Wednesday, October 16, 2013

Review: Boys Don't Lie

After a super-fun reading last night, I woke this morning to find that Terrence Flamm at Broken-Hearted Toy had posted his 2-part review of Boys Don't Lie.

Part I

Part II

Some highlights:

It’s a safe bet that most Shoes fans are pretty much familiar with how the Zion, Illinois-based band overcame the inept policies of their major label and became legendary pop stars who started and ended up with their own record company. Boys Don’t Lie: A History Of Shoes, written by Mary E. Donnelly with Moira McCormick, fleshes out that story via extensive research and interviews with the band members, music biz insiders, and people from the media. 

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Anyone unfamiliar with the story of Shoes would probably assume while reading Donnelly’s account of the band working with producer Richard Dashut of Fleetwood Mac fame in Los Angeles, that a major commercial breakthrough was imminent. But Tongue Twister proved to be more heartbreaking for Shoes than its predecessor. Once again, Elecktra’s decisions, particularly refusing to bankroll rock videos for songs fromTongue Twister even though MTV was urgently requesting them, seemed hard to fathom.


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Boys Don’t Lie: A History Of Shoes is bound to please not only Shoes fans but also anyone with an interest in what Joni Mitchell once called, “the star maker machinery behind the popular song.”   


Thanks, Terry!