The Vinyl Diaries: boyfriends are music

04 Feb 2025 -

Pete Crighton is a Toronto boy who just wrote a book called The Vinyl Diaries. It’s the story of a gay man coming of age in the 90s and onward, and he cleverly pairs his experiences with the music he loved and listened to at that time. 

Crighton seems to have had many, many boyfriends, lots of them much younger. There’s no shortage of sex scenes in the book. But with each guy, he attaches a musical artist or a famous record album or song and uses it as the soundtrack of that part of his life. It’s a nice concept.

Being a local, the book is filled with Toronto references, and I loved that Crighton and myself were at many of the same concerts over the years. (He’s ten years younger than myself.) One of his closest friends is Baroness von Sketch’s Carolyn Taylor, and he has a lot of fun hanging out with her and her band, Mintz. 

As for the music, I particularly appreciated Crighton’s defence of Yoko Ono, who I believe is one of the most important conceptual artists of the last century and not just some screeching idiot who married John Lennon. (Ono was famous in the art world long before she met him.) I also enjoyed Crighton’s enthusiasm for the B-52s, Fleetwood Mac, St. Vincent, and local legend Mary Margaret O’Hara. It did bother me, however, that he puts an RIP in brackets next to the names of the many music venues that have closed in this city over the last four decades. I don’t like being reminded how much of my past has been bulldozed for the sake of another shitty condo. And I could do without the Morrissey bashing. Morrissey’s contributions to popular music will always be important to me. 

The Vinyl Diaries is a brisk, fun read with lots of nostalgic touches. I found it impossible not to go on Spotify while reading it to play some of the music Crighton mentions. Popular music and its healing powers saved many a young gay life back in the day. I think it still does.