Girl About Town of the Upper East Side Informer blog turns out another great review of an Unterberg Poetry Center event, last night’s talk with Rick Moody and Stephin Merritt:

Merritt seemed reluctant to talk about the meaning behind the lyrics he’d penned—most of which had been scribbled into his little black book as he sat in dark corners of bars, he said. Almost a smidgen resentful—or at least ready to flip the question back to the interviewer, author Rick Moody—was Merritt if Moody probed too deeply for more telling responses.

Even when Moody mentioned that “Book of Love” was played at both his wedding as well as, coincidentally, the wedding of a Y staffer, instead of answering the question thereafter posed—as to if knowing this was at all satisfying to Merritt as an artist—the singer-songwriter instead turned the question back on Moody.

“Well, why did you decide to pick that song?” asked Merritt.

“It has tremendous emotional force,” said Moody.

And, yet, a force that Merritt would all but deny, seemingly unwilling to admit or agree to the potency of his own lyrics—even to Moody, a well-versed fan who in his introductory statement of the evening, spoke the accolade: “He’s the finest singer-songwriter of my generation.”

A dedication mirrored by the tenth-grade English teacher next to whom I happened to sit, who also sung Merritt’s praises before the show began. The teacher had traveled from Queens with a group of high school students to attend the performance.

Livejournaler “Maybe Tonite” adds:

I went into NYC with Keith, Craig, and Kelli to see Stephin Merritt. He was a part of some “Lyricist’s Voice” event held at the 92nd St. Y, and what I thought would be a boring lecture on music with a couple Stephin Merritt songs mixed in was actually an AMAZING interview with Stephin Merritt with a couple Stephin Merritt songs mixed in. Stephin is a fascinating, brilliant, and genuine individual, and hearing him talk about his music (and Meat Loaf’s music) while playing songs in between (Aging Spinsters, Walking My Gargoyle, The Book of Love) was a true treat.

Next Monday: The Art of the Book: Behind the Covers with Dave Eggers, Chip Kidd and Milton Glaser, 12/4/06.

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