Looking For .....

[viper]

Hi folken.

Got a little spare time right now to catch up on some things. I'm looking for a good detailed biography on Dusty. Suggestions please.

[viper]

Just been looking through these - http://astore.amazon.co.uk/dustyspringf ... TF8&node=1

Any recomendations ?

[Corinna]

Here are a few suggestions for you:

The Complete Dusty Springfield by Paul Howes. It's a song by song book with extensive comments on Dusty's recordings and live performances, as well as Lana Sisters and Springfields. Dusty Queen of The Post Mods by Annie Randall concentrates on Dusty's music and is a great read.

As for biographies, there is Dusty Springfield by Lucy O'Brien, A Girl Called Dusty by Sharon Davis, both highly recommendable books. Others are A Life In Music by Edward Leeson,, Scissors and Paste by David Evans, and Dusty Springfield: In the Middle of Nowhere by Laurence Cole, if you can get hold of a copy of any of these.

And of course, there's the highly debated Dancing With Demons by Penny Valentine and Vicki Wickham.

A great complement to the books are the various TV programmes/documentaries about and with Dusty, such as Full Circle, Southbank Show and Definitely Dusty, which you can find on YouTube or here.

[viper]

Here are a few suggestions for you:

The Complete Dusty Springfield by Paul Howes. It's a song by song book with extensive comments on Dusty's recordings and live performances, as well as Lana Sisters and Springfields. Dusty Queen of The Post Mods by Annie Randall concentrates on Dusty's music and is a great read.

As for biographies, there is Dusty Springfield by Lucy O'Brien, A Girl Called Dusty by Sharon Davis, both highly recommendable books. Others are A Life In Music by Edward Leeson,, Scissors and Paste by David Evans, and Dusty Springfield: In the Middle of Nowhere by Laurence Cole, if you can get hold of a copy of any of these.

And of course, there's the highly debated Dancing With Demons by Penny Valentine and Vicki Wickham.

A great complement to the books are the various TV programmes/documentaries about and with Dusty, such as Full Circle, Southbank Show and Definitely Dusty, which you can find on YouTube or here.

Thanks Cor.

Ordered Laurence Cole yesterday. Seemed a good place to start. Can't get hold of Lucy O'Brein, out of print I'm told.

Might try the Sharon Davis one after M.O.N..

Got a copy of 'Full Circle' (very amusing). Will check out Southbank and D.D..

Those first two look/sound interesting, but I think I'd better bone up on the background first before I tackle them.

[mnmcv1]

Here are a few suggestions for you:

The Complete Dusty Springfield by Paul Howes. It's a song by song book with extensive comments on Dusty's recordings and live performances, as well as Lana Sisters and Springfields. Dusty Queen of The Post Mods by Annie Randall concentrates on Dusty's music and is a great read.

As for biographies, there is Dusty Springfield by Lucy O'Brien, A Girl Called Dusty by Sharon Davis, both highly recommendable books. Others are A Life In Music by Edward Leeson,, Scissors and Paste by David Evans, and Dusty Springfield: In the Middle of Nowhere by Laurence Cole, if you can get hold of a copy of any of these.

And of course, there's the highly debated Dancing With Demons by Penny Valentine and Vicki Wickham.

A great complement to the books are the various TV programmes/documentaries about and with Dusty, such as Full Circle, Southbank Show and Definitely Dusty, which you can find on YouTube or here.

Thanks Cor.

Ordered Laurence Cole yesterday. Seemed a good place to start. Can't get hold of Lucy O'Brein, out of print I'm told.

Might try the Sharon Davis one after M.O.N..

Got a copy of 'Full Circle' (very amusing). Will check out Southbank and D.D..

Those first two look/sound interesting, but I think I'd better bone up on the background first before I tackle them.

Hey Viper-
going along with Cor's suggestions, if you're looking for a straight bio the Lucy O'Brien and Sharon Davis books both fill the bill. The Edward Leeson book is an in-depth review of her musical career (although i find myself disagreeing with him quite often). Laurence Cole's book is more an academic study of her cultural impact- not really a bio but a book I highly recommend. Annie's book is in a similar vein but with some unique insight and is also a worthwhile read.

The Complete Dusty Springfield is an exhaustive overview of virtually every song Dusty ever recorded (along with live performances)- not really a book with a narrative but an invaluable resource.

PS- There's a link to the Southbank show under the "Don't Forget About Me" section of the forum.

[viper]

Here are a few suggestions for you:

The Complete Dusty Springfield by Paul Howes. It's a song by song book with extensive comments on Dusty's recordings and live performances, as well as Lana Sisters and Springfields. Dusty Queen of The Post Mods by Annie Randall concentrates on Dusty's music and is a great read.

As for biographies, there is Dusty Springfield by Lucy O'Brien, A Girl Called Dusty by Sharon Davis, both highly recommendable books. Others are A Life In Music by Edward Leeson,, Scissors and Paste by David Evans, and Dusty Springfield: In the Middle of Nowhere by Laurence Cole, if you can get hold of a copy of any of these.

And of course, there's the highly debated Dancing With Demons by Penny Valentine and Vicki Wickham.

A great complement to the books are the various TV programmes/documentaries about and with Dusty, such as Full Circle, Southbank Show and Definitely Dusty, which you can find on YouTube or here.

Thanks Cor.

Ordered Laurence Cole yesterday. Seemed a good place to start. Can't get hold of Lucy O'Brein, out of print I'm told.

Might try the Sharon Davis one after M.O.N..

Got a copy of 'Full Circle' (very amusing). Will check out Southbank and D.D..

Those first two look/sound interesting, but I think I'd better bone up on the background first before I tackle them.

Hey Viper-
going along with Cor's suggestions, if you're looking for a straight bio the Lucy O'Brien and Sharon Davis books both fill the bill. The Edward Leeson book is an in-depth review of her musical career (although i find myself disagreeing with him quite often). Laurence Cole's book is more an academic study of her cultural impact- not really a bio but a book I highly recommend. Annie's book is in a similar vein but with some unique insight and is also a worthwhile read.

The Complete Dusty Springfield is an exhaustive overview of virtually every song Dusty ever recorded (along with live performances)- not really a book with a narrative but an invaluable resource.

PS- There's a link to the Southbank show under the "Don't Forget About Me" section of the forum.

Thanks Markus.

Looks like I picked the right starting place then. Got a degree in Cultural History.

If anyone knows where I can get a copy of the Lucy O'Brien one, I'd be grateful if you can tell me.

Got halfway through 'Definitely Dusty' before life got in my way yesterday. Interesting but comes across so far as an overview. More later .......

[jeffery]

Never trust a hippie ? Trust is relative. Sometimes you just have to gamble.
Around here (Ohio) I find second hand book, and media sources everywhere, and on Amazon.
Buy them all, read them all, view them all. Welcome to the love of Dusty !
When in doubt refer to your friends on LTD.

[IWannaBeABluesSinger]

If anyone knows where I can get a copy of the Lucy O'Brien one, I'd be grateful if you can tell me.

The blue cover paperback is the updated 1999 volume. If you have an eBay account you can get it here for £0.99 +£3.95 shipping :

http://stores.ebay.co.uk/World-of-Books ... ubmit.y=15

Maggie

[viper]

Never trust a hippie ? Trust is relative. Sometimes you just have to gamble.
Around here (Ohio) I find second hand book, and media sources everywhere, and on Amazon.
Buy them all, read them all, view them all. Welcome to the love of Dusty !
When in doubt refer to your friends on LTD.

Hi Jeff,

was it you I met at the bar at this years D-Day ?

Strangely Dusty has been around all my life. I just didn't realize it until a couple of years ago.

Dusty departed this world the day after my Mam's last birthday. Though niether she nor I had any Dusty recordings (except The Tourists) we both picked up our ears if she was playing on the radio. Ma left this world eight months later. She had cancer too.

I'm not sure that she got to see Dusty sing but she did used to go to The Cavern.

Of course its the music that really matters, and its odd to find that a lot of the songs I've been listening to by other artistes for decades have turned out to be Dusty songs; Marc Almond, The Icicle Works ect.

Interesting documentary 'D.D.'.

Thanks Maggie, but no, I don't do E-Bay and I like to support local buisness if I can. If I'm meant to read it a copy will come my way sooner or later one way or another.

I'll let you know how I progress.

[viper]

Got my book, so tomorrow's taken care of.

[Corinna]

Happy reading!

[viper]

Happy reading!

Just finished Part 1 of the book. So far I can't find anything to to take issue at in the acerbic observations of Cole. I love his caustic whit. Seems I've come to a lot of the same conclusions he has, though obviously with less biographical detail, about her sound development and interpretation by the contempary culture of the surrounding day.

Of course its all well and good having a theory. Its another to find and prove the evidence.

Now I can put into better context the evolving 'sound' coming out of blues, into and out of gospel, the doo wop/girl group/Phil Spector, to Motown and that landmark show 'The Sounds Of Motown' 1965 I can't help but think of just how truely insipring it must have been for Pauline Black to see and hear.

See http://www.viperslair.co.uk/vll_pages/reviews/black.htm

Came across these as a suplement to my reading this daylit stretch.









Finally, this one. Which appears to be the only version up on YouTube. Odd, not only that it's the only version up there, but also culturally as it tries to somehow link the Olympics to Dusty ...!?? Makes you wonder just what's going on there doesn't it ?

[IWannaBeABluesSinger]

Viper:

Have you ever seen this version of NOWHERE TO RUN? It stands up pretty well to Martha's, I'd say:



Maggie

[viper]

Viper:

Have you ever seen this version of NOWHERE TO RUN? It stands up pretty well to Martha's, I'd say

Maggie

I have.

A faithful cover, but as Cole states 'enhanced'. Dusty's version is slightly faster tempo and delivered with more urgent force. The effect is to up lift the song and elevate it whilst giving it the acceptible commercial face of the cultural and political climate of the day.

I like her version better.

[viper]

Just finished the book.

Very interesting read and a good cultural study. Learned a few things there, and some ideas I hadn't considered. I do have some points to take up on it though.

Firstly; my own ears have never heard Dusty's vocals as black. Her voice patterns, pronounciations, and vocalisations to me sound unmistakably White Southern English woman.

Having said that her 'sound', her musical genre choice of expression has an unmistakably black influence/style/origin. To me it comes across as no more than a logical musical progression of the sound emerging from America at the time. Stood next to the syrupy popular music ballads of the 'Hit Parade' the girl group/Phil Spector musical progression stands out as exciting, passionate, and thrilling like its only rival musical genre competitors Rockabilly and Rock N Roll.

It seems only logical that any person bitten by the bug of the beat, the sound, the excitement of those styles would want to sing their own versions or interpretations and progress the sound picking it up and putting it down "past where you found it." in much the same way as Jerry Lee Lewis, Elvis, The Beatles, and The Rolling Stones, and this is no less true of all the bands inspired by the Sex Pistols, The Cramps, and The Meteors.

Second; Cole talks of Amy Winehouse being a modern day Dusty. Apart from the dubious connection to the beehive hair style I'd have to disagree. Amy's influence are most definately rooted in the girl group/Phil Spector thing and her hair is unmistakably more a Ronettes makeover than anything else. Just think about the covers she's recorded, there isn't one Dusty track amongst them.

Third; the Queer perspective is not something I've come across as a concept before. I'm familiar with 'otherness', a concept I studied as part of my degree in Uni along with concepts of identity construction and destruction. Something which seems to fit all the critera concepts of race/gender/sexuality/class/sanity/madness discussed within the book. This leaves me wondering is the 'Queer Perspective' a cultural specific concept in itself ?

Where for example does 'kinky' fit, or concepts usually associated with fetishism and BDSM into the 'Queer Perspective' ? Wouldn't 'otherness' be a more inclusive and more open as an exploritive concept ?

Whilst I found the examination of the idea interesting I feel it rather detracts from the singularly most important aspect of what Dusty was about, the music, which is barely examined outside of the concepts of race and sexual identity.

Fourth; the constant use of the word 'and' to start his sentances like some ignorant tabloid hack really began to grate on me. What is this new obsession with starting sentances with 'and' ?

Fifth;

"Although many of those who voted for her probably did not know who the original Dusty Springfield was," - p.109.

I would subject that the exact opposite is a truer statement if you consider just who Saturday evening light entertainment programmes usually appeal to and are aimed at.

It was hearing that voice singing those songs that has inadvertantly led me here like a stream runs to a river. Staring through the television a million miles away from where I sat oblivious to all but the study of why I felt so ill it was the sound my ears drank in that brought me back into the room long enough to forget my troubles for a few minutes.

Now while I'd always been a 'secret' Dusty fan I've heard many singers slaughter Dusty tracks. This was different. What I heard really was, "outside the norms of Saturday evening entertainment", and it leaves me utterly baffled as to why, to date, there has never been any follow up on that win. Indeed, apart from my own scribblings (which are not doubt deplored) not a single review of the many gigs this girl has since performed are to be found anywhere.

I could go off on one and offer some analysis and comparissons, but I'm not going to, ..........

I submit that even if, "many of those who voted for her probably did not know who the original Dusty Springfield was", it was the sound they heard that they were reacting to/voting on.

It always all about the music, the sounds that move you and set you free. Without them our lives are narrower, smaller, and stifled. The window into Dusty is in the sounds and the music she made and enjoyed. Like Bob Marley said, "Music is the universal language.", "One good thing about music. When it hits you it feels O.K.."

So, ..., which book do you goodly folken think I should follow this train of thought up with and read next ?

[IWannaBeABluesSinger]

Try DUSTY: QUEEN OF THE POSTMODS by Anne Randall. It's a scholarly, as opposed to sensational, look at Dusty and her career.

Maggie

[jeffery]

Try DUSTY: QUEEN OF THE POSTMODS by Anne Randall. It's a scholarly, as opposed to sensational, look at Dusty and her career.

Maggie

You'll like A.Randall examining Dusty's theatrical use of hand gestures, and her comparisons to silent film icon Sarah Bernhardt.

[viper]

Thanks folken.

I'll look into that.

[viper]

Oooooh, ........

"Randall reevaluates Springfield's place in sixties popular music through close investigation of her performances as well as interviews with her friends, peers, professional associates, and longtime fans. As the author notes, the singer's unique look--blonde beehive wigs and heavy black mascara--became iconic of the mid-sixties postmodern moment in which identity scrambling and camp pastiche were the norms in swinging London's pop culture. Randall places Springfield within this rich cultural context, focusing on the years from 1964 to 1968, when she recorded her biggest international hits and was a constant presence on British television. The book pays special attention to Springfield's close collaboration and friendship with American gospel singer Madeline Bell, the distinctive way Springfield combined US soul and European melodrama to achieve her own musical style and stage presence, and how her camp sensibility figured as a key element of her artistry."

Sounds just what I'm looking for. LOL, the rows I had with postmodernists on the nonsense of postmodernist theory.

[viper]

Got the Randall book today. I wonder what the Viper Perspective will be ?