My Rock 'n' Roll Friend
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My Rock 'n' Roll Friend
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Narrated by:
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Gina Murray
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Taryn Ryan
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By:
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Tracey Thorn
About this listen
In 1983, backstage at the Lyceum in London, Tracey Thorn and Lindy Morrison first met. Tracey's music career with the Marine Girls had just begun, while Lindy, drummer for The Go-Betweens, was 10 years her senior. They became confidantes, comrades and best friends, a relationship cemented by activism and agitprop theatre, lesbian punk bands and rock 'n' roll love affairs.
Morrison came to be a kind of mentor to Thorn, a strong female role model in a male dominated industry. They both faced a chauvinist music media wanting them to behave to type.
In My Rock 'n' Roll Friend, Thorn takes stock of 37 years as friends, teasing out the particular challenges and commonalities of being women performers and performing women. This important book asks what people see, who does the looking and, ultimately, who writes women out of - and back into - history.
©2021 Tracey Thorn (P)2021 Canongate Books LtdWhat listeners say about My Rock 'n' Roll Friend
Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- matt connors
- 20-12-2023
Wonderful story
I was a huge fan of the band, but always wanted to know more about Lindy Morrison. Had loved Tracy Thorn’s other books, so was fizzing at the bung to read this one. It doesn’t disappoint, a fascinating story of friendship and what feels like a deep insight into an extraordinary woman . Well done!
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- jonathan alley
- 04-02-2025
Beautiful, personable evocation of a friendship
"The drummer is the band. "
So true, in so many ways. Because Lindy Morrison wasn't one of the main two songwriters in The Go Betweens, her contribution to this storied Australian band, they of a mythical 'striped sunlight sound' associated with their home city of Brisbane (Queensland) has never been fully appreciated.
While Tracey Thorn's superbly paced, beautifully written , provocative and evocative book on her long-term friendship with Morrison shines a very strong light on her role, this isn't a book about a band (or, bands – Thorn being one half of the acclaimed Uk duo Everything but the Girl) it's about a woman and her life, viewed through the prism of her and Thorn's close relationship. The pre-Go Betweens period of Morrison's life – presented in a biographical style that would indicate Morrison gave her close friend unfettered access – is just fascinating ; here is the racism, police thuggery and corruption of 70s Brisbane writ large, illustrated by the impact it had on Morrison's community.
It's no hagiography ether: Morrison's bluntness, hard-headed determination and sheer force of personality often rub friends and musical colleagues the wrong way. Going hard up against the inherent sexism of the music industry – never absent in any era, but even more pronounced in the '80s – Morrison's battles were many, and few were won.
As a story of a lifelong friendship, it sails well past the implosion of the classic Go Betweens line up in 1989 giving readers a backstory they'll find in few other places. Crucially, at the later points in the book, Thorn re-emphasises her own voice in the story – just as we're hitting peak Lindy, we find out much more about Tracey Thorn and her own life as she re-inserts herself into a still unfolding tale.
As with the best music books, it's not really about music, it's about life. You needn't be fan of either of their bands to love this: it's just a beautiful and highly personable evocation of two genuinely interesting people being themselves. So very recommended.
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- Mark Victorsen
- 20-06-2021
Myopic
A piece that took me back to a time in Brisbane and Australia. A little myopic in its portrayal- but it was Lindy’s view
And Tracey did her best to call out the position
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