Author | Pamela Des Barres |
---|---|
Language | English |
Genre | Memoir |
Publication date | 1987 |
I'm with the Band: Confessions of a Groupie is a 1987 memoir by former groupie Pamela Des Barres. It was a New York Times best seller. [1]
The book tells the story of Pamela Ann Miller, a groupie who gets a kind of fame in the 1960s by having wild nights with musicians and actors. Pictures of famous musicians and actors accompany the many stories of her time in Los Angeles, California during the late 1960s and early 1970s. She recounts tales of moments shared with girlfriends The GTOs which they use as a way to outwardly express themselves. She becomes Frank Zappa's nanny as well as has relationships with Jimmy Page and with Don Johnson.
Her escapades include travels to England where she spends time with Mick Jagger and others. She also travels to Europe before coming back home. She later falls in love with Michael Des Barres, an English glam rocker. She ends the book with the story of their wedding and the birth of her son Nicholas Dean Des Barres.
After its publication in 1987, I'm with the Band was out of print until its republication in 2003. [2] A 30th anniversary edition was released in May 2018. [3]
In 1995, Des Barres released a CD, I'm with the Band, on which she reads excerpts from the book. [4]
I'm with the Band was described by Kirkus Reviews as "a classic account of rampant narcissism among guitar egomaniacs." The New York Times described I'm with the Band as "the brightest, sexiest, funniest of... the current outpouring of groupie literature." [5] In The Wall Street Journal , Andrew Ferguson called the memoir a "vulgar kiss-and-tell". [6] A Newsday reviewer said the memoir "is a deft mix of cultural history and gossip". [7] In LA Weekly , Helen Knode observes that the book is "pretty overwrought, both in its emotionalism...and in its expression". [8] Nearly twenty years after the book's initial publication, a reviewer in the Birmingham Post called it "the stuff of legend". [9]
In 1988, Ally Sheedy optioned the rights to I'm with the Band, intending to play the role of Des Barres. [10] In 1995, producer Beverly Camhe proposed to make a movie of I'm with the Band, starring Drew Barrymore, and directed by Tamra Davis. [11]
In 2002, Des Barres and Allison Anders co-wrote a screenplay, based on the memoir, for Starz cable channel. [12]
Capucine was a French fashion model and actress known for her comedic roles in The Pink Panther (1963) and What's New Pussycat? (1965). She appeared in 36 films and 17 television productions between 1948 and 1990.
A groupie is a fan of a particular musical group who follows the band around while they are on tour or who attends as many of their public appearances as possible, with the hope of meeting them. The term is used mostly describing young women, and sometimes men, who follow these individuals aiming to gain fame of their own, or help with behind-the-scenes work, or to initiate a relationship of some kind, intimate or otherwise. The term is also used to describe similarly enthusiastic fans of athletes, writers, and other public figures.
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Beverle Lorence "Bebe" Buell is an American singer and former model. She was Playboy magazine's November 1974 Playmate of the Month. Buell moved to New York in 1972 after signing a modeling contract with Eileen Ford, and garnered notoriety after her publicized relationship with musician Todd Rundgren from 1972 until 1978, as well as her liaisons with several rock musicians during that time and over the following four decades. She is the mother of actress Liv Tyler, whose biological father is Aerosmith frontman Steven Tyler. Todd Rundgren is Liv's legally adoptive father.
Pamela Des Barres is an American rock and roll groupie, writer, musician, and actress. She is best known for her 1987 memoir, I'm with the Band: Confessions of a Groupie, which details her experiences in the Los Angeles rock music scene of the 1960s and 1970s. She is also a former member of the experimental Frank Zappa-produced music group the GTOs.
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Take Another Little Piece of My Heart: A Groupie Grows Up is a non-fiction 1993 work by former groupie Pamela Des Barres. Continuing where I'm with the Band: Confessions of a Groupie left off, this book chronicles her life after being a groupie including the ups and downs of her turbulent marriage to actor/singer Michael Des Barres. Much of the book is about the couple's divorce in 1991 and the effects of the family dysfunction on their son, Nicholas Dean Des Barres.
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