Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Music historian Bickerdike (Being Britney) traces in excruciating detail the rise and fall of the 1980s all-female rock band the Bangles. Sisters Debbi and Vicki Peterson grew up in a music-loving home in 1960s California, where they became obsessed with the Beatles and other rock bands. They linked up with guitar player Susanna Hoffs to form the Bangles in 1980--bass player Annette Zilinskas joined in 1981--and produced their first single independently, shopping it around to record stores until it got local airplay. Chronicling the band's rise to fame with songs like 1986's "Walk Like an Egyptian," Bickerdike highlights the condescension and sexism they faced along the way--roadies unplugged their instruments mid-show, rumors circulated that they hadn't written their lyrics, and reviewers constantly pitted them against the Go-Gos, another all-female band. At the same time, the outsize media attention attracted by Hoffs--who was widely considered the "petite," pretty one and asked to pose solo on magazine covers-- amplified tensions within the group and helped spur their 1989 breakup (though they went on to reunite in the late 1990s). While making a solid case for the band's role in paving the way for other female rockers, Bickerdike's beat-by-beat narration buries any hint of drama beneath dry detail (including anecdotes about the nuns at the Petersons' Catholic elementary school). Only the most ardent Bangles fans need apply. (Feb.)
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Review by Kirkus Book Review
The path to the top of the pop charts is tortuous and temporary. Sisters Debbi and Vicki Peterson had been honing their musical chops for years as drummer and guitarist, respectively, in Southern California rock bands before forming the classic lineup of the Bangles in the early 1980s with guitarist Susanna Hoffs and bassist Michael Steele, a founding member of '70s rockers the Runaways. The four women found harmony by sharing songwriting and vocals on jangly tunes shaped by 1960s rock and psychedelia. As rock historian Otter Bickerdike (Being Britney: Pieces of a Modern Icon) makes clear in this appreciative book, the band's burden was heavy, with a domineering and dismissive producer, a rock press that objectified them as women, and a management team that pitted them against each other. Though they proved themselves with three solid albums and several Top 10 hits in the '80s, the Bangles struggled to shed comparisons to female rockers the Go-Go's, skepticism about their musicianship, and a management team that pushed Hoffs to the forefront at the expense of the other talents in the band. "People didn't quite know what to do with us, especially men," Vicki Peterson says. "We were complete aberrations of nature, being women on stage playing rock music." Resentment over the spotlight on Hoffs dissolved the band by the end of the '80s, but it re-formed almost a decade later. Though Steele declined to participate, the book offers a wealth of recollections from Hoffs and the Petersons. "There was something catchy about the music," Hoffs recalls, "but also about the idea of this unique set of people coming together and trying to create something. That was the goal: to show up and deliver a kind of magic." An entertaining depiction of four talented musicians who left their mark on '80s pop. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
