I have always been a passionate music lover. Music–especially rock–and its creators have always fascinated me. My many adventures include becoming a music journalist, attending hundreds of concerts since the 1970s, and meeting many of my heroes who have since become legendary. This is why I love books that conjure memories or take me to musical moments in time that I have missed. Especially wonderful are the biographies written by or about bands, superstars and people who adore them.
It was revelatory to read about the struggles and oppression that this icon had to face in her life and career, especially at the controlling and abusive hands of her infamous producer/husband, Phil Spector. I was astonished to learn how hard Ronnie fought to break away to survive and to sing the truth, although she always made it seem effortless.
Despite all the hardship, it is refreshing that she told her story candidly. I love books about wild rock n’ roll experiences told by actual survivors, and this is one of the best! Ronnie’s memoir has been revised and updated since her passing in 2022.
Hailed by Rolling Stone magazine as one of the greatest rock memoirs of all time, Be My Baby is the true story of how Rock & Roll Hall of Famer Ronnie Spector carved out a space for herself against tremendous odds amid the chaos of the 1960s music scene and beyond.
With an introduction by Keith Richards and a new epilogue from Ronnie.
Ronnie Spector's first collaboration with producer Phil Spector, 'Be My Baby', stunned the world and shot girl group The Ronettes to stardom. No one could sing as clearly, as emotively as Ronnie. But her voice was soon…
I love this poetic elegy that Patti has written for her dear friend, lover, and comrade—artist and photographer Robert Mapplethorpe. It takes place in an exciting time and place—1969/1970s New York City. The city is just like I remember it; scum on the streets, hookers, pimps, rampant crime, triple-X movie theatres. But there is nowhere else these two innocent bohemians would rather be.
I have the updated paperback edition, which includes a magical story about a young writer who read the book. Her mother had acquired Mapplethorpe’s old writing desk at auction. I return to this book often when I need reassurance about deep love and friendship.
“Reading rocker Smith’s account of her relationship with photographer Robert Mapplethorpe, it’s hard not to believe in fate. How else to explain the chance encounter that threw them together, allowing both to blossom? Quirky and spellbinding.” -- People
It was the summer Coltrane died, the summer of love and riots, and the summer when a chance encounter in Brooklyn led two young people on a path of art, devotion, and initiation.
Patti Smith would evolve as a poet and performer, and Robert Mapplethorpe would direct his highly provocative style toward photography. Bound in innocence…
It was very interesting to follow Laurie Kaye’s progression from a childhood of neglect and abuse to radio fan and later, to becoming a radio star. Her resume of interviews with rock stars and celebrities is stunning. Her intimate descriptions made me feel as if I was there during her incredible moments with several Beatles members and other superstars, who warmed up to her intelligent questions.
Laurie got the scoop of a lifetime with her RKO radio team in 1980—an interview with John Lennon and Yoko Ono, which tragically turned out to be John’s last. He was murdered hours later. As the author of a Yoko Ono biography, I was thrilled that Laurie accurately described Yoko in a positive light. I found it exciting and harrowing to read about how Laurie’s life became entwined with the sudden death of Lennon, which shattered her psyche and shook the whole world. A great memoir mixing the personal with the historical.
In December 8, 1980, twenty-something rock journalist Laurie Kaye entered the legendary Dakota apartments on Manhattan's Upper West Side to co-conduct an interview with her longtime idol, John Lennon. It was the last interview Lennon would ever give - just hours later, outside that same building, Lennon was shot dead by a twenty-five-year-old man (whom Kaye refuses to refer to by name) whom Kaye herself had encountered after finishing the interview and stepping outside onto the street.
Kaye has beaten herself up ever since over her failure to recognise that the assassin - who blocked her path and harassed her…
Having lived through the time featured in Laura’s memoir, I was able to relive fond memories and learn much more about the people and incredible music of that era, when these bands were “our little secret” before the world caught on.
This memoir was written by Laura, the young drummer of the New York band Student Teachers in the late 1970s. Laura was Jimmy Destri's girlfriend (Blondie's drummer). She shares sometimes harrowing and many joyful tales of NYC’s downtown rock scene and the bands that would become legendary.
Nineteen seventy-seven. New York City. Dark. Dangerous. Thrilling. Punk Rock. Blondie. David Bowie. Drinking. Drugs. Happening at the speed of light.THSeventeen-year old Laura quaking within her skin while the bursting punk rock revolution explodes around her starts a band with her teenage friends called the Student Teachers. She's the drummer. They play legendary clubs a CBGB Max's Kansas City Hurrah a they rehearse madly write songs and tour the East Coast.THAll between final exams at school.THIn comes Jimmy Destri from Blondie. He thinks the Student Teachers are terrific! And then a he falls in love with Laura. He pulls her…
Cherry’s book is so delicious that I devoured it in one day. I was fascinated when I read about the early 70s New York City, when Cherry lived and worked in the best of both worlds. She was among Andy Warhol’s factory superstars and was also present at the beginning (and instrumental in the climax) of David Bowie’s Ziggy Stardust fame as his publicist and lover. When worlds collide, fabulous things happen! Cherry’s mission statement: ‘…the passion of the groupie is probably the purest, holiest thing in all of rock and roll.’
This was a long-awaited tome (in 2010) from someone in the midst of the mayhem—a fearless, sweet, vivacious 1970s groupie who became a “superstar.” Her first UK touring band included Sting of the Police. She released some albums and was a part of London’s early Punk scene.
Cherry Vanilla’s memoir takes us from the birth of rock to the explosion of punk, with memorable detours through the sexual revolution, the women’s lib movement, and the Theater of the Ridiculous. A wunderkind on Madison Avenue in the swinging sixties, Cherry found fame as a DJ in clubs in Manhattan and on the French Riviera, starred in Andy Warhol’s Pork in London, and gained notoriety as a groupie. Working as David Bowie’s PR rep (and occasional lover), she played a major part in introducing him to the US market. She was one of the few successful women in punk;…
The true story of the woman John Lennon loved. The first extensive exploration of the artist's life, struggles, art, activism, films, and music in stunning detail. Not only a biography—it is the ultimate reference guide to Ono’s work.
Includes fascinating insights about her ancestry and life in Japan during wartime, her career in avant-garde art before meeting Lennon, her twelve years with him, and over forty years of creativity since his death. It addresses the undeserved prejudice that she received as a child of war in Japan, as a woman, and as the wife of one of the Beatles. This 558-page book also covers Yoko’s activism for peace and women’s rights. The book illuminates Ono’s spiritual nature and wisdom.
This book is set in Montauk, under looming threat from a warming climate and overdevelopment. Now outsider Clancy, a thirty-six-year-old claims adjuster scarred by his orphan childhood, has inherited an unexpected legacy: the power to decide the fate of Montauk’s last parcel of undeveloped land. Everyone in town has a stake in the outcome, among them Julienne, an environmentalist and painter fighting to save the landscape that inspires her art; Theresa, a bartender whose trailer park home is jeopardized by coastal erosion; and Molly and Billy, who are struggling to hold onto their property against pressure to sell. When Clancy…
The Stark Beauty of Last Things is set in Montauk, the far reaches of the famed Hamptons, an area under looming threat from a warming climate and overdevelopment. Now outsider Clancy, a thirty-six-year-old claims adjuster scarred by his orphan childhood, has inherited an unexpected legacy: the power to decide the fate of Montauk's last parcel of undeveloped land.
Everyone in town has a stake in the outcome, among them Julienne, an environmentalist and painter fighting to save the landscape that inspires her art; Theresa, a bartender whose trailer park home is jeopardized by coastal erosion; and Molly and Billy, who…