Book

A woman like me

LaVette, Bettye, 1946-, Ritz, David

Overview

The singer's autobiography charts one missed chance and blown opportunity after another on the way to belated renown 40 years into her career. Born Betty Haskins in Michigan, she was a high school dropout, married and a mother by the age of 15, and ran wild through the Motor City clubs. Rechristened Bettye LaVette, she dove into the music scene, notching a top-10 national R&B hit on Atlantic in 1962. While she reached the top 40 several more times through the early '80s, LaVette never experienced sustained success. Her latter-day albums for the independent label Anti- finally brought her the audience she coveted. Her own recounting suggests she was the victim of her own monumentally misguided judgment. She indulged heartily in alcohol, cocaine, marijuana and sex--she counted Otis Redding, Solomon Burke and Jackie Wilson among her many paramours, sustained a decades-long affair with record exec Clarence Paul, had a long-term female lover and worked off and on as a prostitute.

• Publisher: Blue Rider Press
• Subject: LaVette, Bettye, 1946- / Singers United States Biography.
• ISBN: 9780399159381, 039915938X

Item info:

1 item available

1 item total in all locations

Holdings :

Call Number	Copies	Material	Location
ML420.L258 A3 2012	1	BOOK	AUTOSTORE