GIRL GROUPS REVISITED, 2PAC AUTHORIZED
New books on an underappreciated genre and icon rap star
The fall always offers a bounty of books on culture with music books of various kinds popping up. Two I’ve been enjoying for very different reasons are But Will You Love Me Tomorrow?: An Oral History of the ‘60s Girl Groups (Hachette) by Laura Flam and Emily Sieu Liebowitz and Tupac Shakur: The Authorized Biography (Crown) by Staci Robinson. Obviously very different subjects and time periods. Yet both share an preoccupation with being, as the kids say, “seen.” The peak girl group era, which the author situate as starting in the ‘50s and ending in the ‘70s, is filled with the voices of women who wore looks of make up, often have bee hive hair do’s, and are usually written about as vehicles for dominating male producer/executives like Phil Spector and Berry Gordy or muses for female tunesmiths like Carol King and Ellie Greenwich. That the majority of these groups were composed of black women who, aside from their singing, have been rendered mute in rock & roll history is the great triumph of this book. It’s refeshing to put names to so many captivating performers, but to hear how their contributions to songs and arrangements have been overlooked, and how their voicelesness made them seem like replacable parts in the record bis starmaking machinery. One of this books most important contribution is giving the Andantes (Jackie Hicks, Louvain Demps, Marlene Barrow), who sang backgrounds on most of the Motown’s ‘60s production line hits, credit as being essential to “the Motown Sound” as the Funk Brothers session cats or the celebrated stars.
I’m very happy to see Staci Robinson’s 'Tupac Shakur’ book finally published. While working on the FX/Hulu series ‘Dear Mama,’ her original, unpublished manuscript, was a vital tool in understanding Afeni Shakur, her son Tupac, and the environment of politics, poverty and pride that shaped them both. Her close friendship with Pac, as well as her connection to his mother, proved an intimacy that few other of the multitude of other Tupac manuscripts possessed. Now that the book is finished, Robinson’s book gives a warm look at a family who’s story has been too often sensationalized. Part One of the manuscript is as good a written description of Tupac’s childhood as you’ll get aside from Jasmine Guy’s 2004 book Afeni Shakur: Evolution of a Revolutionary. If you’re looking for a deep discussion of Tupac’s lyrics or musical career, this isn’t that book. But if you want to read an single comprehensive narrative of his life, written with love, this authorized bio is a seminal text.
