Dressed in Black (eBook)

The Shangri-Las and Their Recorded Legacy

Lisa MacKinney (Autor)

eBook Download: EPUB

2025
422 Seiten
Verse Chorus Press (Verlag)
978-1-959163-08-4 (ISBN)

Infos

The first full-length history of the Shangri-Las, one of the most significantand most misunderstoodpop groups of the 1960s.Sisters Mary and Betty Weiss, together with twins Mary Ann and Marguerite Ganser, were schoolgirls when they formed the Shangri-Las in 1963, and had a meteoric rise to fame with songs like Leader of the Pack and Remember (Walking in the Sand). Their career was cut short for reasons largely beyond their control, derailed by the machinations of Mafia-linked record executives, and heartbreak and tragedy followed. Historian Lisa MacKinney marshals an impressive array of new evidence to tell the Shangri-Las story, dispelling many myths and long-standing mysteries along the way. Equally importantly, Dressed in Black radically rewrites the accepted narrative of the Shangri-Las place in rock history. As young women, they were permitted little agency within a male-dominated industry that viewed teenagers as fodder to be manipulat-ed and exploited by producers, songwriters, and label owners. For decades, this has served as an excuse for critics to deny the musical input of the group members, to trivialize the Shangri-Las as a girl group, and to assign their work a lesser rank in the canon of authentic rock and roll. MacKinneys great achievement here is to foreground the Shangri-Las considerable abilities and musicality, and establish the centrality of their performance of their songs to the groups underappreciated artistic achievement.This is not to deny the critical role in the groups success of professional songwriters (including Ellie Greenwich and Jeff Barry) and writer/producer George Shadow Morton, a pioneering and eccentric figure whose self-mythologizing has generated a level of obfuscation that rivals that of the Shangri-Las themselves. MacKinneys clear-sighted account reveals Morton in a completely new lightand as part of a complex ecosystem of musical relationships. Morton wrote and produced highly emotional material specifically for the Shangri-Las because he knew they had the skills to make his mini-operas not only believable, but enthralling. The group members, particularly Mary Weiss, channeled personal anguish into their extraordinary performances, which are central to the songs impactno less so than for such classic singers as Ella Fitzgerald and Elvis Presley, who also relied on producers and songwriters for their body of work. The Shangri-Las impassioned delivery elicited a massive response from their audience of fellow teenagers at the time and has continued to connect profoundly with audiences ever since. MacKinney backs up these arguments with in-depth analysis of key Shangri-Las recordings, and makes a powerful case that their achievements warrant a far more prominent place for the Shangri-Las in the history of popular music.

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 18.3.2025
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Literatur ► Biografien / Erfahrungsberichte
• Themenwelt: Kunst / Musik / Theater ► Musik ► Pop / Rock
• Themenwelt: Sachbuch/Ratgeber ► Geschichte / Politik
• Themenwelt: Sozialwissenschaften ► Soziologie ► Gender Studies
• Schlagworte: girl group • Leader of the Pack • Rock and Roll • sexism in music • shadow morton • Sixties • women in music
• ISBN-10: 1-959163-08-6 / 1959163086
• ISBN-13: 978-1-959163-08-4 / 9781959163084