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A review by rabbithrted
I'm with the Band: Confessions of a Groupie by Pamela Des Barres
3.0
‘mick jagger personifies a penis’….i don’t really know where to start tbh.
while i suppose there is some respect in pamela’s complete confidence and support of the groupie lifestyle, i just found it hard to read so many depictions of young girls being taken advantage of. there was so much blatant pedophilia, abuse and lack of regard for the girls in the memoir that i personally do not understand how she wrote it with so little criticism. blame it on the era of whatever but if you’re looking for an in depth analytical account of being a groupie i wouldn’t say this is it.
while i did enjoy getting to read about the free spirit pam was and her gto crew, i felt there was so much more she could’ve explored. how dependent they all were, and how abandoned they became, the exploitative men around them. it just idk….missed the mark for me. if i knew before hand it would mostly be a diary account of all the guys she’d slept with and how good they were in bed maybe i would’ve felt less dissatisfied.
with that being said, pam can write. i do think her youthful, flowery writing became a bit tiresome by the end? as someone who has so much love for stereotypically ‘girly’ writing-i could get past it. but for the average non 17 yr old (like me) you’re gonna struggle. however the songs she wrote and certain passages were gorg can’t deny. her writing of the gtos was so sweet, how they styled themselves, this love for art and self expression. you got a sense of these women as individuals rather than attachments to famous sleazy boys in bands. unfortunately these small glimpses made up so LITTLE of the book.
i just wish she had written more about the girls and not the guys, because it’s where her story AND writing was best.
but it was fun and an enjoyable- though enabling- look into the free love era. i just think there was SO much more potential for a really interesting account and memoir. o’well.
her beatles phase made the experience though ngl, that was hilarious.
while i suppose there is some respect in pamela’s complete confidence and support of the groupie lifestyle, i just found it hard to read so many depictions of young girls being taken advantage of. there was so much blatant pedophilia, abuse and lack of regard for the girls in the memoir that i personally do not understand how she wrote it with so little criticism. blame it on the era of whatever but if you’re looking for an in depth analytical account of being a groupie i wouldn’t say this is it.
while i did enjoy getting to read about the free spirit pam was and her gto crew, i felt there was so much more she could’ve explored. how dependent they all were, and how abandoned they became, the exploitative men around them. it just idk….missed the mark for me. if i knew before hand it would mostly be a diary account of all the guys she’d slept with and how good they were in bed maybe i would’ve felt less dissatisfied.
with that being said, pam can write. i do think her youthful, flowery writing became a bit tiresome by the end? as someone who has so much love for stereotypically ‘girly’ writing-i could get past it. but for the average non 17 yr old (like me) you’re gonna struggle. however the songs she wrote and certain passages were gorg can’t deny. her writing of the gtos was so sweet, how they styled themselves, this love for art and self expression. you got a sense of these women as individuals rather than attachments to famous sleazy boys in bands. unfortunately these small glimpses made up so LITTLE of the book.
i just wish she had written more about the girls and not the guys, because it’s where her story AND writing was best.
but it was fun and an enjoyable- though enabling- look into the free love era. i just think there was SO much more potential for a really interesting account and memoir. o’well.
her beatles phase made the experience though ngl, that was hilarious.