Wednesday, February 02, 2005

Bebe Buell's Rebel Heart

I just finished reading noted rock muse Bebe Buell's autobiography, Rebel Heart. Half Price Books had a bunch of $6 copies and I couldn't resist. First published in 2001, this juicy tell-all offers a riveting portrait of what it was like to be a celebrated model cum rock star girlfriend in the Seventies.

Buell's first teen steady was Don Cowsill of the Cowsills, which proved to be the beginning of a long line of band boyfriends. From New York's downtown punk scene to the highest eschelons of rock royalty, her list of intimacies included Todd Rundgren, Mick Jagger, Stiv Bators, Rod Stewart, Elvis Costello and Steven Tyler. The latter union produced daughter Liv Tyler, though Liv grew up thinking Rundgren was her father until her biological dad cleaned up.

It would be a mistake to call Buell a groupie. She wasn't hanging by the backstage door waiting for tour buses to disgorge their cargo of road-weary horndogs. Her desire to get close to musicians came primarily from a passion to be near the creative fire, not an insecure need to rack up notches on her proverbial lipstick case. Buell's unorthodox lifestyle made her a pioneer of the sexual revolution, and while her choices sometimes led to profound heartbreak, she's very careful to at least try to present her past relations even-handedly.

That said, she's not above dishing out the goods on personality quirks, bedroom manner and even the occasional package size. Good for us, not so good for Rod Stewart.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

C'mon, Greg! Tell us a rock star who had a big package! Who knows when I'll ever read this book?!?

Terri R.

Greg said...

Though Ms. Buell never got conjugal with Keith Richards, she did enjoy a peek at Keith's impressive "axe" one day when it grew out of some cutoff shorts as he slept (or nodded off).

jennifer said...

This is a comment about your wonderful blog in general: After reading your posts on things to do in A-Town, I am often left wondering how your night went...How was the Dionysium, for instance? What did you end up doing on Saturday night? YOUR PUBLIC WANTS ANSWERS! Unless it's too much like writing reviews for the Chronicle, which I can understand. You are only one man, after all...which is not enough to quench the thirst we have for all things Beets.

Also, who else had a tiny package besides the decidedly misnomered Rod?

Greg said...

Thanks for the feedback, Jennifer. I suppose I'm being kind of a tease by not following up on certain posts. A debriefing on the weekend and the Dionysium is forthcoming.

Though Rod Stewart deserves no mercy, I should clarify that Bebe Buell's problems with Rod were not related to his package size. However, she says he was the first man to make her feel completely used (no mean feat when your competition is Mick Jagger and Jimmy Page). She calls him "phony posh" and deems herself "insane" for going out with him.

Whether it was on the advice of attorneys or out of the goodness of her heart, Buell only mentions rock star package sizes when they are superlative. She says nothing about Rod's rod, but whatever the size is, you can be certain it is dwarfed by the size of his ego.