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Let's Spend the Night Together: Backstage Secrets of Rock Muses and Supergroupies
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Music Books > Joan Baez > Item 1
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Let's Spend the Night Together: Backstage Secrets of Rock Muses and Supergroupies
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by Pamela Des Barres
Sales Rank: 12608
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List Price: $24.95
$16.47
At Amazon
on 12-29-2007.
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Features
Hardcover: 400 pages
Publisher: Chicago Review Press July 1, 2007
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1556526687
ISBN-13: 978-1556526688
Product Dimensions:
9 x 6 x 1.3 inches
Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
From Publishers Weekly
A groupie is to a rock band as Mary Magdalene was to Jesus, asserts L.A. rock author Des Barres (I'm with the Band) in this eager, self-congratulatory attempt to rehabilitate the term groupie through two dozen fun and well-documented examples of rock muses since the 1960s. Des Barres steers her interviewees to underscore their important role in making their rock star boyfriends look good and play well, such as Tura Satana, given the dubious title Miss Japan Beautiful, who met awkward young Elvis Presley on the burlesque circuit in the mid-'50s and taught him his shimmying moves. Des Barres recalls her groupie rivals back in the day, including Patti D'Arbanville, Bebe Buell, Lori Lightning and Catherine James. Cynthia Plaster Caster, the Rodin of Rock, shares her descriptions of her plaster replicas of rock stars' penises (including that of Jimmy Hendrix), while Dee Dee Keel spills tales of her oral exploits for British rockers with deplorable bathing habits, and male groupie Pleather relays Courtney Love's shaky self-esteem. In the end, it's all about the music, or as Pleasant Gehman sums it up blithely in this breathlessly gossipy scrapbook: Being a groupie is like worshipping at the church of rock and roll—and you are the high priestess.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
From Booklist
Des Barres' popular first book, I'm with the Band (1988), cemented her reputation as a pioneering groupie. Here she interviews 24 other women, including Gail Zappa, Bebe Buell, and Cherry Vanilla, similarly enamored of rock musicians, although the give-and-take between Des Barres and her interviewees often reads more like old friends trading war stories. And there are certainly plenty of stories to go around, with juicy details on the sexual habits of Jimmy Page, Cat Stevens, and Mick Jagger; for the younger set, there are some eye-opening revelations about the likes of Kurt Cobain and J. D. Fortune. Des Barres can sometimes throw a wet blanket on the proceedings with her rather heavy-handed and oft-repeated explication of groupies as "muses" (whatever). And there are a few queasy moments, as when a mother and daughter trade raunchy anecdotes. For the most part, though, these women, especially Cynthia Plaster Caster and Cassandra Peterson (who later became famous as the horror-film maven Elvira), share their unabashed enjoyment of sex, drugs, and rock 'n' roll in spirited fashion. Wilkinson, Joanne
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Owner Reviews, Ratings, Comments and Criticism
Let's Spend the Night Together is your armchair backstage pass to some of the biggest names in rock n' roll, from Elvis to Jimi Hendrix to Kurt Cobain. The book consists of two dozen first-person confessions from the girls who romanced the stars. These aren't cheap women looking for a thrill; women like Gail Zappa (wife of Frank) and Tura Satana (one-time fiancée of Elvis Presley) reveal the man behind the stage persona. Satura gave Elvis dancing lessons early in his career, and Zappa loved Frank despite his repeated dalliances with groupies. More legendary groupies like Cynthia Plaster Caster and Sweet Connie (of "We're An American Band" fame) also contributed chapters on their long lists of personal conquests. Pamela Des Barres is the natural choice for editing this collection--she wrote the groupie gold-standard tell-all I'm With the Band in 1987. The 24 confessions are scandalously entertaining, but the quality of the writers' perspective varies. Some women truly loved their paramours, others were out to carve notches in the belts, and still others manage to take an intellectual look at their experience. Des Barres appears to be riding the wave of groupie fame, but to cover that up, she waxes poetic about how groupies were muses and no longer suffer the negative connotations they used to. It's an up and down collection, and the reader can't help but notice that some women where just used by the bands (and not for artistic inspiration). Any rock fan will find some gems in the anthology, however.
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Let's Spend the Night Together: Backstage Secrets of Rock Muses and Supergroupies
Updated on 12-29-2007.
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