Customer Reviews

Dancing with Demons: The Authorized Biography of Dusty Springfield

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

This so called "authorized" biography reads more like the musings of 2 friends and not as a serious biography of this woman, perhaps the greatest female pop vocalist of the 20th century.

First of all, to this day it is unclear who exactly "authorized" this biography. Records show that Springfield left nothing in her will to indicate that Wickham and Valentine were in any way legally authorized to write it.

Secondly, those who knew Dusty best, including her long time friend and back up singer Simon Bell (who was with her during her final moments) and her faithful lighting designer, Fred Perry, have argued the merits of this book and have pointed out several mistakes and inconsistencies. (Perry listed over 10 pages worth of mistakes with corrections in a recent issue of the fanzine, "Dusty Springfield Bulletin" put out by Paul Howes in England.)

But you don't have to be a member of Springfield's intimate circle or even a longtime fan to spot the many glaring errors. Several songs are credited to the wrong albums and several pictures have the wrong captions. Events and names are created that never happened or existed and dates are all mixed up.

This is shoddy work and no serious fan of Springfield's would be able to recommend it as anything more than just the vague recollections of 2 friends of the great singer.

Perhaps the biggest diservice the book pays to Springfield is that it focuses on her personal life (which was certainly ripe for tabloid fodder) and misses out on accurately and seriously cataloguing her extensive contributions to the world of pop music as both a producer and performer.

I have no idea how the word "Authorized" got into the subtitle. While it's entirely possible the two writers knew Dusty and were part of her intimate circle, they absolutely dropped the ball on this one. I have no doubt that her life was as troubled as they claim, but I'm furious that the so-called biographers often decided to go all "coy" on us. Why not name Dusty's lovers? Instead they use pseudonyms along with tantalizing descriptions. This perpetuates the stereotype that being a lesbian is embarrassing. Also, they'll make a statement saying that one song was probably the worst cover ever recorded in the history of the world -- and then not name the song! What is wrong with these people!? I hope to God that with the renewed interest in Dusty -- and let's face it, she is and will always be a legend, no matter how troubled her life may have been -- a truly definitive book will come out that will be straightforward and real. This one isn't it--though I wish it were.

Dancing with Demons is best read only after you read Lucy O'Brien's exceptional biography on Dusty Springfield that came out in 1988. That book is called "Dusty" and has only been published in England. What a shame because it has extensive quotes by Dusty about her life and appreciates her journey as an artist and human being that is virtually missing from this book.
Vicki Wickham knew Dusty well in a professional sense, but seems devoid of the love a friend would express in trying to understand Springfield's life. She does Dusty Springfield such a deservice by concentrating on the human failings we all have. Dusty was a very intelligent, complicated woman and a very private woman, who would have found this book an insult to her contribution to musical history and to her personal struggles. it is not a worthless book, just lacking in comprehension and also has factual inaccuracies, what songs were on which album,etc., which makes one feel that this was a sloppy effort for commercial gain primarily.

I really wish I had not read this book. Surely Dusty MUST have had a happy day in her life, yet as seen through the eyes of Wickham and Valentine, she comes across as the most tragic of divas. Her music WAS the soundtrack to my adolescence and early adulthoood and will always remain a big part of my life. While I knew early on (1969) all about her sexual orientation and what a burden it must have been for her, it seems the authors are bent on exposing every aspect of her ill-fated relationships. Then to proceed to show her always in a negative light: her bouts with substance abuse, her bipolar disorder, etc., just adds insult to injury. There is truly a flood of tears on every page. Better to have let Dusty retain the mystique she worked so hard to project. With "friends" like Wickham and Valentine, who are making big bucks telling sordid and tragic tales...well...who needs enemies? Dusty must be spinning in her grave. Shame. Shame.

This is a pretty awful book... I could have written a better one... The authors portray Dusty as emotionally needy, and there is precious little in the book to suggest that the authors even liked Dusty. Whoever edited this thing should find a different line of work. It reads like a lengthy and very poorly written tabloid article! I wish that someone would write more balanced portrait of this artist. It seems that any literature on Dusty is either "sugar-coated" or trashy. This book falls in the trashy category. I only hope that the upcoming film of Dusty's life will be more balanced, and sympathetic towards its subject.

If you are just recently discovering Dusty Springfield,
I do not recommend this book, as it concentrates mainly
on her troubled personal life and does not really
talk about her musical achievements. The content
on her musical career is almost non existant and
when anything is mentioned its usually erroneus and
innacurate.

This however is an interesting book for hard core
fans that already know the musical genious of Dusty.
The book reveals what a trouble and horrific personal
life she had and how it obviously affected her
musical career.

This book if full of complete rubbish. Vicki Wickham should be ashamed of herself. She did nothing but portray Dusty in a negative light when we all remember her as the HAPPY AND POSITIVE PERFORMER. Of course i didn't personally know Dusty but to write such negative things is shameful. You should be ashamed of yourself Vicki. How can you call yourself a friend of Dusty? She knew you were going to do that to her. It makes me sick. This book is a waste of money and i don't reccommend it to anyone. I'll continue to love Dusty the way she was no matter what this book says.

Vicki Wickham would have seemed the perfect choice to write about Dusty, having been her manager & friend for many years. Unfortunately, that is not the case. While I don't doubt the veracity of what is written, Dusty was, no doubt, terrible complex. By focusing only on her darker side, it fails to come "full circle".

This most revered of divas & greatest of vocalist, is still in need of a biography which would reveal the enigma that was "Dusty Springfield".

I expected an in-depth look at the life of a very talented artist, Dusty Springfield. Instead, Dusty is trashed on almost every page. I kept reading and thinking that one day she would reach a happy plateau, but according to the two authors, all they wanted to convey to readers was that Dusty was a self-pitying, weird, unstable, self-mutilating alcoholic/drug abuser. I don't think I'll ever hear a Dusty Springfield song without thinking about the images that Valentine and Wickham left me with. Even the cover presents a haunting, almost unhinged tone. One wonders if Dusty was this miserable/high maintenance to be around, why did people stick around for so long? That is sad and this book is an injustice to Dusty's memory.

If you are looking for personal inside dish on the admittedly turbulent life of an overlooked artistic giant, you may enjoy this. However, the book is not very well written, skipping foward and backward chronologically in a very confusing manner. The authors also seem to prefer simply holding Dusty up as an object of pity rather than tackling the more difficult area of her very complex personality. To have put up with the burden of Dusty's problems they detailed, the authors must have loved her, but I would have liked for them to have more clearly shown just what it was about her that made her so magnetic to them and her fans.