Let's Spend the Night Together

April 30, 2007
A groupie is to a rock band as Mary Magdalene was to Jesus, asserts L.A. rock author Des Barres (I'm with the Band) in this eager, self-congratulatory attempt to rehabilitate the term groupie through two dozen fun and well-documented examples of rock muses since the 1960s. Des Barres steers her interviewees to underscore their important role in making their rock star boyfriends look good and play well, such as Tura Satana, given the dubious title Miss Japan Beautiful, who met awkward young Elvis Presley on the burlesque circuit in the mid-'50s and taught him his shimmying moves. Des Barres recalls her groupie rivals back in the day, including Patti D'Arbanville, Bebe Buell, Lori Lightning and Catherine James. Cynthia Plaster Caster, “the Rodin of Rock,” shares her descriptions of her plaster replicas of rock stars' penises (including that of Jimmy Hendrix), while Dee Dee Keel spills tales of her oral exploits for British rockers with deplorable bathing habits, and male groupie Pleather relays Courtney Love's shaky self-esteem. In the end, it's all about the music, or as Pleasant Gehman sums it up blithely in this breathlessly gossipy scrapbook: “Being a groupie is like worshipping at the church of rock and roll—and you are the high priestess.”

May 15, 2007
Here is music, sex, and rock culture as experienced by the muses and groupies who loved the performances and the performers. Tales of their plans to break into backstage sanctums to join the inner circles of their rock-star heroes make for absorbing reading. Des Barres, who shared her own story in I'm with the Band: Confessions of a Groupie, begins with brief comments on the essence of groupies, intertwining her own conversion from religion to rock. She then introduces two dozen major muses/groupies in a series of in-depth individual portraits, with stories of the stars they sought to inspire (from Jimi Hendrix to Mick Jagger to Cat Stevens), and plenty of rollicking details from backstage to bedroom. Some had short-term liaisons; others, like Gail Zappa, married or had longstanding relationships. And along the way, many developed unique signature claims to fame, including Cynthia Plaster Caster, whose phallic works of art were literally molded by the stars, and Tura Satana, who reportedly taught Elvis some of his more impressive moves both onstage and off. Rock fans and students of the sociology of pop culture will find this book intriguingly informative. For circulating collections.Carol J. Binkowski, Bloomfield, NJ

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