Finished Cyndi Lauper's "Memoir" last week and I certainly recommend it. She doesn't hold back on much -- from childhood abuse, bandmate abuse, her slow rise to fame and admitting that her mouth may have gotten in her way of maintaining her superstardom. (Wait'll you hear what she said to Steven Spielberg when he was set to direct her "Goonies 'R Good Enough" video!) She wisely focuses on her humble beginnings through her first two solo albums -- the "peak" of her fame, as it were -- and then does a pretty good job of explaining the unraveling of things by the time her third album was being recorded. (Although she acknowledges it was originally to be a concept album called "Kindred Spirit," she never talked about the postponement of its release or how it was advertised in the trades with that name, only to be rechristened "A Night to Remember" later on. Hardcore fans will wish she'd gone a little deeper here.) She's not shy about calling 'em like she sees 'em -- Michael Jackson lifted the bass line from "She Bop" for "Bad," Gloria Estefan got the idea for using drag queens in one of her videos from Cyndi's "Hey Now (Girls Just Want to Have Fun") clip, a lot of people she's worked with were pretty horrible -- so it makes for a fun and lively read, even if seems a bit strange how she mentions how she's not "loaded" as people think she is on more than one occasion. (Maybe that's the humble girl from Queens inside her wanting to remind us that she's still kinda "like us.") Still, if she was gonna bring up personal money stuff, why not write about that high-profile lawsuit she was involved in when she and her husband sued to have their $3,250/month Upper West Side apartment's rent lowered to less than $1,000, citing rent stabilization? (For those who don't know, FDR-era rent control laws are still around ostensibly to help people who could not afford to live here otherwise.) I would have loved to have heard her side of that. Still, a thoroughly enjoyable read for fans, who will undoubtedly appreciate her lack of filter and ever-apparent good heart.
Get the hardcover edition HERE or Kindle edition HERE.
1 comment:
Anonymous
said...
I am so loving this book and agree completely with your viewpoints. I'm just about finished and at the part where she is explaining all her work (and there was so much more then I even I was aware of) for the LGBT community. She is much more then just an ally.
You've read more of these musical autobio's but they seem very consistent in their criticism of the interference of music exec's and sexism in the creation of music.
Finished Cyndi Lauper's "Memoir" last week and I certainly recommend it. She doesn't hold back on much -- from childhood abuse, bandmate abuse, her slow rise to fame and admitting that her mouth may have gotten in her way of maintaining her superstardom. (Wait'll you hear what she said to Steven Spielberg when he was set to direct her "Goonies 'R Good Enough" video!) She wisely focuses on her humble beginnings through her first two solo albums -- the "peak" of her fame, as it were -- and then does a pretty good job of explaining the unraveling of things by the time her third album was being recorded. (Although she acknowledges it was originally to be a concept album called "Kindred Spirit," she never talked about the postponement of its release or how it was advertised in the trades with that name, only to be rechristened "A Night to Remember" later on. Hardcore fans will wish she'd gone a little deeper here.) She's not shy about calling 'em like she sees 'em -- Michael Jackson lifted the bass line from "She Bop" for "Bad," Gloria Estefan got the idea for using drag queens in one of her videos from Cyndi's "Hey Now (Girls Just Want to Have Fun") clip, a lot of people she's worked with were pretty horrible -- so it makes for a fun and lively read, even if seems a bit strange how she mentions how she's not "loaded" as people think she is on more than one occasion. (Maybe that's the humble girl from Queens inside her wanting to remind us that she's still kinda "like us.") Still, if she was gonna bring up personal money stuff, why not write about that high-profile lawsuit she was involved in when she and her husband sued to have their $3,250/month Upper West Side apartment's rent lowered to less than $1,000, citing rent stabilization? (For those who don't know, FDR-era rent control laws are still around ostensibly to help people who could not afford to live here otherwise.) I would have loved to have heard her side of that. Still, a thoroughly enjoyable read for fans, who will undoubtedly appreciate her lack of filter and ever-apparent good heart.
1 comment:
I am so loving this book and agree completely with your viewpoints. I'm just about finished and at the part where she is explaining all her work (and there was so much more then I even I was aware of) for the LGBT community. She is much more then just an ally.
You've read more of these musical autobio's but they seem very consistent in their criticism of the interference of music exec's and sexism in the creation of music.
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