It would seem, on the face of things, that the musicians who want to be writers greatly outnumber the writers who want to be musicians. Maybe John Updike harbors a secret desire to strap on a Stratocaster and stand nobly under a shower of pubescent panties, but, as of yet, we have no evidence to support this. On the other hand, Bob Dylan, Jim Morrison, Leonard Cohen, Pete Townshend, John Lennon, Jewel and countless other misguided pop stars have all published works of fiction or poetry, most of them very, very bad. Yes, it's always possible that Sir Paul McCartney's soon-to-be-published collection of poetry -- elegies for his dead wife, Linda -- won't be one big cringefest. Possible but unlikely. To write poetry is to risk ridicule. When you do it right, it's sublime and terrifying (and all but ignored by the public at large). When it's bad,... More >>>