Author:
I love the flair these reveiwers write with
|
[
Next Thread |
Previous Thread |
Next Message |
Previous Message
]
Date Posted: 16:34:00 02/24/02 Sun
Author Host/IP: nyce1.nycetrucking.com/24.95.159.39
In reply to:
Andrea
's message, "BeBe Buell Book Reviews contd" on 04:38:20 01/05/02 Sat
This review just in from The Memphis Flyer...
Victor Bockris -- professional hanger-on, biographer to downtown '70s scenesters John Cale, Blondie, Patti Smith, Andy Wharhol, Lou Reed -- must have known he had his hands full with Bebe Buell, so it was essentially hands off this ex-Catholic schoolgirl and ex-Elite model, ex-Playboy centerfold and ex-Max's Kansas City regular, ex-bedmate to skinny-assed rock stars Todd Rundgren, Iggy Pop, David Bowie, Jimmy Page, Rod Stewart, Elvis Costello, Stiv Bators, et cetera, ad nauseum and ex-failed rocker herself, mother to actress Liv Tyler and still pretty as a picture thanks to Zoloft and Ritalin.
But one thing Buell thinks she isn't is a groupie. One thing Bockris and St. Martin's must have known she isn't is a writer. Hence: Rebel Heart, her autobiography, courtesy of Bockris, which reads like Elizabeth Taylor barking inanities into thin air or in the direction of Joanna Shimkus in Boom! : close to 400 pages of incoherent self-absorption masquerading as self-revelation and all of it stomach-churning. Translation: perfectly page-turning, so long as you check your brain at the door and don't mistake raw confession for the truth of the matter.
Example: Buell writes (or is it shouts?), triumphant at age 45, "I think that I have always been an instrument, I have always been a vehicle ... . I am one of those people who generate art, inspire it. ... I see myself as a powerful woman-man who can perform and who can channel all her favorite people, dead and alive."
Well, for "favorite people" (who are alive, so why are they being channeled?), that means Marianne Faithfull, Patti Smith, Debbie Harry, and assorted drag queens. If (it's true?) Buell did inspire Elvis Costello to write "I Want You," hey, she did accomplish something. But she needs to be thanking her lucky star, Steven Tyler, who is Liv's father, and Liv Tyler is going to be the one with the final handful: Bebe Buell when she hits old age and the self-delusion gets really ugly.
>Just thought those of you who didn't see this would be
>interested (from Q Magazine, England):
> You'd expect that a woman who spent the
>70's "hanging out" with Jagger, Bowie & Warren Beatty
>would have many a juicy tale. But Buell - model,
>singer, nother of Liv Tyler and prodigious shagger of
>rock stars - is primarily concerned with defending her
>reputation in this dull tome. Even with rock scribe
>Bockris helping her hold the pen, Buell is unable to
>recount and incident without re-iterating that she was
>a) beautiful, b)a musician in her own right and c) a
>muse NOT a groupie. For every titbit about Jagger
>wearing her lingerie, we must suffer the 'revelation'
>that Prince (who she never even met) wrote 'Little Red
>Corvette' about her, hence the lyric: "Bebe, you're
>much too fast." A little honesty and humour wouldn't
>have gone astray.
[
Next Thread |
Previous Thread |
Next Message |
Previous Message
]
|
Feedback: 
Memphis Flyer calls Bebe's book "incoherent self-absorption masquerading as self-revelation"
