Blue Jean Baby: One Girl’s Trip Through The 1960’s LA Music Scene

 

 

 

I had the good luck to read a pre-publication copy of Blue Jean Baby given to me by a musician who knows both the author and me, and I was completely surprised. Expecting to read another sexploitation groupie book, I found myself engrossed in what I, also a 1960s L.A. denizen, remember to be the music scene. 

The book is divided into three parts. Part One is called Beatlemania and Other Childhood Diseases, and we go on a naive, funny, but extremely pro-active trip with an ambitious concert-goer, room-key stealer, and otherwise obsessed music fan. 

Part Two is called Sex, Drugs, Rock and Roll, and all that good clean fun becomes tempered by drug experimentation, first-time sex, and more ambitious music pursuits. It’s the heart of the sixties. 

Part Three is called The Last Gasps of the Sixties, and the author drops us right on our butts with accounts of abuse, near-fatal illness, lost love, and the extreme loneliness of being a Canyon girl. 

I love the Afterword. The author gives us her point of view of the world as it is now, and explains where her friends are and what they’re currently doing. It ties together loose ends and is extremely satisfying to read. 

Blue Jean Baby is an unexpectedly candid, chatty book. I felt as if the author were sitting in my living room, arms wrapped around denim knees, telling me how it was for her in the sixties. A great read!

 

 

I’m fond of biographies, especially autobiographies, and this one was beautiful. I gave it four stars because it only covers a decade in the author’s life, but that decade was remarkable. I’ve read other books by 1960s music fans, but they didn’t express the internal turmoil and the poignant emotions of “Blue Jean Baby.” 

Don’t mistake me. There is a lot of upbeat silliness in the book, but the reader always feels an impatience that borders on desperation, even during very young concert pranks and other youthful fun. When the tone shifts mid-book, we really begin to feel the longing and even sadness of the author’s life experience. 

I recommend this read to everyone. It reads like an easy novel, and might even appeal to the mature members of the younger crowd.

 

 

My wife bought this book because she loves to read about the sixties. She asked me to read it also, explaining I’d like it because it wasn’t cheesy, which is my main complaint with what I call “groupie books.” I have to admit, this is an accurate, fun, and touching account of the author’s experience. 

Our granddaughter, age 16, stayed with us over Easter weekend. My wife encouraged her to read Blue Jean Baby. Here’s where the revenge comes in. Jenn was amazed at what a different life we baby boomers lived during our teen years. “You had to use pay phones?! No way!” “Guys moved out of the country to avoid going into the army?! No way!” “Girls couldn’t get birth control?! No way!” “Her mom could make her do that?! No way!” and so forth. 

Yes Jenn, and other modern teens, we really did struggle along without the modern conveniences, and yes, our parents could make our lives a living hell. The world was in a police state known as Vietnam, and the soldiers didn’t receive special treatment, they were called baby-killers. Girls who had sex before marriage were considered cheap. Music was recorded on vinyl. Parents really could hit their kids, and on and on.

I won’t take up any more space with this. I hope you other baby boomers get the idea and, after reading this book yourselves, pass it on to children and grandchildren. Reliving the reality of the sixties can be a humbling experience.

 

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