Status
Available
Publication
It Books (2010), Edition: First Edition / First Printing, 368 pages
Description
In this candid autobiography, Cherie Currie--the original lead singer of '70s teenage all-girl rock band The Runaways--powerfully recounts her years in the band, her friendship with guitarist Joan Jett, and her struggle with drugs. An intense, behind-the-scenes look at rock music in the gritty, post-glam era, Neon Angel is a must-read for anyone whose heart beats to the rhythm of David Bowie, Suzi Quatro, Nick Gilder, and the Sex Pistols, and for every fan of the movie it inspired: The Runaways, starring Dakota Fanning and Kristen Stewart as Cherie Currie and Joan Jett.
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User reviews
LibraryThing member writergal85
If people have seen the preview for the film The Runaways and wondered why Dakota Fanning as Cherie Currie seems to have more screen time than Kristin Stewart as Joan Jett, it’s not merely that Fanning possesses more talent than Stewart. NEON ANGEL: A Memoir of a Runaway by lead singer Cherie
The good part of this memoir: Currie presents an honest recollection of the sex, drugs and rock n’ roll that took over her teenage years. Older men fantasized about [and more often than not acted on] being with these teenage hot-shots. One night, The Runaways’s manager basically lent Currie out for the night to another teen idol. Another time this same manager made all five girls watch him have sex with a younger woman. He claimed he was showing them the way to do it. She sugarcoats nothing. Currie recalls the plethora of drug-use and her subsequent addiction to cocaine, over-the-counter Benzedrine [speed], prescription pills and alcohol.
When The Runaways toured, Currie found herself so homesick that she couldn’t function without drugs. Once home, she still couldn’t even make it through a day without being drugged out on something. Currie has a twin sister Marie who felt a bit slighted that her sister catapulted to such fame and left her behind. Up to the moment that Currie joined The Runaways, Marie had been the popular one. Currie finds herself in many turbulent relationships especially with family members. She writes about two rapes [one that included abduction], an abortion, and some pretty rotten relationships.
Currie remembers positive moments with The Runaways as well: her friendships with Joan Jett and Sandy West, the fame and the surrealness of being in such a popular band that opened for Cheap Trick and The Ramones and played some of the hippest venues like CBGB’s in New York. She relished some of the opportunities to meet bands she adored and other people she might have never encountered had she not been in this band.
The only negative of this memoir: Currie repeats herself often, perhaps to pound home the point that drugs destroy lives. Or that she managed to overcome her drug addiction and now leads a fulfilling life as an artist, mother, and occasional actress. Parts of the memoir drag on and there’s a simplistic writing style, it could have used additional editing. I’m sure the memoir proved to be a cathartic experience for Currie and honestly, how much fault can I find in that?
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Currie inspired the film. Currie joined The Runaways a year after its formation. Guitarist/singer Joan Jett and drummer Sandy West met Currie at a local teen hangout in Los Angeles. Soon after, the band really took off. It was a novelty for five teenage girls [guitarist Lita Ford and bassist Jackie Fox rounded out the band] to perform powerful rock sings in the early 70s. Unfortunately I can only think of one completely female band since The Runaways-- The Donnas. In NEON ANGEL, Currie chronicles her days in the groundbreaking band The Runaways as well as her life before and after her one-of-a-kind experience as the band’s sultry blonde lead singer dubbed “The Cherry Bomb,” after one of the band’s songs penned by Joan Jett.The good part of this memoir: Currie presents an honest recollection of the sex, drugs and rock n’ roll that took over her teenage years. Older men fantasized about [and more often than not acted on] being with these teenage hot-shots. One night, The Runaways’s manager basically lent Currie out for the night to another teen idol. Another time this same manager made all five girls watch him have sex with a younger woman. He claimed he was showing them the way to do it. She sugarcoats nothing. Currie recalls the plethora of drug-use and her subsequent addiction to cocaine, over-the-counter Benzedrine [speed], prescription pills and alcohol.
When The Runaways toured, Currie found herself so homesick that she couldn’t function without drugs. Once home, she still couldn’t even make it through a day without being drugged out on something. Currie has a twin sister Marie who felt a bit slighted that her sister catapulted to such fame and left her behind. Up to the moment that Currie joined The Runaways, Marie had been the popular one. Currie finds herself in many turbulent relationships especially with family members. She writes about two rapes [one that included abduction], an abortion, and some pretty rotten relationships.
Currie remembers positive moments with The Runaways as well: her friendships with Joan Jett and Sandy West, the fame and the surrealness of being in such a popular band that opened for Cheap Trick and The Ramones and played some of the hippest venues like CBGB’s in New York. She relished some of the opportunities to meet bands she adored and other people she might have never encountered had she not been in this band.
The only negative of this memoir: Currie repeats herself often, perhaps to pound home the point that drugs destroy lives. Or that she managed to overcome her drug addiction and now leads a fulfilling life as an artist, mother, and occasional actress. Parts of the memoir drag on and there’s a simplistic writing style, it could have used additional editing. I’m sure the memoir proved to be a cathartic experience for Currie and honestly, how much fault can I find in that?
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LibraryThing member gmmoney
I picked up this book because I heard a review of the movie it's based on, and I was intrigued. The book is pretty graphic - as you can imagine - the usual sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll stuff. This is the memoir of Cherie Currie in the all-girl teenage group "The Runaways." Joan Jett was one of her
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band mates. I couldn't help but feel that a lot of it was a bit clichéd - as if only she had the ability to see in advance the pitfalls of being a young woman in the music business - the exploitation of a group of young, hungry musicians, the partying, the drugs. It's hard to believe at times that there was no one looking out for this young woman - especially considering that she came from a family that was in show business and expressed reservations at different times of her manager and his goons.Will probably rent the movie, I'd be interested to see how they adapted it. Show Less
LibraryThing member richardsonmichelle
I saw the movie and when I saw the book, I thought there has to be more to that story. I liked the movie but it didn't do this book justice. What a whirlwind of drugs and rock 'n roll...yeah, there was sex in it to, but not always portrayed in a way that was at all gratifying. She tells a great
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story. Show Less
LibraryThing member vampiregirl76
Several months ago I sat down to watch The Runaways (the movie) staring Kristen Stewart and Dakota Fanning. I ended up really enjoying it. Going in of course I knew about Joan Jett (I love her stuff) and I knew the song Cherry Bomb, but I didn't know much about the band itself or their history.
I
I
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was intrigued enough to picked up Cherie Currie's Neon Angel, the book the movie was based on. It's rare for me to read a memoir but I definitely wanted to learn more. I was absolutely enthralled with this book. Cherie's story is exciting, horrifying, inspirational and above all honest. It was shocking to see how much this girl/woman went through, especially at such a young age. Really it's a miracle she's alive today. Although it wasn't easy and took a few tries, she was able to drag herself out of the black hole she was in and land in a better place. Show Less
LibraryThing member joyfiction
A great look into the darker side of becoming a celebrity at a young age and having no boundaries set. Entertaining in a way that's a little dark and somewhat depressing in it's honesty but a great story about how you can go through your own (mostly self-created) hell and come out better on the
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other side. Show Less
LibraryThing member ownedbycats
well told story of her earlier years! the last few pages she tells you a bit of being a mom and what she's been going the past 20 years or so. it sounds like she could easily have another good story in her to share!
LibraryThing member Caryn.Rose
This was a very tough book to read because it was a very tough story. This is a rewrite of an earlier edition and you can definitely feel that in parts. The beginning could be tough because there was less edit help than there was at the end. There seemed to be a conscious attempt to retain as much
If you didn't hate Kim Fowley before, you will by the time you're done.
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as Cherie's voice as possible and that did make reading the story tough at times. I wish there had been a little less voice and a little more editing in places because that would make the story easier to read simply from a language perspective - because it is a very powerful story.If you didn't hate Kim Fowley before, you will by the time you're done.
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LibraryThing member mstrust
Currie was the singer for the 70's teen band The Runaways. One of the first songs she ever recorded was the band's hit "Cherry Bomb", when she was fifteen years old. This memoir covers Currie's childhood and home life, her meeting with Svengalie Kim Fowley and the other members who would become her
She's had a highly dramatic life, with some really terrible things happening to her, yet it's often due to her poor judgement. The reader should keep in mind that this book is very much Currie's version of events, helped along by a co-author. The writing is often simplistic, especially in the beginning, with lots of exclamation points, which I noticed seemed an awful lot like the foreword attributed to Joan Jett. It's when the story gets to The Runaways years that things really pick up, and that's the reason anyone would be reading this, so it delivers.
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bandmates for the next two years. Currie goes into detail, often horrifying detail, as to the treatment of these very young girls by creepy Fowley, who seems to have gotten their parents to sign them over to him in the hopes of fame and wealth. She's had a highly dramatic life, with some really terrible things happening to her, yet it's often due to her poor judgement. The reader should keep in mind that this book is very much Currie's version of events, helped along by a co-author. The writing is often simplistic, especially in the beginning, with lots of exclamation points, which I noticed seemed an awful lot like the foreword attributed to Joan Jett. It's when the story gets to The Runaways years that things really pick up, and that's the reason anyone would be reading this, so it delivers.
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Language
Original language
English
Original publication date
2010
Physical description
9 inches
ISBN
0061961353 / 9780061961359