Trevor Tolliver

She made it her party

You Don’t Own Me: The Life and Times of Lesley Gore by Trevor Tolliver (Backbeat Books, $24.99).

Lesley Gore, who died in February of this year, is most remembered for early ’60s pop hits like “It’s My Party (and I’ll Cry If I Want To)” and “You Don’t Own Me”—the latter adopted as a sort of anthem of female romantic independence—and this music-centric biography is long overdue.

In You Don’t Own Me: The Life and Times of Lesley Gore, Trevor Tolliver covers the details of recordings and their reception—including an unexpected backlash because the songs were considered “dumb,” which is particulary ironic considering just how smart Sarah Lawrence grad Gore was—as well as attempting to contextualize Gore’s work with the early 1960s and the big cultural shake-ups that were just over the horizon.

Some of those cultural shake-ups–the feminist movement, the rise of LGBT rights–had direct bearing on Gore’s personal life, and even showed up in her later work as a songwriter, like “Out Here On My Own,” from the 1980 movie Fame.

While it reads in places like a fan’s discography, there are also moments of genuine insight into Gore’s life.

(Reviewed on Lit/Rant: www.litrant.tumblr.com)… (more)