Dusty!: Queen of the Postmods [Hardcover]

Dusty Springfield is frequently cited as `Britain's greatest white soul singer' (taken from my 1997 edition of the Virgin Encyclopaedia of Pop Music) but this kind of complex sound bite has become more and more meaningless as singers as diverse as Duffy and Adele are superficially compared to Dusty. Which dimensions of 'the greatest white soul singer' are publicists and journalists talking about? I don't think they know. They need to read this excellent book. In my opinion this is the best book that's ever been written about Dusty Springfield. It's the first book length academic study of Dusty Springfield as an important musician/artist and pop culture icon. It includes comprehensive notes/references including a short chronological history of Dusty's music and important events.

This book is important because it restores Dusty as an important ground-breaking artist, reveals her as a 21st century pop culture icon, is based on painstaking historical/cultural research and new interviews, and, it will become a primary reference for future books on Dusty. The book offers great insights into the underlying subversiveness of Dusty Springfield. The focus on Dusty as a Pop Culture icon brings her into the 21st century as someone relevant and worth serious study. I think this is absolutely right but others may not warm to the coolness of the deconstruction and analysis. I love this book and look forward to more from Annie Randall.

Annie Randall's best chapters are on Dusty as an active participant in and recipient of the American Soul Invasion of the UK (the historical and cultural detail here is fascinating). She discusses Dusty's affinity and identification with black-ness, gospel and soul, her fusion with it and her championship of Motown in the UK. Randall exemplifies all this by discussing Dusty's very productive and mutually beneficial partnership with the great Madeline Bell and the identity exchanges between them. This is the first time I've been able to read anything on Madeline and Dusty together. The book includes an excellent section on the making of `Dusty in Memphis' the classic album that currently forms the main plank of Dusty's legacy but which, at the time of release, signalled her diminishing popularity at the end of the 60s. Randall quotes white musician and song writer Dan Penn (`Do Right Woman'): "Suddenly our music - when I say our music I mean black and white people cutting it, writing it and putting it down together, was gone...Suddenly, after Dr King's death it was over'. This study of the making of the album with the crucially important historical context makes it the best I've ever read.

'Dusty!' records the experiences of some of Dusty's original fans including how female fans had to hide their fandom as the 60's wore on such was the peer pressure to worship eg the Stones or the Beatles. Rumours about Dusty's sexuality made life even more difficult for some fans to maintain their loyalty. There is a fun section on Dusty's hand gestures and what they mean. There's a whole section on the significance of Dusty's iconic hair styles which were built around wigs and hair pieces (she looks very different to other white British female artists of the '60s and more like her African-American soul singing, be-wigged heroines). The most difficult to understand part of the book (for me) comes towards its end when Randall talks about Dusty's `campness' in terms of the academic discourse on `camp' which I'm unfamiliar with.

Randall focuses, in depth, on the Italian pop arias eg `You Don't Have To Say You Love Me' where Dusty's vocal mastery and incredible range is at its technical and powerful best. She explains in technical detail the greatness of Dusty's voice and vocal abilities (surprisingly this is the first time this has been done). The book goes on to explore the emotional impact that Dusty could deliver. Like a great Method actor you just believe her. Because of Annie's knowledgeable approach to Dusty's music, I'd have enjoyed more discussion about Dusty's greatest performances, which covered a breadth of different styles and which are always perfect within perfect productions (often with Dusty as the uncredited producer or co-producer). I'd have especially enjoyed more on Dusty's soul covers and just about every track on 'Dusty in Memphis'. Basically, I didn't want the book to end.

Given the wealth of material and knowledge that Annie Randall has accessed during her long period of research for the book, I hope we'll see another from her in the not too distant future. Perhaps she'll stray away from academic discipline and even write the first definitive and comprehensive biography/discography (at least 600 pages long I hope!). Here's wishin' and hopin' anyway. In the meantime, thanks Annie J. Randall, for my best and most stimulating book of 2008.

I've read every book and most everything else written about Dusty Springfield and this is the most impressive. Although it is not a biography, it treats the subject seriously and is based upon in depth research of the singer Randall dubs "the British Elvis." There is something here for every reader--casual and scholarly. Randall's analysis of Dusty's performance of "pop arias" is unique, as is her insight into fandom of the 1960s. An important contribution to understanding the legacy of England's greatest popular singer.

I found this book dull & uninteresting, I was looking for the story of Dusty not a line by line breakdown of her recordings.