y'all.... SO ... I have waited almost a month to write about this book. Maybe because I loved it so much, I had to actually read it twice. Yep. Truth.
BUY THIS BOOK! (no affiliate link... just an endorsement)
In the 90s I was a producer for a music TV show of some notoriety. That sounds super pretentious. It is not. I had just returned from filmschool, and an attempt at getting into the biz and came back "home". My best friend was the Executive Producer on the show and I first started out as a camera person and then started to produce segments. It was a BLAST. From programming to segment production to interview segments with some really amazing rock stars... it was a blast.
So.
Imagine my complete surprise when this book came up in a search of available books to read in advance of publication. Speedball Baby wasn't a band I had ever heard of. Ever. And totally would have been a band we would have programmed. I am absolutely gobsmacked that this band, on a major label that we worked with, never pushed them more.
As the saying goes "they could have been contenders".
Ali Smith, the bassist wrote a phenomenal book. I read it entranced in maybe two sittings but defiantly in one weekend. I was transfixed with the tales of being on the road. Being in a band that should have gotten better shrift by their label. This is not a bitter story... but really one of redemption and guts. There are some things that aren't glamour-filled and some that are. There are somethings that aren't gritty but a lot that are. But girl .... this is a story of a time that bands were scooped up and promised a road out of obscurity but not really given proper due and how that effects the people involved.
I loved the honesty. That takes guts. This book is gutty. That is my quote... this book is gutty. Shimmies with guts.
Speedball Baby is just odd enough to be awesome. I have added them as a favorite to my Spotify. I listen to them when I am looking to have a moment to dance around my kitchen and clean. I would have LOVED to have seen them live and program them on our show.
This is a book about the road, rock and roll and the power of art.
The book comes out in January 2024 and it's already on my "to buy" list because the book promises to be peppered with the photography of the author. I have snuck into her instagram and peeked at her portraiture and I am smitten, just like her writing.
In the book she writes about taking a photo at a dumpster. I COULD picture it in my head, just like the rest of what she wrote about. That is the best sign. I want to see that actual photos.
Nothing is spared to the reader's eye. That is such a good sign to me.
I have reread this book twice since I got it a month or so ago. I wanted to make sure that I didn't miss anything. Yep... it was that great to me.
I wanted to wait until the book was closer to publication date to post this because I didn't want it to get lost in the ether of the internet.
So here is my suggestion -
And here are the steps - trust me on this.
1) find a cozy spot with a cup of coffee, tea with whisky or whatever you want to warm you up when you set aside the time to read this book
2) open to the forward - it's by Exene Cervenka of X - if you know you know - and play a couple songs off Los Angeles. THEN... dance around where ever you are for a couple of songs... get your energy up because you are going for a ride.
3) open up your music player of choice and que up Speedball baby.
4) read the first couple of chapters in silence and then get ready to rock at chapter three. Crank it up because the energy of the music matches and is a great soundtrack to the rest of the book.
PS this is what I did on round two and it kicked ass just like this book does.
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