
“Besides being super talented, and an incredibly poignant and multifaceted musician, Ben Folds is a fantastic author. I couldn’t put this book down—and not just because I taped it to my hand. Ben takes us into his mind and into his process from the very beginnings of his childhood to where he is today—one of the greatest musicians and writers that has ever graced the art.”—Bob Saget

• Language: English
• Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
• Release date: Jul 30, 2019
• ISBN: 9781984817280

Ben Folds

Ben Folds is a celebrated musician who has created a unique body of genre-bending music that includes pop albums with Ben Folds Five, multiple solo albums, and collaborations with artists ranging from Sara Bareilles to Regina Spektor to William Shatner. One of his recent albums, ‘So There’, a blend of pop songs and his Concerto for Piano and Orchestra, soared to #1 on both the Billboard classical and classical crossover charts. In 2017 he was named the first ever artistic advisor to the National Symphony Orchestra at the Kennedy Center. An avid photographer, Folds is a member of the prestigious Sony Artisans of Imagery. Folds is also an outspoken champion for arts education and music therapy. A Dream About Lightning Bugs is his first book. https://www.benfolds.com/book

Reviews for A Dream About Lightning Bugs

[brakketh-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Ben Folds describing his life and time, covering motivation and personal life philosophy. Made me very nostalgic for for late 90s and early 00s albums (listening eventuated).

[bookworm12_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I’ve been a Ben Folds fan since junior high. I loved reading about his childhood, time in Nashville, the beginning of Ben Folds Five, and his rise as a solo musician. The memoir is packed with anecdotes, bad language, his irreverent sense of humor, and life advice. From immature moments on stage to becoming a parent, he opens up. He doesn’t pull any punches recognizing his own faults, selfishness, & and struggles. As a fan, I was not disappointed!

[hcnewton · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This originally appeared at The Irresponsible Reader.--- So what about the middle-aged making pop music? Sure, it's allowed. But let’s be honest about what pop, or popular, music is. It's music for the mating age. It’s a soundtrack for that yearning, that youthful anger, those ideals and inside jokes of the teenagers and young adults as they experience the rough ride together. It fills an an important need. It help us get through to adulthood. Pop music can be a life jacket, a sexy security blanket, a hipster Hallmark card. And it communicates very real things. It also requires serious craft and is a competitive business, worthy of great respect. Pop music saved my ass as a kid, paid the bills in my earlier career. And I love to make fun of it.WHAT'S A DREAM ABOUT LIGHTNING BUGS ABOUT?Well, it's a memoir by Ben Folds, covering childhood through the present (give or take a few years). He talks about the teachers that helped him along the way, his struggles in various schools, his early music career (including being a one-man polka band), how horrible he is at marriage, the formation of Ben Folds Five, the dissolution of it, his solo career, parenting and how (and why) his career is shifting, his thoughts on writing, music, comedy and all sorts of other things.Basically, a little about everything.HIGHLIGHTSI don't have time—and you don't have the attention span—to write about all the things that are worth saying about this book. So, here's a quick list of some of the highlights of the book:* He has a section about humor records that he listened to as a kid, and muses on comedy in general. It was the first time in the book that things really clicked for me.* There's a section about life in the suburbs, the angry music associated with it in the 90s (and beyond) and I thought was really insightful.* The story about the release day for his album Rockin' the Suburbs and being live on the radio to promote it when the attacks for 9/11 happened. That chapter was just great.* It's hard to beat a section on writer's block by someone who's worked through it.* I'm a big fan of the (little known) band Fleming and John—him talking about them for a paragraph or two made me really happy. Also, the part of the book about William Shatner? There's nothing like a good Shatner story.* Folds has done some truly horrible things on tour—throwing piano stools on a regular basis with the band (and breaking other things with those stools), lying like crazy about his personal life on tour with John Mayer and the fallout from it. It ain't pretty, but it's good to see him talking about it.THE SPOTIFY PLAYLISTRandom House has a Spotify playlist for the book, which is just a great idea. It's a great soundtrack for the book or just fun to listen to on its own. There are many songs by Folds that he talks about or makes a passing reference to in the book. There are also many songs that he didn't write/record but that he talks about. If you like Folds/the music that inspired him—you're going to dig this.SO, WHAT DID I THINK ABOUT A DREAM ABOUT LIGHTNING BUGS?I enjoyed getting to know Folds a bit better—warts and all. It took a long time for me to really get into it, though. Yes, the parts about his early life were interesting—and I enjoyed it, but it was really easy to put the book down.But once we got to Ben Folds Five? I was hooked and I flew through the rest of the book. Maybe it's because I was getting background information on the band and music I knew so well. But I think it's because Folds shows a different kind of passion for things once his career started to take off and that passion translated into being more interesting reading. It's likely a little of both and a few other things, too.Some of the book that's less about him and his career and more about his thoughts about creating, performing, music, etc.—that's inspirational, motivational—and the kind of thing I'll come back to re-read from time to time.This probably isn't a book for people who aren't at least a casual fan of Folds as a solo artist or his band. But for those who are? It's a lot of fun, and worth the time.