Recommended to anyone with fond memories of the band and of the era of which it was a central part.
An affectionate history of one of the most successful bands in American rock history.
Lingan begins in 1958, with future band members Stu Cook and Doug Clifford at Portola Junior High School in the Bay Area suburb where they grew up. They discovered a mutual interest in rock music, especially Southern Black artists like Fats Domino, Bo Diddley, and Chuck Berry, “who took the rhythms of Black music and wrote narratives that appealed to everyone.” In due time, the two began trying to play the music they were hearing. When Clifford heard another young boy playing piano in the same idiom, he invited him to join their band. That boy was John Fogerty, who became the group’s leader. Fogerty was already finding his way on an electric guitar, a joint purchase with his older brother Tom, who would eventually join the band as rhythm guitarist behind John’s lead work. The band went through several preliminary configurations, under various names, before landing a recording contract with Fantasy Records—a label previously identified with West Coast jazz—where they turned out an impressive string of hits and several well-received albums. Lingan provides ample background about his subject, covering the members’ personal lives as well as the recording sessions, tours, and eventual breakup. During it all, John Fogerty did more than anyone to shape the band’s direction, with his guitar work, vocals, and distinctive songwriting. Given his central role in the band from start to finish, it is unfortunate that Lingan was apparently unable to get his version of the band’s history on record. The book would have been stronger with his input. Still, the author gives anyone interested in Creedence a solid overview of the band’s career and a good excuse to pull out the old records for one more listen.
Recommended to anyone with fond memories of the band and of the era of which it was a central part.Pub Date: Aug. 9, 2022
ISBN: 9780306846717
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Hachette
Review Posted Online: April 12, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
It’s not Shakespeare, not by a long shot. But at least it’s not James Franco.
A noted actor turns to verse: “Poems are a Saturday in the middle of the week.”
McConaughey, author of the gracefully written memoir Greenlights, has been writing poems since his teens, closing with one “written in an Australian bathtub” that reads just as a poem by an 18-year-old (Rimbaud excepted) should read: “Ignorant minds of the fortunate man / Blind of the fate shaping every land.” McConaughey is fearless in his commitment to the rhyme, no matter how slight the result (“Oops, took a quick peek at the sky before I got my glasses, / now I can’t see shit, sure hope this passes”). And, sad to say, the slight is what is most on display throughout, punctuated by some odd koanlike aperçus: “Eating all we can / at the all-we-can-eat buffet, / gives us a 3.8 education / and a 4.2 GPA.” “Never give up your right to do the next right thing. This is how we find our way home.” “Memory never forgets. Even though we do.” The prayer portion of the program is deeply felt, but it’s just as sentimental; only when he writes of life-changing events—a court appearance to file a restraining order against a stalker, his decision to quit smoking weed—do we catch a glimpse of the effortlessly fluent, effortlessly charming McConaughey as exemplified by the David Wooderson (“alright, alright, alright”) of Dazed and Confused. The rest is mostly a soufflé in verse. McConaughey’s heart is very clearly in the right place, but on the whole the book suggests an old saw: Don’t give up your day job.
It’s not Shakespeare, not by a long shot. But at least it’s not James Franco.Pub Date: Sept. 16, 2025
ISBN: 9781984862105
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: Aug. 15, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
A blissfully vicarious, heartfelt glimpse into the life of a Manhattan burlesque dancer.
A former New York City dancer reflects on her zesty heyday in the 1970s.
Discovered on a Manhattan street in 2020 and introduced on Stanton’s Humans of New York Instagram page, Johnson, then 76, shares her dynamic history as a “fiercely independent” Black burlesque dancer who used the stage name Tanqueray and became a celebrated fixture in midtown adult theaters. “I was the only black girl making white girl money,” she boasts, telling a vibrant story about sex and struggle in a bygone era. Frank and unapologetic, Johnson vividly captures aspects of her former life as a stage seductress shimmying to blues tracks during 18-minute sets or sewing lingerie for plus-sized dancers. Though her work was far from the Broadway shows she dreamed about, it eventually became all about the nightly hustle to simply survive. Her anecdotes are humorous, heartfelt, and supremely captivating, recounted with the passion of a true survivor and the acerbic wit of a weathered, street-wise New Yorker. She shares stories of growing up in an abusive household in Albany in the 1940s, a teenage pregnancy, and prison time for robbery as nonchalantly as she recalls selling rhinestone G-strings to prostitutes to make them sparkle in the headlights of passing cars. Complemented by an array of revealing personal photographs, the narrative alternates between heartfelt nostalgia about the seedier side of Manhattan’s go-go scene and funny quips about her unconventional stage performances. Encounters with a variety of hardworking dancers, drag queens, and pimps, plus an account of the complexities of a first love with a drug-addled hustler, fill out the memoir with personality and candor. With a narrative assist from Stanton, the result is a consistently titillating and often moving story of human struggle as well as an insider glimpse into the days when Times Square was considered the Big Apple’s gloriously unpolished underbelly. The book also includes Yee’s lush watercolor illustrations.
A blissfully vicarious, heartfelt glimpse into the life of a Manhattan burlesque dancer.Pub Date: July 12, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-250-27827-2
Page Count: 192
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: July 27, 2022
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