Grrrls: Viva Rock Divas [Paperback]

Amy Raphael (Author), Deborah Harry (Introduction)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 15, 1996

Courtney Love: "I rely a lot on sexual metaphors-food as sex, music as sex, fucked-up weird insane sexual vistas that haunt me and make me feel as though I were going insane sometimes."

Bjork: "I have always had a certain song in my head, a certain chemistry of sounds."

Kim Gordon: "I always wanted to rebel."

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

A journalist from across the pond, Raphael combines interviews with 14 contemporary female rockers, with overviews of each and an introduction that gives her stance on women in rock. It's a good thing. While few American readers will recognize the U.K. interviewees, Raphael snags extensive commentary from Stateside hotshots Courtney Love, Liz Phair, Kim Gordon and Tanya Donnelly as well as reigning international pop sprite Bjork. Raphael's introduction suffers from impeachable feminist flag-waving and noncritical hyperbole (in re rocker Kurt Cobain's 1994 suicide, she claims that "With a single bullet, Cobain defined a generation"). Her essay format for the interviews eliminates her own questions, but repetitive answers reveal a formulaic approach, especially concerning singer/guitarist Juliana Hatfield's infamous and now-rescinded remark that women aren't built to play guitars. Despite her indulgent reprinting of old news (she allows Love to read pages of Meeting the Madwoman into the mike, although Love has mentioned it in other interviews) and rambling tangents (Phair starts pontificating about the GNP), Raphael does manage to get these women talking in good ways: Love describes her climb from muse to musician, Nina Gordon recalls her realization that playing music wasn't solely her big brother's turf and Kim Gordon comments beautifully on the physicality of performing rock and roll. This book may have a hard time competing with the other female rocker tomes recently come to U.S. shelves, but fans will own them all.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

The issue of gender in the field of rock music raises some intriguing questions about equality, feminist thought, and other such matters. Along these lines, Raphael offers portraits of 12 female rock artists who hit their stride in the 1990s, examining the texture of their lives and their music. Included in this group are Bjork, Liz Phair, Ellyot Dragon (Sister George), and Courtney Love. The author's brief background on each artist serves as ample introduction to what follows?narratives "spoken" by each woman, revealing their personalities with astonishing clarity. The text is sprinkled with many references to rock and punk and is often quite explicit. While well researched, this book will probably not appeal to an audience whose tastes do not lean toward this type of music or toward the avant-garde in general. Recommended for large entertainment collections.?Carol J. Binkowski, Bloomfield, N.J.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 240 pages
• Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin (January 15, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312141092
• ISBN-13: 978-0312141097
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.5 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,610,301 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars For those interested in feminism in rock n'roll, June 17, 2004

By 

Megzi - See all my reviews

This review is from: Grrrls: Viva Rock Divas (Paperback)

This book was pretty good. I bought it based on the fact that three of my favorite artists were interviewed in this book (Hole, Veruca Salt, Liz Phair). The Hole interview was disappointing but I really enjoyed the one on Veruca Salt (I'm glad they finally got some recognition). Other interesting interviews were the ones with Bjork, Ellyott Dragon (Sister George), and Tanya Donnelly (Belly). In response to the reviewer below me, no they really did talk about Patti Smith, PJ Harvey, L7, Babes In Toyland, etc they just didn't interview them personally. Which would have been cool though. Buy it if you are interested in women in rock.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good, but what it's missing really annoys me., April 3, 2002

By 

Melissa E. Anthony "trifling_soybean" (ponte vedra beach, florida United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Grrrls: Viva Rock Divas (Paperback)

This book is very good, worth the money and time reading it. But I do wish the author included more bands and solo artists. Amy Raphael went all the way back to The Raincoats and Sonic Youth but LEAVES OUT Patti Smith. PJ Harvey is nowhere to be found in this book. (!!!???) Neither are L7, Babes In Toyland......you get the picture. It's missing a lot of important "rock divas".

3.0 out of 5 stars no courtney please, November 5, 2007

By 

SarahK66 "Sarah" (Houston, Texas) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Grrrls: Viva Rock Divas (Paperback)

Well the rest of the book is decent. But why does that STUPID C. Love woman have to be on the cover. Ugh SHE'S JUST REPULSIVE! If you aren't satisfied with the ladies and content.. don't worry buy "Angry Women in Rock" and "Women, Sex & Rock & Roll" which are better books!!