Customer Reviews

Anti Diva

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

When I was a young and impressionable teen growing up in Canada, ROUGH TRADE's music and lyrics were my religion and empowerment.
Now the voice of that group who's recently gone solo and had her early works released on CD is telling her story of her life in fascinating detail. I've always wanted to know what she's been up to, and where she really came from, and here you'll find it all. Her story is also a fascinating trip through the fun decades of the 70's, and 80's with many colourful people of the time, and her heartbreaking relationship with the divine Dusty Springfield. Even if you never heard of Rough Trade (you have my pity), this is one biography that'll continue to inspire whether or not you are sexually confused, or an outsider in the generations to come.

Being a huge Carole Pope fan, I own every album she ever recorded from the early days of Rough Trade to her most recent solo releases from the last decade. While there have been a few missteps along the way, for the most part I've enjoyed everything she's put out.

That's the reason I really wanted to love this book and went in with very high expectations.

I hate myself for not liking it more, but it's not one of those books I see myself reading over and over like I have many others.

It is good and an easy read, written in a casual style like a journal.

Several times Carole jumps back and forth in the timeline so that she's talking about things that happened in the late '80s, then goes back and recalls events that happened in 1981, for example.

Carole possesses the same dry, sarcastic sense of humor I have, which sometimes doesn't translate well to paper, but I picked up on her bitter irony.

I liked hearing about her early relationship with Kevan and some of the inspiration for her songs.

There are some interesting tidbits in here like how she and the band got high before recording one of my favorite Rough Trade numbers, the trippy "Paisley Generation". It was fun reading how everyone tried to get through the ridiculous lyrics without laughing.

Little anecdotes like this are what make this book a must-have for me. Being Canadian, I enjoyed reading about Carole's experiences and opinions of other Canadian artists such as Anne Murray, Corey Hart, Lisa DalBello and Jane Child.

I didn't find this book as riveting as I had hoped, but Carole does bare her soul in it and give lots of personal information. I just wish she had elaborated more on the whole songwriting process and went into more detail about her lyrics, recording sessions, etc. rather than all the different celebs she has partied with.

There are black-and-white childhood photos, and others from Carole's various career highlights.

Four **** out of Five stars!

This book was interesting but didn't contain any information I didn't already know about the music scene in the 60s. Still, it's a good read.