Welcome to online-rare-books.co.uk - Information on Discount music books

Late summer's here and the time is right for THE SCRAPBOOK to start getting excited and impatient about September 6--the day after Labor Day. Not because SCRAPBOOK JR. heads back to school after the long break. Not because John Roberts heads over to the Senate for his confirmation hearings. Not even because the people of Egypt head to the polls for what could be their country's first-ever not-entirely-rigged presidential election. Nope. None of that trivial stuff.

THE SCRAPBOOK can hardly wait for September 6 because two objects of significant cultural interest will formally debut on that date.

The first comes from HarperCollins, runs 538 attractively hardcovered pages, and costs $27.95 (but can be had at a discount from most major booksellers, so there's really no excuse not to run right out and buy a copy). We're referring, of course, to The Weekly Standard: A Reader, 1995-2005, editor William Kristol's hand-picked selection of some of the best essays and articles--more than 70 of them--to have graced this magazine's pages during its inaugural decade. Having looked the volume over, THE SCRAPBOOK can personally attest to its impressive range and quality: from P.J. O'Rourke on Hillary Clinton to Larry Miller on Johnny Carson; from Fred Barnes on Karl Rove to John Podhoretz on Rudy Giuliani; from Matt Labash on Canada to Harvey Mansfield on Harvard; from Christopher Caldwell on Europe to Reuel Marc Gerecht on the Middle East; from David Frum on World War I to David Tell on World War II--and much, much more.

Also due out September 6, from Virgin Records: The Rolling Stones' A Bigger Bang, their first studio album since 1997. Which is a landmark THE SCRAPBOOK wouldn't care squat about, quite frankly, except for the part about us. And what part might that be, you ask? According to the publicity buzz surrounding the new CD, the Rolling Stones--lead singer and principal lyricist Sir Mick Jagger in particular--think THE SCRAPBOOK and all those who share our political sensibilities are "sweet." And they've gone ahead and recorded an anthem to that effect, and timed its release to exactly coincide with THE WEEKLY STANDARD's tenth anniversary.

Isn't that nice?

Excerpted lyrics to "Sweet Neo Con" have been circulating around the Internet for several weeks now. Some may choose to accept the authenticity of these excerpts on faith. And some will no doubt ignore the "sweet" part and pay exaggerated attention to certain of the less attractive characteristics Sir Mick purportedly attributes to the subject of this song. The otherwise unnamed "Neo Con" of the title, for example, is said to be a liar, a warmonger, and a tyrant. We're even led to believe that one of the song's key couplets goes like this: "You call yourself a Christian, I call you a hypocrite / You call yourself a patriot, well I think you're full of sh-- ..."

Nah. Mick Jagger would never talk like that.