Rick Berlin

The Paragraphs is a memoir of a life in music, made up of vignettes penned as exercises in songwriting by Boston music icon Rick Berlin.

Created from fragments used to write songs, this memoir recalls a life of music, a relationship with the animal world, and a two-day meth-fueled road trip. Berlin, a queer Boston music legend formerly the front-man of Orchestra Luna, Berlin Airlift, Rick Berlin: The Movie, and The Shelley Winters Project, and currently of The Nickel & Dime Band, is known for his zany lyrics and unflinching wit. Exploring boyhood, family relationships, and the dynamic social workings of Boston through the decades, Rick Berlin’s work is “uncategorizable…part punk, part musical theater, part sentimental sap, part wordplay master. Gold” (Amanda Palmer).

“Rick Berlin’s writing is as raw, luminous, open-hearted, profane, musical, magical as the man himself. Put on your seat belts.” —Beth Harrington (documentary filmmaker, The Winding Stream, member of The Modern Lovers)

“I love reading Berlin’s words. All the pretty young boys and girls got nothing on Rick. He can light up the darkest places.” —Carmelita (Bay State Rock, WAAF)