Rebel Heart

WARNING: The trashy book entries may not be appropriate for the under-aged. Why anyone underage would be reading my blog about books is beyond me. But you have been warned. Second warning: There was a formatting disaster and I accidentally erased part of this review. I don't even much feel like reconstructing it. This post is cursed.

So, to kick off trash book month I read Rebel Heart: An American Rock 'n' Roll Journey by Bebe "Liv Tyler's Mom" Buell. Buell is mostly known, according to the internet, for sleeping with/dating rock stars, especially in the seventies. The front cover of this book is somehow distractingly reminiscent of the eighties [okay this is where I accidentally erased the best part, but I will try to reconstruct it]. The front cover features a lot of silver and pink and the pages are edged in leopard print. The back cover is a tasteful semi-nude. Just a warning (or perhaps an incentive-- depends what floats your boat): This book has nude photos (and other pictures) embedded in the text. There is the usual glossy photo section, but you might also be reading along and suddenly: IT'S BEBE!
Okay, straight to the gossip. Buell shares with us the following stunning revelations:

• Iggy Pop was a drug addict.


• David Bowie: really into black women.


• Bebe didn't wear a large size 6, she wore a "tiny" size 6.


• Mick Jagger had sex with many women.


• You don't get a revelation #5, because this is a crappy reconstruction.

Wasn't that enlightening? Okay, so Bebe does set the record straight on a few points. Despite what it says on [Here ends the reconstruction, which is a bit more harsh than the original]line AND ON THE BACK OF THE BOOK, she did not have sex with
Bowie. They just went on a few pretty public dates over a few
weeks just for fun and to make her boyfriend jealous.
("..David and I thought that we might have sex, but then we both
burst out laughing and ended up doing our makeup.") She did sleep
with Jack Nicholson, but she doesn't go into graphic
detail because I guess she's what Jack would call 'classy broad.'
Well, thank goodness because otherwise I would have gagged.
Unless you are actually on the set
of Easy Rider or POSSIBLY Five Easy Pieces and
Nicholson is both in character and in costume, that is just
unacceptable. It is around that point that Bebe loses me
and I begin to skim.

Anyway, Rebel Heart is fascinating in a way. Buell isn't an idiot and she adopts a pose of looking back on her past naivete without any regret but also with greater knowledge and wisdom. She often aims for a wry and amused tone, other times she's very brash, but there are lots of instances where she seems to lack self-awareness. The parts that work best are 1. those that capture the excitement of a young girl becoming involved with rock stars and with rock and roll-- the enthusiasm of a fan and 2. sometimes her dry sense of humor. The humor works best I think when it is being used to tell a contained story. At other times it falls flat. Often this happens when Buell uses it on her younger self in an ironic way, mocking her past naivete. Perhaps this is because she is using defensive irony to provide distance on subjects that she actually cannot completely detach herself from as yet.

For example: The Bowie story is really kind of funny. She's under no illusion that they had any great passion. As illustration, on a late night call from Bowie, after she goes back to Todd Rundgren: "I don't think he was crying over me; I think he was crying because he just did that a lot. He asked me to come over and read to him." Okay, I think the delivery is just hilarious, and she sets it all up
by having Bowie burst into tears twice previously in the three pages devoted to him.

Sometimes, though the naive thing is so annoying and almost prudish. The most glaring example is her past drug use. She doesn't do hard drugs-- this being the '70s, recreational cocaine doesn't really seem to count, I guess. But the reader gets sick of hearing that "Bebe doesn't do that" either from Bebe herself or from people like Mick Jagger. Also, in the previously discussed anecdote, she totally sets up the expectation of a threesome with Bowie and his wife and fails
to deliver. It could be a clever hook, but it seems more like obliviousness to her own entendre. [This is the book for hilarious Stones threesome action, but if you want the Bowies you'll have to read the book by Buell's rival, Cyrinda Foxe. see: Next Posting ]

You know, I don't even want to get into Jimmy Page anymore. But, the problem is our author aims for a knowing tone. She laughs ruefully at her young self falling for Page's truly smarmy and strangely half-a**ed 'come ons.' She keeps returning to Page even as it undermines her relationship with boyfriend/ hypocritical father-figure Todd Rundgren. This destructive compulsion could be interesting, but the tone just doesn't work.

The relationship with Rundgren runs through a large section of the book and is very interesting. I think you'll just have to read the book yourself to learn about it though.

Okay, so this is entry is trailing off in irrelevance. I'll stop
here and pick up later with another post that will succinctly touch on:
Elvis Costello, Steve Tyler, Bebe's band, Liv, Girl Power, and crazy
psychosomatic illness. Don't worry it'll be short because I totally
skimmed that part of the book.