Rise of the female rock memoir
September 5, 2015 1:50 PM   Subscribe

It’s an all-girl supergroup like no other: Pretenders leader Chrissie Hynde, Jamaican-born singer Grace Jones, Sleater-Kinney guitarist and “Portlandia” star Carrie Brownstein, folkie Jewel, punk poet Patti Smith and 1970s icon Carly Simon. Only these women aren’t reviving Lilith Fair. They’re part of the latest trend in book publishing. In a genre once wholly dominated by male rockers, female musicians are now finding their voices — and their book deals.
posted by Johnny Wallflower (28 comments total) 17 users marked this as a favorite
 
Let us not forget Rat Girl by Kristin Hersh of Throwing Muses.
posted by snortasprocket at 2:29 PM on September 5, 2015 [10 favorites]


And Petal Pusher by Laurie Lindeen of Zuzu's Petals
posted by superna at 2:42 PM on September 5, 2015 [3 favorites]


Darn, I came in looking forward to hearing this band.
posted by artdrectr at 2:58 PM on September 5, 2015 [7 favorites]


I didn't finish it, but Pat Benatar's Between a Rock and a Heart Place was pretty good. Not stellar, but pretty good.
posted by dfm500 at 3:07 PM on September 5, 2015 [3 favorites]


I cannot recommend Viv Albertine's Clothes, Clothes, Clothes. Music, Music, Music. Boys, Boys, Boys, which is mentioned in the article, enough. So much great stuff in that book.
posted by activitystory at 3:08 PM on September 5, 2015 [10 favorites]


Best of the lot: Tracey Thorn of Everything But The Girl's Bedsit Disco Queen. She's got a followup, Naked At The Albert Hall, that I haven't read yet, but the first is really, really good.

I like what Viv Albertine says in the article, "Men are all about mythmaking". Rock has its uses, but the men in it are often lacking in self-awareness, to say the least.
posted by Fnarf at 3:49 PM on September 5, 2015 [1 favorite]


Kim Gordon, too. Girl in a Band
posted by hwestiii at 3:51 PM on September 5, 2015 [3 favorites]


Damn I was just looking for biographies to buy a few days ago. Will definitely check several of these out, thanks.
Particularly interested in Kim Gordon's and Chrissie Hynde's.
I read Patti Smith's Just Kids last year and it's really, really good.
posted by chococat at 5:04 PM on September 5, 2015


Also, I know next to nothing about the Slits; should I still go for Viv Albertine's book?
posted by chococat at 5:07 PM on September 5, 2015 [1 favorite]


Just cracked Viv Albertine's book and can't wait to have time to delve further.
posted by elr at 5:11 PM on September 5, 2015


JUST KIDS is fucking magic.
posted by old_growler at 5:14 PM on September 5, 2015


JUST KIDS is fucking magic.

It really was good. Explains the scene she came up in so well, and paints a great sympathetic portrait of Mappelthorpe too. You'd figure a good lyricist would be a good prose writer, & you'd be right. I was quite moved by that book.
posted by Devils Rancher at 5:21 PM on September 5, 2015 [1 favorite]


That list should be amended to "awesome women in rock, and also Jewel and Sara Barellis." Seeing those names mixed in with Carrie Brownstein, Kim Gordon, Patti Smith, etc was like seeing the bitchy, shallow captains of the cheerleading squad slumming it with the nerd girls and art freaks.
posted by pxe2000 at 7:21 PM on September 5, 2015


Also, I know next to nothing about the Slits; should I still go for Viv Albertine's book?

Yes! I hadn't listened to The Slits in about 20 years. (I actually forgot what instrument Albertine played.) It's a damn good read.
posted by medeine at 7:27 PM on September 5, 2015 [2 favorites]


Also /Pleasure and Pain/ by Chrissie Amphlett (Divinyls).
posted by nickzoic at 7:46 PM on September 5, 2015 [1 favorite]


I miss Chrissie Amphlett.
posted by pxe2000 at 8:09 PM on September 5, 2015 [3 favorites]


I've heard that Lita Ford has a auitobio coming.
posted by jonmc at 8:12 PM on September 5, 2015


As does Kathy Valentine.
posted by Devils Rancher at 8:31 PM on September 5, 2015


The recent gendering of "memoir" and "autobiography" in the publishing world hasn't escaped me. One sounds like some dainty flowery thing that falls together with your cat by your side, and one sounds like serious literature with gravitas, something that will give your arm a good workout when you pick it up at B&N. I'd be interested in doing an analysis of press materials and book jackets to see who gets "memoir" and who gets "autobiography."

(And they're not the same thing. They're functionally different. But publishers play fast and loose with the definition all the time, so I think it's fair game.)
posted by mirepoix at 8:42 PM on September 5, 2015


I think we know who'll publish Carly Simon's book. Her father is the 'Simon' of Simon & Schuster.
posted by Seekerofsplendor at 9:02 PM on September 5, 2015




Let us not forget Rat Girl by Kristin Hersh of Throwing Muses.
She has another book, Don't Suck, Don't Die: Giving Up Vic Chesnutt, coming out in the University of Texas Press's 33 1/3 series next month.
posted by Sonny Jim at 5:19 AM on September 6, 2015 [2 favorites]




i almost never like memoirs/autobiographies and hate interviews even with musicians and i can swear the Patti Smith book is great, it shows that she's a performance poet/writer first. Just totally recommending to anyone looking for a good book
posted by maiamaia at 3:27 PM on September 6, 2015 [2 favorites]


I loved "Just Kids" I'm looking forward to reading Viv Albertine & Kristin Hersh's autobiographies now. I wish Poly Styrene had written one.
posted by evilDoug at 6:29 PM on September 6, 2015 [1 favorite]


Looking forward to the Viv Albertine book. I read Richard Hell's autobiography when I was in NYC last summer and really enjoyed it.
posted by persona au gratin at 11:20 AM on September 7, 2015


I'm apparently the only one who hated Just Kids, but I loved Rat Girl and Bedsit Disco Queen.

Shout out to Dolly Parton's magnificently entertaining My Life & Other Unfinished Business, too. Not to mention the dishy fun of Let's Talk About Pep by Sandy "Pep" Denton, one half of Salt'n'Pepa.
posted by Gin and Broadband at 12:49 PM on September 7, 2015


chrissie hynde continues her awful rape comments, going on bbc's women hour and saying that female pop stars provoke rape and are sex workers. i am honestly so sick over this. i looked up to her so much. i know this is a reaction to her own trauma, but she's doing real damage to people who will take those things to heart.
posted by nadawi at 3:30 PM on September 9, 2015


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