Clothes, Clothes, Clothes. Music, Music, Music. Boys, Boys, Boys
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4.8 • 20 Ratings
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
Viv Albertine is one of a handful of original punks who changed music, and the discourse around it, forever. In Clothes ... Music ... Boys a story hitherto dominated by male voices is recast through the eyes of one of the most glamorous, uncompromising and iconic figures of the time.
After forming The Flowers of Romance with Sid Vicious in 1976, Viv joined The Slits and made musical history as one of the first generation of punk bands. Here is the story of what it was like to be a girl at the height of punk: the sex, the drugs, the guys, the tours, the hard lessons learnt and those not considered. From Madonna to Lady Gaga, fashion to feminims, Viv Albertine has influenced a range of exceptional artists. Here, before and beyond the break-up of The Slits in 1982, is the full story of a life lived unscripted, with foolishness, bravery and great emotional honesty.
A memoir full of raw and uncompromising anecdote and opinion, Clothes, Clothes, Clothes. Music, Music, Music. Boys, Boys, Boys is an unflinching account of a life lived on the frontiers of experience, by a true pioneer.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
Written in short chapters that burst with energy, this memoir by punk veteran Viv Albertine is as exciting as fireworks. The former guitarist for The Slits writes candidly about her tumultuous childhood, falling in love with music, romance and heartbreak, and the struggle to balance multiple identities: woman, mother, artist, renegade. The book’s title—cribbed from Albertine’s mother, who chastised her daughter for her trio of obsessions—belies its depth. Like Patti Smith’s Just Kids, Clothes, Clothes, Clothes. Music, Music, Music. Boys, Boys, Boys. will move anyone drawn to the creative life.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
An undercurrent of low self-esteem runs through this episodic, mannered memoir by former punk rocker Albertine, guitarist for the Slits. In spare, frank prose, she recounts her early infatuation with Sid Vicious and Johnny Rotten, her success as a guitarist in an unheard-of all-girl band in the late 1970s, and her later troubles, when her marriage failed and her career stalled out. Growing up in the 1960s in Muswell Hill, North London, as the child of an unstable marriage, Albertine found a revolutionary, exciting "new world" in music by John Lennon and the Kinks. Her Corsican-born father criticized her when she announced that she wanted to be a pop singer: "You're not chic enough." So she settled for being a groupie: cadging fab clothes from Kensington Market ("glam rock"), attending Hornsey Art School, and dating Mick Jones of the Clash, who helped her buy her first guitar. Dressed in tattered punk wear from the Sex shop at the end of King's Road, she played with Sid in her first band, Flowers of Romance. Once Sid drifted to the Sex Pistols, Albertine joined the Slits, fronted by the classically trained 15-year-old, Ari Up. Albertine tracks the halcyon days of the band, touring and recording, which lasted until Tessa Pollitt's overdose in 1982. In "Side Two" of her memoir, Albertine writes about years of uneven romance, trying to get pregnant, and trying to find fulfillment as a Hastings "housewife." At the end of this bold, empowering work, Albertine returns to playing guitar to give her life direction again.
Customer Reviews
Brilliant
I love how Viv writes. I felt like was there, living in London and part of the punk scene. Honest, sharp and engaging.
Clothes, Music, Boys by Viv Albertin
Loved this book. Very authentic, raw, funny, sad, and honest. Warts and all story of a girl who was passionate about music and went out and did some thing about it. Collected a lot of famous friends along the way without knowing it at the time. I'd love to meet her in person to thank her for sharing. Easily relatable and provided a great perspective on the punk scene during the 70's and 80's. Definitely recommend this book.