Somebody to Love?
A Rock-and-Roll Memoir
-
- $21.99
-
- $21.99
Publisher Description
A candid autobiography of the great rock diva of Jefferson Airplane and Jefferson Starship, revealing her wild life at the forefront of the Sixties and Seventies counterculture.
She has been called rock and roll's original female outlaw, as famous for her bad behavior as for her haunting singing voice. In her 25-year career as a musician, Grace Slick charted dozens of hits and sold millions of albums. From "White Rabbit" and "Somebody to Love" to "Sarah" and "Miracles", the songs she performed became the anthems of a generation.
Whether describing her antics at the White House with Abbie Hoffman or the unforgettable experience that was Woodstock, Slick's recollections have the same rich imagery found in her lyrics. In this provocative narrative, readers will discover the many sides of Grace Slick: as artistic pioneer; she records songs with Jerry Garcia and David Crosby; as practitioner of freedom and rebellion; she sleeps with Jim Morrison and gets arrested for DUI on three separate occasions (without actually being in a car); and as a loving mother to actress China Kantner, she tries to balance casual friendship with parental wisdom.
Slick offers a revealing self-portrait of the complex woman behind the rock-outlaw image, and delivers a behind-the-scenes, no-holds-barred view of the people and spirit that defined a quarter-century of American pop culture. Wildly funny, candid, and evocative, Somebody to Love?tells what it was really like during, and after, the Summer of Love-and how one remarkable woman survived it all to remain today as vibrant and rebellious as ever.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Rock chanteuse Grace Slick was a sophomore at the University of Miami when, in 1958, a friend from her Bay-area hometown sent her an article about the new San Francisco scene--a world of "marijuana, rock music and strange but pleasantly artistic beatnik behavior." Intrigued, Slick returned home and threw herself into a counterculture that was distinctly at odds with her post-war middle-class upbringing. After playing in a popular local band for a few years, she joined the front ranks of '60s rock icons when she was invited to sing for the already-prominent band Jefferson Airplane, recording hits like "White Rabbit" and "Somebody to Love" that helped to define the kaleidoscopic rock world of the 1960s. Here, Slick unabashedly details her long flirtation with psychedelic drugs; her dalliances with Jim Morrison ("like making love to a floating art form with eyes") and lesser rock luminaries; her many run-ins with the law; and her experiences of marriage and motherhood as her band evolved from rebellious trailblazers into the florid mainstream radio acts Jefferson Starship and Starship. Her present-day dedication to animal-rights causes, visual art and spirituality are also recounted. There are few revelations here, and Slick's penchant for elliptical, hippie-ish pronouncements ("Life, the constantly mutating funeral party") won't win her many new fans. But the appealingly wry good humor she brings to her own life story makes this an engaging trip through two turbulent decades of rock 'n' roll. Photos. Editor, Rich Horgan; agent, Maureen Regan. Audio rights to Warner.
