A well-researched, sociologically savvy effort to expand the rock canon.
Snapshots of some of rock ’n’ roll’s greatest Black female performers, underappreciated in rock's broader history.
NYU music professor Mahon argues convincingly that Black women have been pivotal to rock music’s evolution. Think of Big Mama Thornton’s “Hound Dog,” repurposed by Elvis Presley, or Tina Turner’s skill at bridging R&B, rock, and pop. But their influence, notes the author, has been stifled in a variety of complicated ways. They’ve often been hired as background singers to lend “authenticity” to White rock performers yet exiled from the genre when they took center stage. Patti LaBelle, for instance, came up all but anonymously in a 1960s girl group and as part of the ’70s trio Labelle, considered outliers or a one-hit disco act on the basis of their song “Lady Marmalade.” Mahon argues that women rockers had to cultivate “betwixt and between” genres to find a footing, even while that strategy made success fleeting for the likes of Labelle, LaVern Baker, and the Shirelles—a shame because artists like Claudia Lennear and Betty Davis made indelible, path-breaking albums. Allowing these women to be more than window dressing or provide more than a dash of vocal “blackness” was a perceived threat. The band Humble Pie got push back when it made its Black female backing singers equal partners. In one excellent chapter, Mahon explores the stereotypes exemplified by the Rolling Stones’ “Brown Sugar” through three women connected to Mick Jagger. Mahon’s book lacks the sweep of a fully fleshed history, effectively ending the story with Turner, though she makes mention of recent artists like Santigold and Alabama Shakes. But if the narrative arc is brief and the prose occasionally burdened by academic stiffness, Mahon has done plenty to expose how Black women rockers have been marginalized by musicians, audiences, historians, and critics.
A well-researched, sociologically savvy effort to expand the rock canon.Pub Date: Oct. 30, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-4780-1122-4
Page Count: 392
Publisher: Duke Univ.
Review Posted Online: July 20, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2020
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
A charming and often poignant valediction from rock ’n’ roll’s Prince of Darkness.
The late heavy metal legend considers his mortality in this posthumous memoir.
“I ain’t ready to go anywhere,” writes Osbourne in the opening pages of his new memoir. “It’s good being alive. I like it. I want to be here with my family.” Given the context—Osbourne died on July 22, 2025, two weeks after the publisher announced the news of this book—it’s undeniably sad. But the rest of the text sees the Black Sabbath singer confronting the health struggles of his last years with dark humor and something approaching grace. The memoir begins in 2018; he wrote an earlier one, I Am Ozzy, in 2010. He tells of a staph infection he suffered that proved to be the start of a long, painful battle with various illnesses—soon after, he contracted a flu, which morphed into pneumonia. A spinal injury caused by a fall followed, causing him to undergo a series of surgeries and leaving him struggling with intense pain. And then there was his diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease, the treatment of which was complicated by his longtime struggle with alcohol and drug addiction. Osbourne peppers the chronicle of his final years with anecdotes from his past, growing up in Birmingham, England, and playing with—and then being fired from—Black Sabbath, and some of his most well-known antics (yes, he does address biting the heads off of a dove and a bat). He writes candidly and regretfully about the time he viciously attacked his wife, Sharon—the book is in many ways a love letter to her and his children. The memoir showcases Osbourne’s wit and charm; it’s rambling and disorganized, but so was he. It functions as both a farewell and a confession, and fans will likely find much to admire in this account. “Death’s been knocking at my door for the last six years, louder and louder,” he writes. “And at some point, I’m gonna have to let him in.”
A charming and often poignant valediction from rock ’n’ roll’s Prince of Darkness.Pub Date: Oct. 7, 2025
ISBN: 9781538775417
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2025
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