Dusty Springfield: In the Middle of Nowhere (Popular Culture) [Paperback]

 

 

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There's a lot of love and refreshing irreverence in this book. Laurence Cole is an original Dusty fan. He was there when Dusty made her amazing 1963 transition from her brother's faux folk group The Springfields to solo pop stardom with `I Only Want To Be With You'. He's followed her through all her ups and downs and absences and we get the fruits of that knowledge and wisdom in this lovely book which was written with wit and tenderness. There must have been a comprehensive stack of Dusty press clippings and internet articles by Cole's side as the book takes us on Dusty's journey/evolution through the written media. The book explores Dusty's changing dimensions which were always embellished or partly constructed by the viewers'/writers' own projections eg the legend making around 'Dusty in Memphis' or Dusty as a Gay Icon. The book has a strong focus on her music and her image.

Laurence Cole discusses Dusty's extraordinary voice in the context of her `colour'. Dusty Springfield is nearly always labelled as `white' (eg `a white woman with a black woman's voice') as if she was racially confusing in some way. Dusty Springfield's voice was confusing back in the 60s and early 70s. It's the voice of miscegenation as Cole points out. We're used to the fusion of black soul and white pop nowadays but back in the 60s, Dusty was the UK's ground-breaker. Cole cites several Dusty soul covers, originally recorded by excellent black soul singers like Maxine Brown and Garnett Mimms. Taking Mitty Collier's excellent `I Had A Talk With My Man Last Night' he says `Dusty's version is every bit as effective and powerful as Collier's with added undercurrents of desire captured in the rise and fall of her voice.... Technically the versions are equal; emotionally Dusty has the edge'. Cole helps us to understand a little better Dusty's consummate skill and how she could out class great original performances. Dusty assimilated gospel and soul devices including melissma and had incredible range and vocal skills but she always added depth to her best songs (both covers and originals) through her profoundly emotional readings. This is a rare analysis of what it was (and is) that makes Dusty Springfield so soulfully great. Cole tells us that is was Dionne Warwick who first linked Dusty with `soul'.

He goes on to discuss Dusty's evolving Looks. The Hair, the Eyes, the Gowns. The try at `fake' naturalness in the late 70s and the comfortable return to Hair and Eyes . With her taking on of different, dramatic Looks Dusty can be perceived (if you like) as a female to female drag artist . A pre-feminist take on the artificiality of 'being' an attractive woman. A performer. A self construction that guards a truer self...maybe.

There's a discussion of Dusty as a Gay Icon. This was at it's zenith around the time of her 1979 concerts in London. Cole appears to prefer Dusty as `queer'. What he means by this is not the negative term that is used against gay people but the idea that Dusty was just different, beyond ordinary boundaries and definitions and an outsider...in the middle of nowhere. She can't be labelled and she can't be known. In this later section of the book Cole seems also to be defending Dusty's absolute refusal to have her sexuality categorised and locked down or to be labelled as gay. Yet in the end he fancies that there was just one occasion on Australian TV where Dusty came close, but not too close, to revealing herself as a 'femme-lesbian'. He includes a TV still as evidence. I don't think he's right.

The end notes are excellent. I skipped through them but one in particular made me stop. It's about an interview with Dusty for the UK's `Gay News' in 1978. Dusty burst into tears and said she couldn't talk about being gay (so maybe she was gay after all). So she and the writer Keith Howes didn't. After Howes left the room, he began crying. `It had been like talking to someone awaiting the assassin's bullet in a police state'. This is the kind of torture that Cole doesn't dwell on in his book.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading Laurence's book which, surprisingly, has received little publicity or attention. I'll enjoy reading it again. It includes lots of information nuggets and I personally found that it filled in some small but important information gaps. It's one of the two best books (Annie's Randall's is the other) I've ever read about Dusty Springfield - and I've read them all.

This is one of the worst books I have read on Dusty Springfield, there is no warmth and it's written in a very clinical manner for someone who states to be a lifelong fan.

To be perfectly frank I am finding it hard to get through as it just does not hold my interest at all. Mr. Cole seems to be obsessed with Dusty's mascara and her hairstyles and much of the information is taken from other people's quotes.

I also found at least one glaring error when he stated "I Just Don't Know What To Do With Myself" was Dusty's second single when any fan would know it was "Stay Awhile" !

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