An illuminating and detailed account for music fans.
This memoir focuses on the great age of rock ’n’ roll, right up to the present.
In 1993, Wightman was a very successful corporate lawyer. But early on—Dion was his first hero—he fell in love with rock, a passion that persists today. Sometime after graduating from Ohio State University law school and settling in Columbus, he almost by accident fell into engaging and promoting—he would probably resist the term impresario—rock acts in and around that city. This venture, officially begun in 1995, was Zeppelin Productions, and it continues to this day. When an act was successful, he would ask the “Artistes”—his respectful term—who else they might recommend, and so the list of acts grew and so did the audience, the “tree,” as he calls it. At roughly the same time, he became associated with the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, aka “Rock Hall,” eventually heading up the whole enterprise. To call Wightman a mover and shaker is an understatement. He also comes across in this volume as a very likable guy and a world-class schmoozer. For the record, he considers Neil Young his favorite musician of all time, and Young’s Tonight’s the Night his all-time favorite album. And Jimmy Webb is “arguably the finest songwriter to ever grace a Zeppelin stage.”
The book is a veritable treasure trove of rich details and anecdotes about rock Artistes and their performances over the years with Zeppelin. To say that Wightman knew everybody would also be an understatement. And that is a problem. Unless readers are hardcore aficionados, the names and venues and whatnot begin to blur early on. There are too many names to keep straight, for example. Some, of course, are well known, but others not so much. There are also sobering reminders of how many of those rock stars finally beat their addictions or didn’t (see the “27 Club”). Readers who grew up with this music will find a very strong nostalgic element in these pages (Hot Tuna; Blood, Sweat, & Tears). That rock nostalgia will also bring back memories of many readers’ youths, which is part of the volume’s charm. The inclusion of Gordon Lightfoot (“If You Could Read My Mind”) shows that the line between rock and other genres is fuzzy. But in this memoir, everyone seems to be welcomed: Lightfoot, Simon and Garfunkel, Joan Baez, and many others. That said, a strong editor should have reined in Wightman somewhat. The author simply cannot resist telling one more anecdote about one more wonderful concert or describing one more venue or one more road trip, including hotel and roadie tidbits. But readers will find it hard to resist Wightman’s enthusiasm; they will end up admiring this impressive volume from a venerable fan. A generous selection of historical photographs is included.
An illuminating and detailed account for music fans.Pub Date: March 24, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-95-156812-2
Page Count: 350
Publisher: Small Batch Books
Review Posted Online: July 28, 2021
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
PERSPECTIVES
A blissfully vicarious, heartfelt glimpse into the life of a Manhattan burlesque dancer.
A former New York City dancer reflects on her zesty heyday in the 1970s.
Discovered on a Manhattan street in 2020 and introduced on Stanton’s Humans of New York Instagram page, Johnson, then 76, shares her dynamic history as a “fiercely independent” Black burlesque dancer who used the stage name Tanqueray and became a celebrated fixture in midtown adult theaters. “I was the only black girl making white girl money,” she boasts, telling a vibrant story about sex and struggle in a bygone era. Frank and unapologetic, Johnson vividly captures aspects of her former life as a stage seductress shimmying to blues tracks during 18-minute sets or sewing lingerie for plus-sized dancers. Though her work was far from the Broadway shows she dreamed about, it eventually became all about the nightly hustle to simply survive. Her anecdotes are humorous, heartfelt, and supremely captivating, recounted with the passion of a true survivor and the acerbic wit of a weathered, street-wise New Yorker. She shares stories of growing up in an abusive household in Albany in the 1940s, a teenage pregnancy, and prison time for robbery as nonchalantly as she recalls selling rhinestone G-strings to prostitutes to make them sparkle in the headlights of passing cars. Complemented by an array of revealing personal photographs, the narrative alternates between heartfelt nostalgia about the seedier side of Manhattan’s go-go scene and funny quips about her unconventional stage performances. Encounters with a variety of hardworking dancers, drag queens, and pimps, plus an account of the complexities of a first love with a drug-addled hustler, fill out the memoir with personality and candor. With a narrative assist from Stanton, the result is a consistently titillating and often moving story of human struggle as well as an insider glimpse into the days when Times Square was considered the Big Apple’s gloriously unpolished underbelly. The book also includes Yee’s lush watercolor illustrations.
A blissfully vicarious, heartfelt glimpse into the life of a Manhattan burlesque dancer.Pub Date: July 12, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-250-27827-2
Page Count: 192
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: July 27, 2022
A juicy story with some truly crazy moments, yet Anderson's good heart shines through.
The iconic model tells the story of her eventful life.
According to the acknowledgments, this memoir started as "a fifty-page poem and then grew into hundreds of pages of…more poetry." Readers will be glad that Anderson eventually turned to writing prose, since the well-told anecdotes and memorable character sketches are what make it a page-turner. The poetry (more accurately described as italicized notes-to-self with line breaks) remains strewn liberally through the pages, often summarizing the takeaway or the emotional impact of the events described: "I was / and still am / an exceptionally / easy target. / And, / I'm proud of that." This way of expressing herself is part of who she is, formed partly by her passion for Anaïs Nin and other writers; she is a serious maven of literature and the arts. The narrative gets off to a good start with Anderson’s nostalgic memories of her childhood in coastal Vancouver, raised by very young, very wild, and not very competent parents. Here and throughout the book, the author displays a remarkable lack of anger. She has faced abuse and mistreatment of many kinds over the decades, but she touches on the most appalling passages lightly—though not so lightly you don't feel the torment of the media attention on the events leading up to her divorce from Tommy Lee. Her trip to the pages of Playboy, which involved an escape from a violent fiance and sneaking across the border, is one of many jaw-dropping stories. In one interesting passage, Julian Assange's mother counsels Anderson to desexualize her image in order to be taken more seriously as an activist. She decided that “it was too late to turn back now”—that sexy is an inalienable part of who she is. Throughout her account of this kooky, messed-up, enviable, and often thrilling life, her humility (her sons "are true miracles, considering the gene pool") never fails her.
A juicy story with some truly crazy moments, yet Anderson's good heart shines through.Pub Date: Jan. 31, 2023
ISBN: 9780063226562
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Dey Street/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Dec. 5, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2023
SEEN & HEARD
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