FEATURE:
For the Early Christmas Shoppers
PHOTO CREDIT: @sincerelymedia/Unsplash
This Year’s Best Books for the Music Lover in Your Life
___________
THERE are lots of lists out right now…
PHOTO CREDIT: @anniespratt/Unsplash
that are collating the cream of the crop in terms of songs and albums. They are a vital part of music, but I wonder about other areas of music that are somewhat overlooked. Some sources have been prudent when it comes to assessing the best music books of 2019, but I wanted to add my voice. It is Christmas very shortly, and many people will be wondering what to get that music lover in their life. If you need some guides, I have compiled a list of the books that should be in your shopping cart – do your best to support bookshops rather than get them online if you can (I have put a link to where you can get the books online if you cannot get out). Here, for your browsing pleasure, are the best music books of this year…
Author: Patti Smith
Release Date: 24th September
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Overview:
“From the National Book Award-winning author of Just Kids and M Train, a profound, beautifully realized memoir in which dreams and reality are vividly woven into a tapestry of one transformative year.
Following a run of New Year’s concerts at San Francisco’s legendary Fillmore, Patti Smith finds herself tramping the coast of Santa Cruz, about to embark on a year of solitary wandering. Unfettered by logic or time, she draws us into her private wonderland with no design, yet heeding signs–including a talking sign that looms above her, prodding and sparring like the Cheshire Cat. In February, a surreal lunar year begins, bringing with it unexpected turns, heightened mischief, and inescapable sorrow. In a stranger’s words, “Anything is possible: after all, it’s the Year of the Monkey.” For Smith–inveterately curious, always exploring, tracking thoughts, writing–the year evolves as one of reckoning with the changes in life’s gyre: with loss, aging, and a dramatic shift in the political landscape of America” - https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/612671/year-of-the-monkey-by-patti-smith/
Buy: https://www.waterstones.com/book/year-of-the-monkey/patti-smith/9781526614759
Review:
“Elegant, poetic, wildly entertaining, touching—a beautifully realized and unique memoir that chronicles a transformative year in the life of one of our most multi-talented creative voices. Part travel journal, part reflexive essay on our times, and part meditation on existence at the edge of a new decade of life . . . Effortlessly weaving together fiction and nonfiction, Smith takes readers on two unique journeys: one that can be traced on a map and one, infinitely richer and more complex, that takes place inside her head and heart. Smith’s musical career sometimes threatens to overshadow her accomplishments in other creative fields—but every page in this book is packed with enough outstanding prose to constantly remind readers that Smith is an accomplished novelist, essayist, and poet who won the National Book Award in 2010. In her capable hands, a simple look at New York City in winter becomes a flash of beautiful poetry. Smith’s approach to nonfiction is unique and brave: It counts as true if it happened, if she imagined it, and if she felt it. This is a book about Smith and the world all around. And that is just one more reason why everyone should read it” - Gabino Iglesias, NPR
Afternoons with the Blinds Drawn
Author: Brett Anderson
Release Date: 3rd October
Publisher: Little, Brown Book Group
Overview:
“The second volume of memoirs from the engaging Suede frontman moves into the decadent whirlwind of the Britpop era, and finds Anderson battling addiction, narcissism and explosive creative tension within the band. Unflinchingly honest and elegantly written, Afternoons with the Blinds Drawn provides an intoxicating snapshot of a turbulent cultural era.
'A compelling personal account of the dramas of a singular British band' - Neil Tennant
The trajectory of Suede - hailed in infancy as both 'The Best New Band in Britain' and 'effete southern wankers' - is recalled with moving candour by its frontman Brett Anderson, whose vivid memoir swings seamlessly between the tender, witty, turbulent, euphoric and bittersweet.
Suede began by treading the familiar jobbing route of London's emerging new 1990s indie bands - gigs at ULU, the Powerhaus and the Old Trout in Windsor - and the dispiriting experience of playing a set to an audience of one. But in these halcyon days, their potential was undeniable. Anderson's creative partnership with guitarist Bernard Butler exposed a unique and brilliant hybrid of lyric and sound; together they were a luminescent team - burning brightly and creating some of the era's most revered songs and albums.
In Afternoons with the Blinds drawn, Anderson unflinchingly explores his relationship with addiction, heartfelt in the regret that early musical bonds were severed, and clear-eyed on his youthful persona. 'As a young man . . . I oscillated between morbid self-reflection and vainglorious narcissism' he writes. His honesty, sharply self-aware and articulate, makes this a compelling autobiography, and a brilliant insight into one of the most significant bands of the last quarter century” - https://www.waterstones.com/book/afternoons-with-the-blinds-drawn/brett-anderson/9781408711842
Buy: https://www.waterstones.com/book/afternoons-with-the-blinds-drawn/brett-anderson/9781408711842
Review:
“Afternoons With the Blinds Drawn follows Anderson through the next decade of triumph and disintegration. It begins with the motley crew-members “blinking from the debris of our rented rooms” into the glare of celebrity. In 1992 Suede were hailed by Melody Maker as the best new band in Britain. They were yet to release their debut single. Some saw them as overhyped poseurs; others lauded their androgynous aesthetic, their David Bowie and Lloyd Cole-influenced blend of leftfield rock, wiry pop and punkish lullaby, their songs of love in the gutter, jealousy and dissipation, trash and glitz.
Anderson developed a distinctive (and easy to parody) lexicon of urban decay and addled ardour, and, following the band’s eponymous first album – assisted by guitarist and fellow songwriter Bernard Butler – branched out to produce the gutsily wide-ranging second album Dog Man Star (1995), filled with soaring choruses, virtuosic guitar solos and, at one point, a 40-piece orchestra. Rolling Stone derided it as “pretentious”; fans lapped it up. By this stage Butler had jumped ship. Yet the next album, Coming Up (1996), proved they could do it without him. Further fame, infamy and fractiousness were to come. Not to mention lots and lots of drugs” – Toby Lichtig, The Guardian
A Dream About Lightning Bugs
Author: Ben Folds
Release Date: 22nd July
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Overview:
“Ben Folds is a celebrated American singer-songwriter, beloved for songs such as “Brick,” “You Don’t Know Me,” “Rockin’ the Suburbs,” and “The Luckiest,” and is the former frontman of the alternative rock band Ben Folds Five. But Folds will be the first to tell you he’s an unconventional icon, more normcore than hardcore. Now, in his first book, Folds looks back at his life so far in a charming and wise chronicle of his artistic coming of age, infused with the wry observations of a natural storyteller.
In the title chapter, “A Dream About Lightning Bugs,” Folds recalls his earliest childhood dream—and realizes how much it influenced his understanding of what it means to be an artist. In “Measure Twice, Cut Once” he learns to resist the urge to skip steps during the creative process. In “Hall Pass” he recounts his 1970s North Carolina working-class childhood, and in “Cheap Lessons” he returns to the painful life lessons he learned the hard way—but that luckily didn’t kill him.
In his inimitable voice, both relatable and thought-provoking, Folds digs deep into the life experiences that shaped him, imparting hard-earned wisdom about both art and life. Collectively, these stories embody the message Folds has been singing about for years: Smile like you’ve got nothing to prove, because it hurts to grow up, and life flies by in seconds” - https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/594446/a-dream-about-lightning-bugs-by-ben-folds/
Buy: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/594446/a-dream-about-lightning-bugs-by-ben-folds/
Review:
“Still, Folds knew they were onto something. The ’80s hair band scare had given way to the post-Nirvana, underground-misfits-go-pop vibe of the mid-’90s. Frontmen no longer needed to be mythic, heroic figures. They were free to be vulnerable and uncool and awkward, few more so than Ben Folds Five, a trio with no guitars, centered on a piano — “middle-class living room furniture” — which Folds insisted on lugging on club tours.
The trio never reached Beyoncé levels of fame, but for Folds, their early success was still rough going. Making music was easy enough, but industry glad-handing proved difficult. “The social part, the immersion in quasi-fame, sent my soul running for the recesses of my skull, where it crouched in hiding for years.” It got worse: The band’s second album had a single that landed. “Brick” was a wrenching piano ballad detailing Folds’s girlfriend’s teenage abortion. One of the unlikeliest songs to ever become a hit, its success was semi-scandalous back in 1997, and unthinkable today.
In the whole of human existence, no one has ever enjoyed being a rock star, or at least no one who has written a book about it. For Folds, fame, as expected, was a bummer. He doesn’t remember much of Ben Folds Five’s post-“Brick” ride, he writes, “and what I remember mostly makes me sad.” The trio never followed up “Brick” with another big hit, and their relationship disintegrated along with their chart prospects. They eventually broke up by email, and their reunion a few years later is scarcely mentioned” – Allison Stewart, The Washington Post
Me
Author: Elton John
Release Date: 15th October
Publisher: Pan Macmillan
Overview:
“From his 70s glam rock pomp to a settled twenty-first-century family life, the former Reg Dwight has been a consistent, iconic presence in British popular culture for the last fifty years. Me is the refreshingly candid and hugely entertaining memoir of an artist who lived the rock n roll lifestyle to the full.
In his first and only official autobiography, music icon Elton John reveals the truth about his extraordinary life, which is also the subject of the upcoming film Rocketman. The result is Me - the joyously funny, honest and moving story of the most enduringly successful singer/songwriter of all time.
Christened Reginald Dwight, he was a shy boy with Buddy Holly glasses who grew up in the London suburb of Pinner and dreamed of becoming a pop star. By the age of twenty-three, he was on his first tour of America, facing an astonished audience in his tight silver hotpants, bare legs and a T-shirt with ROCK AND ROLL emblazoned across it in sequins. Elton John had arrived and the music world would never be the same again.
His life has been full of drama, from the early rejection of his work with song-writing partner Bernie Taupin to spinning out of control as a chart-topping superstar; from half-heartedly trying to drown himself in his LA swimming pool to disco-dancing with the Queen; from friendships with John Lennon, Freddie Mercury and George Michael to setting up his AIDS Foundation. All the while, Elton was hiding a drug addiction that would grip him for over a decade.
In Me, Elton also writes powerfully about getting clean and changing his life, about finding love with David Furnish and becoming a father. In a voice that is warm, humble and open, this is Elton on his music and his relationships, his passions and his mistakes. This is a story that will stay with you, by a living legend” – https://www.waterstones.com/book/me/sir-elton-john/9781509853311
Buy: https://www.waterstones.com/book/me/sir-elton-john/9781509853311
Review:
“Me is its own original thing because Elton makes fun of no one more than himself. He is utterly, astonishingly, hilariously self-lacerating. A half-hearted suicide attempt at the height of his fame could have been played for drama; instead Elton merely asks: “Why was I behaving like such a twat?” He sums up the experience of writing songs for The Lion King, which ultimately won him an Oscar, as: “I was now writing a song about a warthog that farted a lot.” And yes, Elton was also mystified by the hysteria over the version of “Candle in the Wind” he wrote for Diana’s funeral.
One subject he has strikingly little interest in is his creation of a catalogue of music that is now a licence to print money. He is very sweet about his friendship with his longterm lyricist, Bernie Taupin, but the process of how they write their songs is dealt with in a single paragraph, which concludes: “I can’t explain it and I don’t want to explain it.” And yet there’s no doubt his talent is miraculous. Some of his songs took as long to write as they do to listen to; in one morning he knocked off “Mona Lisas and Mad Hatters”, “Amy” and “Rocket Man” before breakfast.
Elton has never come across as an especially warm celebrity: too sharp tongued, too ridiculous. Neither quality is played down in his memoir. And yet his clear-eyed honesty and his ear for the comic line make him a deeply appealing memoirist. By the end of the book I felt only regret that I am unlikely to get an invitation to join him on his yacht, where I could listen to him recall the time he asked Yoko Ono what happened to that herd of cattle she and John Lennon once bought: “Yoko shrugged and said, ‘Oh, I got rid of them. All that mooing” – Hadley Freeman, The Guardian
Glastonbury 50: The Official Story of Glastonbury Festival
Authors: Emily Eavis/Michael Eavis
Release Date: 31st October
Publisher: Orion Publishing Co
Overview:
“Glastonbury 50 is the authorised, behind-the-scenes, inside story of the music festival that has become a true global phenomenon.
The story begins in 1970. The day after Jimi Hendrix's death... dairy farmer Michael Eavis invites revellers to his field in Somerset to attend a 'Pop, Folk & Blues' festival. Tickets are GBP1 each, enticing more than a thousand customers with the promise of music, dance, poetry, theatre, lights and spontaneous entertainment - as well as free milk from his own Worthy Farm cows.
Fast forward through five tumultuous decades and the Eavis's vision now encompasses a gigantic 'city in the fields', with a total annual population nearing a quarter of a million. Tickets sell out within minutes, the show is beamed live to more than 40 countries around the globe, and over 3 million people are registered to attend. Meanwhile, the bill has expanded to include big name performers, artists and designers from every branch of the creative arts. Glastonbury Festival is now the largest outdoor green fields event in the world.
In their own words, Michael and Emily Eavis reveal the stories behind the headlines, and celebrate 50 years of history in the Vale of Avalon. They're joined by a host of big-name contributors from the world of music - among them Adele, JAY-Z, Dolly Parton, Chris Martin, Noel Gallagher, Lars Ulrich and Guy Garvey. They're joined by artists - Stanley Donwood, Kurt Jackson and many more. Writers - Caitlin Moran, Lauren Laverne, Billy Bragg - and by a host of photographers, from Seventies icon Brian Walker to rock and roll legends Jill Furmanovsky and Greg Williams.
Together they bring you the magic that makes Glastonbury, Glastonbury” – https://www.waterstones.com/book/glastonbury-50/emily-eavis/michael-eavis/9781409183938
Buy: https://www.waterstones.com/book/glastonbury-50/emily-eavis/michael-eavis/9781409183938
Review:
“I’ve only been twice but this book brings back every part of that electric warm feeling that you can only get at Glastonbury. It is truly the happiest place I have ever been in my life. If I could explain what I think Euphoria feels like in one word it would be Glastonbury and that would be kind of cheating because it describes every good, kind, warm and epic word in the dictionary and beyond. You arrive and wake up each morning being absolutely blown away by a world that is just fundamentally happy and grateful to be at Glastonbury then the artists you loved before and then the artists that you didn’t even know you loved yet and then the artists you would have never even considered blow your mind again and again and again and then by some miracle you find your way back to your tent and then get to do it all over again! No words but happy 50th Glastonbury and may there be 50 more and then 50 more after that and then 50 more to infinity at least xx” – Lauren Anderson
Revenge of the She-Punks: A Feminist Music History from Poly Styrene to Pussy Riot
Author: Vivien Goldman
Release Date: 7th May
Publisher: University of Texas Press
Overview:
“As an industry insider and pioneering post-punk musician, Vivien Goldman's perspective on music journalism is unusually well-rounded. In Revenge of the She-Punks, she probes four themes--identity, money, love, and protest--to explore what makes punk such a liberating art form for women.
With her visceral style, Goldman blends interviews, history, and her personal experience as one of Britain's first female music writers in a book that reads like a vivid documentary of a genre defined by dismantling boundaries. A discussion of the Patti Smith song "Free Money," for example, opens with Goldman on a shopping spree with Smith. Tamar-Kali, whose name pays homage to a Hindu goddess, describes the influence of her Gullah ancestors on her music, while the late Poly Styrene's daughter reflects on why her Somali-Scots-Irish mother wrote the 1978 punk anthem "Identity," with the refrain "Identity is the crisis you can't see." Other strands feature artists from farther afield (including in Colombia and Indonesia) and genre-busting revolutionaries such as Grace Jones, who wasn't exclusively punk but clearly influenced the movement while absorbing its liberating audacity. From punk's Euro origins to its international reach, this is an exhilarating world tour” – https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/41864518-revenge-of-the-she-punks
Buy: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Revenge-She-Punks-Feminist-History-Styrene/dp/147731654X
Review:
“Goldman moves far outside the usual American and British punk narratives. She meets artists like Jakarta’s Tika and the Dissidents, from the Indonesian scene that sprang up when Green Day played there in the Nineties. (And you thought they were just American idiots.) She includes stars like Blondie and Madonna, but also obscurities like the Spanish band Las Vulpes, who caused a national outrage when they played their song “Me Gusta Ser Una Zorra” (“I Like Being a Bitch” — an answer to Iggy’s “I Wanna Be Your Dog”) on TV.
One of the surprises is this story is how feminist punks created such long-lasting music out of such raw material. As daughters of the Bowie/Roxy glam tradition, they’d seize their ideas from anywhere. Like the Delta 5’s Bethan Peters says, “I don’t think we analyzed it too much; it was grab it and use it.” These bands prided themselves on keeping the music loose and impulsive; many had just barely begun to play. The Mo-Dettes’ Kate Korris tells a touching story about the Clash’s Joe Strummer, who handed her a guitar and showed her a couple of chords. He told her, “You can do anything with these two pieces of info; go for it.” As the artists in this book prove, Joe was right.
Compared to most of the (many) writers who have chronicled the London ’77 punk explosion, Goldman is refreshingly free of scenester score-settling. In her intro, she notes that when Chrissie Hynde heard the book title, she scoffed, “I don’t do revenge.” But as Goldman says, “In the case of punky females, revenge means getting the same access as your male peers, to make your own music, look and sound how you want, and be able to draw enough people to ensure the continuation of the process. Sounds simple enough, talent permitting, but as this book shows, it’s different for girls” – Rob Sheffield, Rolling Stone
Bruce Springsteen: The Stories Behind the Songs
Author: Brian Hiatt
Release Date: 7th March
Publisher: Welbeck Publishing Group
Overview:
“Packed full of insightful stories from Springsteen's long career, Bruce Springsteen: The Stories Behind the Songs takes a detailed look at each and every one of Springsteen's album tracks, providing a unique look at this rock legend's method, and includes many anecdotes and insights into the great American singer/songwriter.
This is the first book to cover every officially released track, from hits to obscurities, from 1974's Greetings From Asbury Park, N.J. to 2014's High Hopes.
Hiatt provides an exhaustive, meaningful and unique look at the writing, recording and significance of Springsteen's singular catalogue of songs. He draws on previously unseen interview material with Bruce himself, as well as many important people involved in the recording process over the years, including Roy Bittan, Nils Lofgren, David Sancious, Mike Appel, Bob Clearmountain, Ron Aniello, Jimmy Iovine, Louis Lahav, Chuck Plotkin, Tom Morello and Larry Alexander” – https://www.waterstones.com/book/bruce-springsteen-the-stories-behind-the-songs/brian-hiatt/9781787391215
Review:
“The photographs, which are in color and in black and white, document Springsteen’s life and depict him in all his many guises. Indeed, he has looked like a teenage tough, a workingman, a hunk, a biker, a mobster, and an all-American guy.
He has even looked like Frank Sinatra, another New Jersey success story.
In the photos in this book, Springsteen’s guitar—which seems to an extension of his body—is a tool, a weapon, a sex symbol, emblematic of the creative expression of the human spirit.
Bruce Springsteen is a reminder that when the singer/songwriter first came along, seemingly out of nowhere, and attracted attention, rock ’n’ roll seemed to be moribund if not dead.
It’s no wonder that in 1974, Jon Landau wrote, after attending a performance at the Harvard Square Theater, "I saw rock and roll future, and its name is Bruce Springsteen. And on a night when I needed to feel young, he made me feel like I was hearing music for the very first time.”
Nearly a whole generation, coming of age with Fats Domino, Chuck Berry, Elvis, the Beatles and the Stones, shared Landau’s sentiments. And it’s not surprising, either, that Landau went on to become the Boss’s manager and producer.
With the help of Landau and a crew of extremely talented musicians, Springsteen brought rock back to life by going to its roots in folk and in rhythm and blues.
Hiatt tells that story in an understated way, without bravado and without clichés. He shines a bright light on Bruce, and on the members of his band, including Clarence Clemons, Roy Bitten, Danny Federici, Patti Scialfa, and Steve Van Zandt—the names themselves tell an American story—who have reminded audiences that they, too, are born to run” – Jonah Rakin, New York Journal of Books
Jeff Buckley: His Own Voice: The Official Journals, Objects, and Ephemera
Author: Mary Guibert/David Browne
Release Date: 15th October
Publisher: Octopus Publishing Group
Overview:
“Includes never before seen hand written journals and diaries.
In 1994, an artist named Jeff Buckley released 'Grace', his debut album. Hailed immediately by the likes of Bono, Jimmy Page, and Robert Plant, as a singer, guitarist, and writer of a generation.
Throughout his life, Buckley obsessively kept journals chronicling his goals, inspirations, aspirations, and creative struggles. His diaries amount to one of the most insightful life chronicles any musical artist has ever left behind. Jeff Buckley: His Own Voice will mark the first-ever publication of Buckley's account of his journey through his handwritten diaries and lyrics. Combined with reproductions of other memorabilia, including letters, notes, and unpublished lyrics - the book will take readers deep inside Buckley's creative mind and personal life.
For those who grew up listening to Jeff's music and for those who are just discovering it, Jeff Buckley: His Own Voice will be an intimate portrait of one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century in his own extremely vibrant words and never seen before lyrics” – https://www.waterstones.com/book/jeff-buckley-his-own-voice/mary-guibert/david-browne/9781788400077
Buy: https://www.waterstones.com/book/jeff-buckley-his-own-voice/mary-guibert/david-browne/9781788400077
Review:
“What a lovely record of Jeff's far-reaching mind and heart, as he breaks away from his dreary hotel gig in California, moves to New York, and comes into his own as a performer and writer. Lyric drafts, memories, plans, meditations, lists — his handwriting speaks volumes. A beautiful document of a tender and deeply feeling soul. Thank you, Jeff” – Jascha
Morning Glory on the Vine - Early Songs and Drawings
Author: Joni Mitchell
Release Date: 22nd October
Publisher: Canongate
Overview:
“Originally handcrafted in 1971 as a gift for friends, this edition of Joni Mitchell’s best-loved poems, illustrations, watercolours and hand-lettered song lyrics is now publicly available for the first time. The perfect Christmas present for any Joni Mitchell fan” – https://canongate.co.uk/books/3098-morning-glory-on-the-vine-early-songs-and-drawings/
Buy: https://www.waterstones.com/book/morning-glory-on-the-vine/joni-mitchell/9781786898586
Review:
“I was really looking forward to this book. It is a book for the true fan Covers a period that Joni was very prolific. Would make a great Christmas present 10/10 Thankyou Leamington Great service as always” – Vaughan Jones
Another Day in the Life
Author: Ringo Starr (Author)/David Lynch (Foreword)/Henry Diltz (Foreword)
Release Date: 15th October
Publisher: Genesis Publications
Overview:
“Following the sell-out success of Postcards From The Boys (2003) and Photograph (2013), Genesis is excited to announce Another Day In The Life by Ringo Starr. The third in Ringo's series of books presents more than 500 observational photographs and rare images from the archives. In an original text of nearly 13,000-words, Ringo shares memories from throughout his life.
"I love taking photos of random things, and seeing how they all fit together. Whether it is at home or on the road, certain things catch my eye – and when I see something that interests me, that’s the emotion of it, and I want to capture it. I am a photographer as well as a musician. I love working with Genesis and had so much fun putting together this collection of images: photos taken by me and a few picked up along the way. I hope you enjoy it too." – Ringo Starr” - https://www.genesis-publications.com/book/9781905662586/another-day-in-the-life
Buy: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Another-Day-Life-Ringo-Starr/dp/1905662580
Review:
“The latest photograph book by Ringo Starr A Day in the Life published by Genesis Publications brings together a bunch of photos and musings by the Beatle, capturing moments that you might not necessarily associate with Starr. Pulling together pictures from his drumming career plus oddities from around the world this is an interesting delve into the mind of one of the great showmen.
You might expect with a member of The Beatles that any associated release would entail anything and everything to do with the Fabs. It is however interesting and refreshing to see a book that isn’t all about the screaming fans and how many sessions were played in Abbey Road, rather we get to see an altogether different side to Starr.
There are pictures of delicate flowers spawning from the spring season, pictures of fruit, different peace signs from around the world, artistic pictures often depicting psychedelic images, various images of Starr hanging in and around his well-known friends including McCartney, Joe Walsh and many more. We also get to know that Starr likes apple pie, just shame the book doesn’t come with a free sample.
Yes the book is not your traditional book that you might be expecting but it is entertaining, enlightening and refreshingly delicate in parts with the colours being particular attractive to look at. As you flick through the pages this could hopefully give ideas to other budding photographers in the making who want to have their images depictive in the stars with diamonds” – Matt Mead, Gigslutz
Face It: A Memoir
Author: Debbie Harry
Release Date: 1st October
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Overview:
“As a musician, an actor, a muse, an icon, the breadth of Debbie Harry’s impact on our culture has been matched by her almost Sphinx-like reticence about her inner life. Through it all – while being acclaimed as one of the most beautiful women in the world, prized by a galaxy of leading photographers and fashion designers, beloved by legions of fans for her relentless, high-octane performances, selling 50 million albums or being painted by Andy Warhol – Debbie Harry has infused her perennial Blondie persona with a heady mix of raw sexuality and sophisticated punk cool.
In Face It, Debbie Harry invites us into the complexity of who she is and how her life and career have played out over the last seven decades. Upending the standard music memoir, with a cutting-edge style keeping with the distinctive qualities of her multi-disciplined artistry, Face It.
includes a thoughtful introduction by Chris Stein, rare personal photos, original illustrations, fan artwork installations and more.
Peppered with colourful characters, Face It features everyone from bands Blondie came up with on the 1970s music scene – The Ramones, Television, Talking Heads, Iggy Pop and David Bowie – to artists like Jean-Michel Basquiat, Marina AbramoviÄ and H.R. Giger of Alien fame. It explores her successful acting career (she has starred in over 30 film roles, including David Cronenberg’s Videodrome and John Waters’s Hairspray), her weekends with William S. Burroughs and her attempted abduction by serial killer Ted Bundy. Ranging from the hardscrabble grit and grime of the early New York City years to times of glorious commercial success, interrupted by a plunge into heroin addiction, the near-death of partner Chris Stein, a heart-wrenching bankruptcy and Blondie’s break-up as a band, an amazing solo career and then a stunning return with Blondie, this is a cinematic story of an artist who has always set her own path. Inspirational, entertaining, shocking, humorous and eye-opening, Face It is a memoir as dynamic as its subject” - https://www.waterstones.com/book/face-it/debbie-harry/9780008229429
Buy: https://www.waterstones.com/book/face-it/debbie-harry/9780008229429
Review:
“There is no grand point to this exercise. “I thought a little bit of levity might be a good way to end my somewhat morose memoir, hence all this thumb business,” she explains, which just adds more bafflement to the pile. Harry’s memoir is not, in fact, a bummer. It’s true that she’s been stalked, raped, addicted to heroin, and hassled by Patti Smith, but Harry relates each incident, bad and good, with a “that’s life” literary deadpan. The rape, for example—by a knife-wielding home invader in ’70s New York City—did not inspire “a lot of fear” in her because “this happened before AIDS.” The worst thing about the attack, she writes, is that the rapist stole some of her guitars.
Despite all this history, late in the book Harry claims to have been surprised when her manager suggested she write about how she “broke ground as a female artist.” She just seems uninterested in being didactic on this subject: “I know there is misogyny and I know there is bias, but I’m more concerned with being good at what I do.” She’s also uninterested in getting very deep on certain personal mysteries, like the question of why she and Stein broke up in 1987 after more than a decade together. Her point of view as a songwriter gets only brief, sporadic treatment, though she does hit some highlights, such as her prescient brush with hip-hop on 1981’s “Rapture.”
On the final page, she admits, “I still have so much more to tell but being such a private person, I might not tell everything … It’s always best to leave the audience wanting more.” Holding back is an understandable maneuver for someone who’s been stared at so much, and it’s not quite right to call Face It evasive. She always comes off as tough and matter-of-fact and New York–y, very much the voice that complained about love as a “pain in the ass” in “Heart of Glass,” or that facetiously took down some “groupie supreme” in “Rip Her to Shreds.” Knowing that there are still those who expect her to be simply “a blonde in tight pants,” she tells her life story how she wants to tell it. And when she gets tired of sharing, Harry is kind enough not to extend a middle finger” – Spencer Kornhaber, The Atlantic