#Bedsit Disco Queen

[sweetdreamsjeff]

Bedsit Disco Queen and Jeff Buckley at Glastonbury

January 9, 2014 No Comments

I’ve just finished reading Bedsit Disco Queen, the music memoir by Everything But The Girls’ Tracey Thorn. I’m not really an Everything But The Girl fan but I have a fondness for random bits of their catalogue and even knew Rob Peters, the drummer on their 1986 album Baby, The Stars Shine Bright. But as soon as I saw the book in the library, I knew it was going to be a fascinating read for anybody who lived through the era. The paperback is released on January 16 and I heartily recommend it.

There’s one story from the book I’d like to share, which concerns Jeff Buckley. Thorn was a fan of Buckley and in April 1995, EBTG played a low key gig at Sin-e, the New York cafe where he had recorded his 1993 mini-album. Ben Watt (other half of EBTG) randomly met Jeff while they were having their hair cut at an East Village salon, they discovered they were both playing the Glastonbury Festival and Jeff suggested they do a song together. This is all forgotten until an hour before Everything But The Girls’ midday Glastonbury set.

And now, without warning or preamble, at eleven o’clock in the morning here is Jeff Buckley standing in front of me in my workman’s hut of a dressing room, and he has come to remind me that we have agreed to do a song together. We are due onstage in about half an hour. ‘Bloody hell, isn’t it a bit late now?’ I ask. He doesn’t think so. With a kind of gauche enthusiasm that makes him seem like a spectacularly gorgeous younger brother, he produces a guitar and begins to throw ideas at us.

They decide to cover The Smiths’ I Know It’s Over and the peformance is chaotic but enjoyable. Fast forward to late afternoon when Jeff Buckley is playing the main stage and Tracey and Ben are watching from the wings.

At the end of one song he looks over to us, catches Ben’s eye and starts beckoning him onstage with furious jerks of his head. It’s the scene at the end of Spinal Tap when the band reunite onstage! Ben picks up a guitar, gamely ambles on and plugs in. ‘OK,’ yells Jeff. ‘ we’re gonna do “Kick Out The Jams”. One-two-three-FAWH!’ Now Ben may well be the only guitarist in rock music who had never heard MC5’s punk anthem, let alone played it. Still, he’s nothing if not a quick learner, and after about eight bars he has sussed it and is off and running.

And that’s why, at the end of the song, Jeff Buckley says ‘Uh, thanks Ben.’

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[frazzledsoul]

I wanted to be heard without having to be heard, without having to be looked at.

Tracey Thorn, Bedsit Disco Queen

[garudabluffs]

Fuse ℗

Everything But The Girl - Fuse (FULL ALBUM)

2023 Buzzin' Fly Records

[theseformerthings]

ATTN: the brilliant, supremely cool, all-around-lovely-person Tracey Thorn (best known as one-half of the duo Everything But The Girl)* is a Babylon Berlin fan and a Gereon and Charlotte shipper. This warms my heart!

*She’s also a highly acclaimed writer. Her memoir Bedsit Disco Queen: How I Grew Up and Tried to Be a Pop Star is great. Her latest, My Rock n’ Roll Friend — which focuses on her experiences in a male-dominated music scene — is also very, very good.

[psychsounds]

Bedsit Disco Queen

I was keeping a note of all the interesting things Tracey Thorn writes.  I will have to re-read Bedsit Disco Queen again so I can re-document the stuff that didn’t save.

The question is to drink tea or coffee while reading as a treat?

34

The singer I most wanted to sound like was Patti Smith 

35-36

And I came away from the rehearsal wondering if I’d let them down.  The thought worried away at me during the bus ride home.  Why didn’t i want it more? Or not that exactly, for in many ways, I really did want it, desperately.  But why was I so ambivalent about the very concept of attention, both wanting it or not wanting it?

46

On 12 August 1980

67

i was probably a bit slow on the uptake, but i had assumed the qualities I found attractive in boys - being clever and spirited and having a good record collection and being in a band - would work in reverse, but i was starting to wake up to the fact that, of course, many boys found those things threatening and unattractive in a girl.

Meanwhile, i was hopelessly in love with someone who was either not interested at all, a little bit interested or very interested but too inept to do anything about it, I never really knew.

68

After another semi interesting flirtation i wrote a new song, ‘don't come back’ which adopts the opposite stance of ‘on my mind’.

76 most romantic thing ever

78

79

81

Bill Evans

86

Vic Godard - what’s the matter boy

blossom dearie

87 non-haircuts

urban hipsters who, quite sensibly, were drawn to Manchester or Liverpool or Sheffield

89

it was a lovely review that summed up what i wanted the Marine Girls to be:

On my mind is a lovesick lament that lies between the Shangri Las and Nico’s - Velvet Underground.

89 cracks

89-90 debate about commercial success

90 dave haslam

92 reflection

93 everything but the girl // marine girls making waves (!!!) on the NME Indie charts.

The Third Man

Lesley Woods

95

102 girl from ipanema

104 wellend ( a match that started my fire)

105 simon reynolds

108 lazy ways

109 orange juice’s management re sound check

111 marine girls break up at Glasgow gig / reflections on edited versions of the past

meeting up with gina and jane 2005

112

113  Courtney and Kurt appreciation 

Hole cover Marine Girls - In Love

114 Calvin Johnson played Marine Girls to Kurt and Courtney

118 London journos writing about their Hull bedsit, wanting to be honorary Northerners

121 Tracy still disliked being overheard singing

121 feminist theory providing framework for her pre-existing perceptions

121 questions being in band with boyfriend 

124 Sade using same recording studio, Power Plant, intimidatingly gorgeous and fashionable and not indie

131 press state didnee perform on TOTP due to uni exams but didn't get asked and wouldn't have due to politics, too commercial, sexist

132 pathologically opposed to the most trivial of things (speaks to me)

133 debates around selling out

135 1984 post-punk over

137 Smiths unlike no other band

139 The Smiths at this point were funny, and moving, and sexy, and that was a new and unfamiliar combination.

i wanted to BE him

148 Tracy loses her voice on stage.  She recalls a gig where it happened to Liz Fraser of the Cocteau twins playing the Hacienda.  Oh my, can you imagine seeing Cocteau Twins at Hacienda?  

150 you can see why celebrities become arseholes

150 Ben hanging out with Johnny Marr

151 Liz Fraser being told to wear more makeup onstage

158 John Harris - the Last Party

159 disparity between lived experience and documented narratives in news

160 Kinnock Red Wedge

168 Invited to Moscow 12th Festival of Youth and Students

178 simon reynolds record collection rock

179 Tracy ’I was also becoming entranced by the history of Hollywood, a place where women both dominated and in many ways, been crushed’.

Best friends with Lindy Morrison, of the Go Betweens

205 Finally make it onto Top of the Pops

‘The studio seemed smaller than it looked on the telly, it was poorly lit and entirely lacking in any pop glamour whatsoever.  It was like going back to your old primary school and seeing how dowdy and small it all was, when in your memory it loomed large as something huge, influential and vivid.

207 EBTG steered towards becoming housewife favourites.

211.  Summers of Love.  Acid house.

218  hired a car and Ben drove through laurel canyon

218  in LA, in the hotel swimming pool in my bikini, I was Joni Mitchell in the photo on the back of the Hissing of Summer Lawns.

242 domesticity and contentment, lyrically barren

Stella street, folk Magic bag Detroit 

306 duet Jeff Buckley at Glasto

307 PJ Harvey pink catsuit315 Bjork and PJ sing I can’t get no satisfaction at Brit Awards

316  Tracy has long heart to heart with Liam Gallagher about him wanting to be a father Thom Yorke tells Tracy he was thrown out of EBTG gig in 1985 for dancing 

326 in 1998, while giving birth to twins, Tracy forgets CD and nurse puts on “Where do you go to my lovely” by Peter Sarstedt

[lamirasa]

(Get-Now) My Rock ‘n’ Roll Friend BY : Tracey Thorn

My Rock 'n' Roll Friend

By : Tracey Thorn

  ==>>DOWNLOAD OR READ THIS BOOKS<<==

  DESC:

An exploration of female friendship and women in music, from the iconic singer-songwriter and bestselling author of Another Planet and Bedsit Disco Queen In 1983, backstage at the Lyceum in London, Tracey Thorn and Lindy Morrison first met. Tracey's music career was just beginning, while Lindy, drummer for The Go-Betweens, was ten years her senior. They became confidantes, comrades and best friends, a relationship cemented by gossip and feminism, books and gigs and rock 'n' roll love affairs.Morrison - a headstrong heroine blazing her way through a male-dominated industry - came to be a kind of mentor to Thorn. They shared the joy and the struggle of being women in a band, trying to outwit and face down a chauvinist music media.In My Rock 'n' Roll Friend Thorn takes stock of thirty-seven years of friendship, teasing out the details of connection and affection between two women who seem to be either complete opposites or mirror images of each other. This important book asks what

[arg-machine]

Books read recently: arts & culture

After a lengthy hiatus of over a year, the Books read recently post is back – in a new format, and sporting a different look [that reflects how books are read at machine HQ]. From this point on, instead of compiling a single monolithic list of books annually, arg will publish shorter posts – each focusing on a separate area of interest – every few months.

This new format will not only make these posts more palatable, but will also help arg maintain his blogging schedule even when original content from machine HQ isn’t available for release/publishing. Funky!

The books… For the first of the “rebooted” Books read recently posts, arg has decided to focus on books on arts and culture that he has read since the publication of the previous installment. Of course, he has put in a few that were read earlier, and is also including some that he hasn’t read yet, but has shortlisted for future reading. The books are listed below, in alphabetical order.

The Birth of the Loud: Leo Fender, Les Paul and the Guitar-Pioneering Rivalry that Shaped Rock ‘N’ Roll chronicles one of the most “riveting sagas in the history of rock ‘n’ roll: the decades-long rivalry between the two men who innovated the electric guitar’s amplified sound – Leo Fender and Les Paul – and their intense competition to convince rock stars like the Beatles, Jimi Hendrix, and Eric Clapton to play the instruments they built. In the years after World War II, music was evolving from big-band jazz into the primordial elements of rock ’n’ roll – and these louder styles demanded revolutionary instruments. When Leo Fender’s tiny firm marketed the first solid-body electric guitar, the Esquire, musicians immediately saw its appeal. Not to be out-maneuvered, Gibson, the largest guitar manufacturer, raced to build a competitive product. The company designed an “axe” that would make Fender’s Esquire look cheap and convinced Les Paul – whose endorsement Leo Fender had sought – to put his name on it. Thus was born the guitar world’s most heated rivalry: Gibson versus Fender…”

Also recommended: Twilight of the Gods: A Journey to the End of Classic Rock by Steven Hyden, Revolver: How The Beatles Reimagined Rock ‘N’ Roll by Robert Rodriguez, Pink Floyd: Album by Album by Martin Popoff, Black Sabbath: Symptom of the Universe by Mick Wall, Heavy Duty: Days and Nights in Judas Priest by K. K. Downing, Rock-and-Roll Woman: 50 Fiercest Female Rockers by Meredith Ochs, Running with the Devil: Power, Gender and Madness in Heavy Metal Music by Robert Walser, Shock and Awe: Glam Rock and its Legacy by Simon Reynolds, Heroes: David Bowie and Berlin by Tobias Ruther, Burning Down the Haus: Punk Rock, Revolution and the Fall of the Berlin Wall by Tim Mohr, Bedsit Disco Queen: How I Grew Up and Tried to be a Popstar by Tracey Thorn and The History of the NME: High Times and Low Lives at the World’s Most Famous Music Magazine by Pat Long.

“This vivid celebration of blues and early rock 'n' roll includes some of the first and most illuminating profiles of some of the greatest blues masters, excursions into the blues-based Memphis rock 'n' roll, as well as a brilliant depiction of the bustling Chicago blues scene and the legendary Chess record label in its final days. With unique insight and unparalleled access, Peter Guralnick brings to life the people, the songs, and the performances that forever changed not only the American music scene but America itself.”

Also recommended: Blues Unlimited: Essential Interviews from the Original Blues Magazine edited by Bill Greensmith, Mike Rowe and Mark Camarigg, Delta Blues by Ted Gioia, Jimi Hendrix: Soundscapes by Marie-Paule MacDonald, The Record Men: The Chess Brothers and the Birth of Rock & Roll by Rich Cohen, Words & Music: The History of Pop in the Shape of a City by Paul Morley, Rockin’ the Free World: How the Rock & Roll Revolution Changed America and the World by Sean Kay and The Rhino Records Story: Revenge of the Music Nerds by Harold Bronson.

“In Films from the Future: The Technology and Morality of Sci-Fi Movies, former physicist Andrew Maynard threads together his love of science fiction movies with his expertise on emerging technologies to engage, entertain and make readers think about the relationship between technology, and society as they discover astounding, transformative advances in science. Through the imagination and creativity of science fiction movies, Maynard introduces the profound capabilities presented by new and emerging technologies, and the complex personal and societal challenges they present…”

Also recommended: Conversations with Woody Allen: His Films, the Movies, and Moviemaking by Eric Lax, The Big Screen: The Story of the Movies by David Thomson, Pictures at a Revolution: Five Movies and the Birth of the New Hollywood by Mark Harris, Room to Dream by David Lynch, Kurosawa: Film Studies and Japanese Cinema by Mitsuhiro Yoshimoto, Hong Kong New Wave Cinema: 1978-2000 by Pak Tong Cheuk, Italian Horror Film Directors by Louis Paul, Space Odyssey: Stanley Kubrick, Arthur C. Clarke, and the Making of a Masterpiece by Michael Benson, My Autobiography by Charlie Chaplin, I Find Your Lack of Faith Disturbing: Star Wars and the Triumph of Geek Culture by A. D. Jameson and Screen Ages: A Survey of American Cinema by John Alberti.

Camille Paglia’s Glittering Images: A Journey Through Art from Egypt to Star Wars is an enthralling journey through Western art's defining moments, from the ancient Egyptian tomb of Queen Nefertari to George Lucas's volcano planet duel in Revenge of the Sith. “Passionately argued, brilliantly written, and filled with Paglia's trademark audacity, Glittering Images takes us on a tour through seminal images, some famous and some obscure or unknown – paintings, sculptures, architectural styles, performance pieces, and digital art that have defined and transformed our visual world…”

Also recommended: Soviet Women and Their Art by Rena Lavery and Ivan Lindsay, Noa Noa: The Tahitian Journal by Paul Gauguin, Routledge Handbook of Graffiti and Street Art edited by Jeffrey Ian Ross, A History of Architecture in 100 Buildings by Dan Cruickshank, Contemporary Art: 1989 to the Present edited by Alexander Dumbadze and Suzanne Hudson, Mona Lisa: The People and the Painting by Martin Kemp, Da Vinci's Last Commission by Fiona McLaren, The Art Detective by Philip Mould, The Lost Michelangelos by Antonio Forcellino, Modern Japanese Prints: An Art Reborn by Oliver Statler, Rogues' Gallery: A History of Art and its Dealers by Philip Hook, The Swerve: How the Renaissance Began by Stephen Greenblatt, The History of Loot and Stolen Art from Antiquity to Present Day by Ivan Lindsay, Bauhaus: 1919-1933 by Michael Siebenbrodt and But is it Art? An Introduction to Art Theory by Cynthia Freeland.

Few albums in the canon of popular music have had the influence, resonance, and endurance of John Coltrane's 1965 classic A Love Supreme – a record that proved jazz was a fitting medium for spiritual exploration and for the expression of the sublime. “Ashley Kahn tells the story of the genesis, creation, and aftermath of this classic recording. Featuring interviews with more than one hundred musicians, producers, friends, and family members; unpublished interviews with Coltrane and bassist Jimmy Garrison; and scores of never-before-seen photographs, A Love Supreme balances biography, cultural context, and musical analysis in a passionate and revealing portrait.”

Also recommended: Miles Davis' Bitches Brew by George Grella, Cookin': Hard Bop and Soul Jazz 1954-1965 by Kenny Mathieson, Jazz on My Mind: Liner Notes, Anecdotes and Conversations from the 1940s to the 2000s by Herb Wong, Talking Jazz with Ben Sidran [Volumes 1 & 2] by Ben Sidran and The Hearing Eye: Jazz & Blues Influences in American Visual Art edited by Graham Lock and David Murray.

And now, here are a few more books that could not be grouped together with those above – think of this final entry as a bonus of sorts…

This volume brings together an international roster of scholars to examine many facets of comics and graphic novels. “Contributor essays provide authoritative, up-to-date overviews of the major topics and questions within comic studies, offering readers a truly global approach to understanding the field. “It expertly organizes representative work from a range of disciplines, including media and cultural studies, literature, philosophy, and linguistics. More than an introduction to the study of comics, this book will serve as a crucial reference for anyone interested in comics and graphic novels.”

Also recommended: The Graphic Novel: An Introduction by Jan Baetens and Hugo Frey, The Other Middle East: An Anthology of Modern Levantine Literature edited by Franck Salameh, Violins of Hope: Violins of the Holocaust – Instruments of Hope and Liberation in Mankind’s Darkest Hour by James A. Grymes, Dead Precedents: How Hip Hop Defines the Future by Roy Christopher, The Cambridge Companion to Electronic Music edited by Nick Collins and Julio d’Escrivan, Hip Hop & Philosophy edited by Derrick Darby and Tommie Shelby, Inner City Pressure: The Story of Grime by Dan Hancox, The Hippest Trip in America: Soul Train and the Evolution of Culture and Style by Nelson George, The Vinyl Frontier: The Story of Voyager’s Golden Record by Jonathan Scott, How Shakespeare Changed Everything by Stephen Marche, Springfield Confidential: Jokes, Secrets and Outright Lies from a Lifetime Writing for The Simpsons by Mike Reiss, Video Gaming in Science Fiction by Jason Barr and Spoken Here: Travels Among Threatened Languages by Mark Abley.

Well, that’s seems to be it for this edition of Books read recently; check out The Apocalypse Project on twitter and on tumblr, and, as always, stay tuned to machine HQ blog…

Note: As mentioned earlier, the new header image [top] reflects how eBooks are read at machine HQ. Typically, arg uses an eBook reader app on his smartphone – and similar software on his computer – to read books. There are many excellent e-reader apps for smartphones, and arg uses this one. On his computer, he uses this software.

[sophisti-cunted]

Thank you, @theo-decker​, for tagging me in a thing that provides neat conversation starters. I personally only carry a bag when not at school because I’m much more likely to lose every different important possession if I keep them separated.

five things in my bag: water bottle, headphones, diary, emergency myki that I always keep twenty cents on, AND TODAY (yesterday?) I went to the op shop next to my government job service place, and found some brilliant books - Eddie Huang’s Double Cup Love (the follow up to Fresh off the Boat) and Tracey Thorn’s Bedsit Disco Queen. At the counter the Gen X volunteer queried the name of the latter and hummed a bit of “And I miss you like the desert missed the rain, and we had a little chat about Everything but the Girl. Have you, Emery, listened to Marine Girls? They’re you’re oeuvre. Try Honey and A Place in the Sun for a start if you haven’t. 

five things in my bedroom: A clashing bowl and saucer from today’s meals, a lump of lint I scraped off the computer fan while trying to make the dvd-rom work, tweezers I insist on only using outside the bathroom (the light is worse here), a torch I use almost exclusively to find things under my bed, and a fake oscar I received for writing five years ago, 

five things i’ve always wanted to do: a lot of travel, base jumping, having an orgasm from a hand other than my own, living in a city where all cars are like dodgem cars, bring the rich to their financial and personal knees

five things that make me happy: The smell of food cooking while coming home, @sluttywidow​‘s online pictionary drawings, knowing I’ll be at a great convention tomorrow (today), my ridiculous cat’s little waddle, getting tagged in things

five things i’m currently into: Curried pumpkin soup with toasted Le Madre seeded sourdough (guess my dinner), time travel shows, Fiona Apple, enjoying the Babadook as a gay icon without engaging in Discourse, some alcopop drinks that aren’t being appropriately taxed. 

five things on my to do list:

Sleep

Go to the damn convention

Graduate applications

See Wonder Woman

Buy ham 

tagging @broceania @milokerrigan @angelaslamsbury @heyscience @auntytimblr ... I don’t necessarily understand the rules of the game but I think you answer those five questions then ask five people whose answers you’re interested in to do likewise

[ivandimarcofotografo]

On my radar: Tracey Thorn’s cultural highlights

The singer and author on 70s clubland, the photography of Andreas Gursky and a musical about a Sheffield drag queen

Born in Hertfordshire in 1962, Tracey Thorn is one half of Everything But the Girl. She formed the band in Hull with her now husband, Ben Watt, and they released their debut album, Eden, in 1984; they have been on a hiatus since 1999. In 2013, she published her memoir, Bedsit Disco Queen: How I Grew Up and Tried to Be a Pop Star, followed in 2015 by Naked at the Albert Hall. Her fifth solo album, Record, is released on Caroline International on 2 March.

Continue reading... https://www.theguardian.com/music/2018/feb/18/on-my-radar-tracey-thorn-cultural-highlights

[madremagazine]

O mundo precisa de mulheres críticas de rock

Texto original por Anwen Crawford, para New Yorker. / Ilustração por Amanda Lanzone.

O problema para as mulheres é que o nosso papel na música popular foi codificado há muito tempo. Não conte a ninguém, mas eu não tenho nenhum álbum dos Rolling Stones. Eles são tão arquetípicos, tão rock n' roll -- e isso eu acho uma coisa difícil de se admirar. O rock raramente ofereceu a mulheres a mesma promessa tangível de rebelião social e liberdade sexual que ofereceu aos homens -- apesar de que muitas mulheres, inclusive eu, tentaram as mesmas coisas para encontrar a liberdade que existia nele.  “A despeito de meninos guitarristas,” a jornalista Lillian Roxon escreveu a um amigo, em 1966, “não acho que suportarei ver mais uma maldita guitarra elétrica.” Eu sei como ela se sentia. Em 1969, Roxon, nascida na Itália e criada na Austrália, jornalista experiente e uma estrela nos bastidores de Warhol em Max's Kansas City, publicaria “Lillian Roxon's Rock Encyclopedia”, o primeiro do seu tipo, uma maravilha de pesquisa e perspicácia crítica. No prazo de seis meses após a publicação, o livro entrou em sua terceira edição impressa de capa dura e Roxon ganhou um perfil no Times. O livro parou de ser publicado há décadas (Roxon morreu em 1973, com a idade de quarenta e um). Ellen Willis, contemporânea de Roxon, foi a primeira crítica de música popular do New Yorker, a partir de 1968, mas uma coleção de seus escritos, “Out of the Vinil Deeps”, não foi publicada até 2011, cinco anos depois de sua morte. Este mês, a escritora americana Jessica Hopper, editora-sênior do site de música Pitchfork, publica um livro intitulado “The First Collection of Criticism by a Living Female Rock Critic [A Primeira Coleção de Criticismo por um Uma Mulher Viva Critica de Rock].”  O título é mais provocação do que declaração de fato, mas não é inteiramente uma mentira. Livros por mulheres vivas críticas de rock (ou críticas de jazz, hip hop ou dance music) são escassos. Em uma nota introdutória de seu livro, Hopper nomeia Roxon, Willis, a jornalista inglesa Caroline Coon e a antologia “Rock She Wrote”, editada por Evelyn McDonnell e Ann Powers, como precedentes para seu próprio trabalho. “O título não é para apagar nossa história, mas sim para ajudar a trilhar um caminho”, escreve Hopper. Esse caminho não é fácil de discernir. Os críticos mais famosos da música rock -- Robert Christgau, Greil Marcus, Lester Bangs, Nick Kent -- são todos do sexo masculino. Bangs, que morreu em 1982, aos trinta e três anos, permanece o mais icônico de todos. Por quê? Seu estilo gonzo de vida imprudente, usar drogas e óculos escuros de noite fez com que ele fosse um anti-herói tanto quanto o assunto com que lidava: estrelas do rock. Essa pose não funciona para as críticas mulheres, cujas manifestações de má atitude raramente são toleradas e muito menos celebradas. As mulheres rebeldes do rock, incluindo suas resenhistas, raramente são presumidas como gênias; muitas vezes, são presumidas como vadias. Em uma biografia de 2002 de Lillian Roxon, “Mother Of Rock”, de Robert Milliken, a queridinha de Roxon, Kathy Mills,  se lembra de ser desafiada por um editor que a designou para escrever sobre The Who e depois pediu um boquete em troca, dizendo: “Qual é o problema? Você é uma groupie.” Ela respondeu: “Sou uma mulher que escreve sobre rock and roll.” Sua resposta: “Mesma coisa.” As groupies provaram ser um estereótipo duradouro da participação das mulheres no rock: reverenciosas, bonitas e desprezadas. No início deste ano, Hopper entrevistou Björk para Pitchfork. Na entrevista, que não está incluída no livro, Björk refletiu sobre as maneiras pelas quais o trabalho e a perícia das mulheres -- dentro e fora da indústria da música -- passam despercebidas. “É invisível, o que as mulheres fazem,” disse ela. “Não é tão recompensado.” Ela observou que os homens com quem colaborou geralmente são creditados pelo som de seus álbuns; e porque no palco ela canta principalmente, há uma suposição generalizada de que ela não produz nem toca nenhum instrumento. “Eu quero apoiar as jovens que têm vinte e poucos anos e dizer-lhes: Você não está apenas imaginando coisas”, disse ela. O problema para as mulheres é que nosso papel na música popular foi codificado há muito tempo. E foi codificado, em parte, pela prévia imprensa de música. Na tentativa de provar a crescente cena do rock dos anos sessenta como digna de investigação crítica, o rock precisava ser estabelecido tanto como sério quanto como autêntico. Um resultado desses argumentos -- Rolling Stones vs. Muddy Waters, Motown vs. Stax, Bob Dylan vs. o mundo -- era que as mulheres ficavam no time perdedor, como frívolas e falsas. Seja uma adepta de música adolescente ou um membro de um fã clube de meninas, as mulheres não possuíam talento genuíno -- até mesmo as mulheres críticas pensavam assim. “The Supremes simboliza a precisão maquinista do som Motown,” escreveu Lillian Roxon em sua enciclopédia de rock. “Tudo está bem resolvido para elas e elas não desafiam o sistema.” Julgamentos assim ainda são rotineiros aplicados a mulheres artistas de hoje. No livro de Hopper, abaixo do capítulo intitulado “Real / Fake”, aparece um ensaio de 2012 sobre Lana Del Ray, uma artista cujo olhar remete para aquelas cantoras mascaradas de cabelos volumosos dos anos sessenta e cuja carreira se desenvolveu sob uma nuvem de suspeita nas suas credenciais, musical e outras.  “Como público, fazemos um grande alarde atrás da verdade, mas estamos realmente interessados nos antigos mitos”, escreve Hopper. O mito da falsidade das mulheres é um dos mais antigos. Para as mulheres críticas precedentes, como Roxon e Willis, o foco de conflito era Janis Joplin.  Joplin, como os Rolling Stones, tomou emprestado muito do blues; seu estilo irregular parecia marcá-la como a coisa real. Mas sua posição solitária como, nas palavras de Willis, “a única heroína da cultura dos anos sessenta a tornar a experiência das mulheres visível e pública na busca da libertação individual”, também a deixou aberta a ataque. A ousadia sexual de Joplin e o desprezo que enfrentou por isso, revelaram os limites e as hipocrisias da contracultura. “Os escritores a violam com palavras como se não houvesse outra maneira de lidar com ela”, escreveu Roxon. A frustração que muitas das fãs de Joplin sentiram em como era tratada e a tristeza de sua morte prematura era algo que essas mulheres levaram, pouco depois, aos primeiros movimentos da libertação das mulheres. Ambas Roxon e Willis se envolveram no movimento feminista; O “The Female Eunuch” de Germaine Greer, publicado em 1970, foi dedicado a Roxon, que Greer descreveu na dedicação como “Lillian a abundante, a dourada, a eloquente, o bem e o mal amado; Lillian, a bela, que acha que é feia.” A academia, um passo ou dois retirados do machismo da sala de jornal, provou ser uma região mais acolhedora para as mulheres escrevendo sobre música popular. Nessa esfera, ensaios e livros de escritoras como Tricia Rose, Daphne Brooks, Aisha Durham, Alice Echols, Gayle Wald e Angela McRobbie contribuem para uma análise feminista rica e contínua. A escrita dessas mulheres aparece apenas intermitentemente na imprensa convencional, mas quarenta anos de teoria feminista crítica sobre a música popular filtrou-se lentamente na visão dos críticos mais jovens; como Hopper notou em uma entrevista recente com the Hairpin, a publicação on-line deu origem a “esta safra feroz de jovens escritores realmente opinados sobre raça,  gênero, natureza, corpo -- pessoas que chegam com um quadro crítico imaculado.” Hopper, que começou a publicar suas críticas quando adolescente em meio a ascensão do punk feminista no início dos anos noventa, conhecido como riot grrrl, mencionou na mesma entrevista que, quando começou a escrever, não tinha “nada mais do que aquilo que aprendeu na escola.” Suas tendências de autodidatas e seu estilo de escrita energético e conversacional fazem parte de outra longa tradição da imprensa de música,  o lado mais flexível e brincalhão desse impulso dos anos sessenta para a seriedade -- embora a urgência estilística de Hopper não a impeça de abordar assuntos difíceis, como o machismo endêmico do punk rock, ou os artifícios “banais e perniciosos” de Miley Cyrus. O caminho, muitas vezes negligenciado, trilhado por mulheres críticas de música, cruza com outras tradições de escrita relacionadas. Livros de memórias têm sido usados há muito tempo por artistas do sexo feminino para refletir sobre as pressões e contradições de seus papéis. “Girl in a Band” de Kim Gordon, “Bedsit Disco Queen” de Tracey Thorn e  “Clothes, Clothes, Clothes. Music, Music, Music. Boys, Boys, Boys.” de Viv Albertine recentemente se juntaram a clássicos anteriores como “Dreamgirl: My Life As A Supreme” de Mary Wilson e “I, Tina” de Tina Turner para fornecer perspectivas de mulheres sobre música popular. Há também uma pequena, mas notável vertente de ficção contemporânea de mulheres que levam a música popular como um assunto primário, de “A Visit from the Goon Squad” (2010) de Jennifer Egan, com seu executivo da gravadora desonesto, até o tratamento apaixonado de Eleanor Henderson ao hardcore de Nova Iorque nos anos 80 “Ten Thousand Saints” (2011) e o misterioso “Stone Arabia” (2012) de Dana Spiotta, na qual o irmão da narradora relata seu sucesso estritamente imaginário como estrela do rock. Talvez a ficção e as memórias, mais do que o criticismo, proporcionem um espaço para escritoras para dissecar tudo o que é enfurecedor e maravilhoso sobre a música popular: o espetáculo, o sofismo, as belas mentiras que nos contam. Mas ainda há muita necessidade de ter mulheres críticas de música. “Take it easy, babe,” Mick Jagger cantou em “Under My Thumb”, como uma resplandecente fatia de misoginia implacável que sempre foi, não resolvida pelo tempo ou pelo milhão de garotas que gritavam sob os comandos de Jagger. Em um ensaio de 1971, Ellen Willis argumentou que as “exposições grosseiras de virilidade” de Jagger eram menos machistas do que a pose “condescendente” de um boêmio como Cat Stevens;  na medida em que o rock, ela escreveu,  “induziu as energias incipientes das adolescentes contra todas as suas frustrações conscientes e inconscientes, falou-se implicitamente sobre a libertação feminina.” Eu não concordo inteiramente com a defesa de Willis sobre os Stones, mas reconheço o difícil equilíbrio que ela descreve, entre a liberdade que o rock pode proporcionar para uma mulher e a subjugação que o rock pode celebrar. É entre essas fronteiras que a crítica vinda de mulheres funciona, na esperança de desobstruir uma trajetória.

[mealha]

On my radar: Tracey Thorn’s cultural highlights

The singer and author on 70s clubland, the photography of Andreas Gursky and a musical about a Sheffield drag queen

Born in Hertfordshire in 1962, Tracey Thorn is one half of Everything But the Girl. She formed the band in Hull with her now husband, Ben Watt, and they released their debut album, Eden, in 1984; they have been on a hiatus since 1999. In 2013, she published her memoir, Bedsit Disco Queen: How I Grew Up and Tried to Be a Pop Star, followed in 2015 by Naked at the Albert Hall. Her fifth solo album, Record, is released on Caroline International on 2 March.

Continue reading... from Photography | The Guardian http://ift.tt/2BzWd6V

[butterflyhunt]

Bedsit Disco Queen, by Tracey Thorn

Scraps: Bedsit Disco Queen, by @Tracey_Thorn http://wp.me/p2lvGp-hd

ISBN: 9781844088669 Publication date: 07 Feb 2013 Page count: 384       “The aim of life is self-development. To realise one’s nature perfectly -that is what each of us is here for.”   -Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray  

It’s Mexico City and it’s 1995. I am nineteen years old and I am working at the music department of the National University, writing press releases and copy for the hand…

[desperatelyseekingsequels]

Bedsit Disco Queen by Tracey Thorn

Book Club read for November 2015. 32nd Book. Tuesday 3rd November 2015. This autobiographical effort was drawn as November's read. Written by Tracey Thorn, of mediocre 90s band Everything But The Girl fame, about the early years of the band's success, this was released several years ago to minimal fanfare. This book promoted great discussion - at first we discussed the band and the author as most of the group had never heard of her nor the bands she had performed with, despite nobody knowing who this Tracey even was, we moved on to discuss social issues of the 80s and 90s, the musical evolution of the intermediate years and many other topics. Many of the group enjoyed hearing about bands they had liked in their younger years and some younger members had never heard of most of the talents mentioned which made for some intense disappointment for the musical group members! Despite the lively discussion, most felt that the book was not well written and found the author to be unreasonably miserable, negative and self centered, we also found her habit of glossing over the parts of the story that we felt would have been more interesting to explore frustrating and feel as though she could have written a much better book if she talked about herself less. Bedsit Disco Queen received a score of 5/10 from the group. What I Really Thought - I didn't read it. This book can go down as being the single most difficult book I have ever tried to find. The iBook was too expensive for an autobiography of an unknown, none of the usual suspects currently stocked a cheap copy and despite the efforts of three different helpers, a PDF or epub copy proved elusive and impossible to find. Eventually I gave up, having wasted multiple hours, and read something else. I did not regret this decision after the group's discussion! The book selected for February was An Officer and a Spy, by Robert Harris

[garudabluffs]

Everything but the Girl's Tracey Thorn writes lyrics that capture women's inner lives May 12, 2023

"If you like this new Everything but the Girl music, I also recommend Thorn's solo work. I made her 2018 album, "Record," my No. 1 that year, and she's also a terrific prose writer. Her 2013 memoir, "Bedsit Disco Queen: How I Grew Up And Tried To Be A Pop Star," is wonderful. The new music on "Fuse" continues Thorn and Watt's tough-minded yet good-hearted take on the world at a time when it's never been more welcome."

"The married British duo Tracey Thorn and Ben Watt — aka Everything but the Girl — have their first album in 24 years. Ken Tucker reviews Fuse, then we listen back to a 2018 interview with Thorn."

37-Minute Listen READ MORE Transcript https://www.npr.org/2023/05/12/1175738236/everything-but-the-girls-tracey-thorn-writes-lyrics-that-capture-womens-inner-li

[devinwallaceart]

Bedsit Disco Queen

[seltzerlizard]

(via Tracey Thorn)  I just finished Bedsit Disco Queen by Tracey Thorn.  It was great!  There's a lot in there about the postpunk era and the eighties that I was unaware of.  I was and am a huge fan of Everything But The Girl and her solo stuff is awesome, too.  (Also, total eighties crush on her! )