
Girl in a Band
A Memoir
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Narrated by:
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Kim Gordon
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By:
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Kim Gordon
About this listen
Kim Gordon, founding member of Sonic Youth, fashion icon, and role model for a generation of women, now tells her story - a memoir of life as an artist, of music, marriage, motherhood, independence, and as one of the first women of rock and roll, written with the lyricism and haunting beauty of Patti Smith's Just Kids.
Often described as aloof, Kim Gordon opens up as never before in Girl in a Band. Telling the story of her family, growing up in California in the '60s and '70s, her life in visual art, her move to New York City, the men in her life, her marriage, her relationship with her daughter, her music, and her band, Girl in a Band is a rich and beautifully written memoir.
Gordon takes us back to the lost New York of the 1980s and '90s that gave rise to Sonic Youth, and the alternative revolution in popular music. The band helped build a vocabulary of music - paving the way for Nirvana, Hole, Smashing Pumpkins, and many other acts. But at its core, Girl in a Band examines the route from girl to woman in uncharted territory, music, art career, what partnership means - and what happens when that identity dissolves.
Evocative and edgy, filled with the sights and sounds of a changing world and a transformative life, Girl in a Band is the fascinating chronicle of a remarkable journey and an extraordinary artist.
©2015 Kim Gordon (P)2015 HarperCollins PublishersListeners also enjoyed...
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Editorial reviews
Featured Article: Tune In to Our Favorite Music Memoirs
We’ve been finding solace in stories that follow our other favorite thing to listen to: music. We’ve gathered a selection of pitch-perfect memoirs from music legends in a variety of genres and styles. By turns bold, brash, and moving, these listens shed light on the sold-out shows, backstage drama, and sometimes dark underbelly of the recording industry, while highlighting the charisma, energy, and artistry that had us hooked from the first soundwave.
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Story
Janis Ian was catapulted into the spotlight in 1966 at the age of 15, when her soul-wrenching song "Society's Child" became a hit. But this was only the beginning of a long and illustrious career. In Society's Child, Janis Ian provides a relentlessly honest account of the successes and failures - and the hopes and dreams - of an extraordinary life.
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I know why this won the grammy
- By Pamela J on 02-24-13
By: Janis Ian
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Rememberings
- By: Sinéad O'Connor
- Narrated by: Sinéad O'Connor
- Length: 7 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
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From the acclaimed, controversial singer-songwriter Sinéad O’Connor comes a revelatory memoir of her fraught childhood, musical triumphs, fearless activism, and of the enduring power of song.
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Brilliant
- By Lora on 06-05-21
By: Sinéad O'Connor
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The Beautiful Ones
- By: Prince
- Narrated by: Esperanza Spalding, Adepero Oduye, Dan Piepenbring
- Length: 3 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
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Prince was a musical genius, one of the most beloved, accomplished, and acclaimed musicians of our time. The Beautiful Ones is the story of how Prince became Prince - a first-person account of a kid absorbing the world around him and then creating a persona, an artistic vision, and a life, before the hits and fame that would come to define him. This work is not just a tribute to an icon, but an original and energizing literary work in its own right, full of Prince’s ideas and vision, his voice and image - his undying gift to the world.
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Reminiscing
- By Bodyguard Careers on 10-29-19
By: Prince
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The Last Showman
- Words + Music, Vol. 41
- By: Usher, Gerrick Kennedy
- Narrated by: Usher
- Length: 1 hr and 12 mins
- Original Recording
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For the past 30 years, Usher has exhilarated audiences with stadium-sized anthems, innovative choreography, and dazzling charm that has made him a once-in-a-generation superstar. The Last Showman is an introspective look into the past, present, and future of a beloved global R&B icon. Usher opens up about the inspirations, heartache, and growth that fueled the creation of his record-breaking magnum opus, Confessions, while revisiting some of its most iconic tracks.
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love you Ursher
- By Amazon Customer on 02-06-25
By: Usher, and others
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Sonic Life
- A Memoir
- By: Thurston Moore
- Narrated by: Thurston Moore
- Length: 19 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
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Thurston Moore moved to Manhattan’s East Village in 1978 with a yearning for music. He wanted to be immersed in downtown New York’s sights and sounds—the feral energy of its nightclubs, the angular roar of its bands, the magnetic personalities within its orbit. But more than anything, he wanted to make music—to create indelible sounds that would move, provoke, and inspire. His dream came to life in 1981 with the formation of Sonic Youth, a band Moore cofounded with Kim Gordon and Lee Ranaldo.
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Disembodied Art and Intellect
- By Kris on 11-02-23
By: Thurston Moore
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My Life with Earth, Wind & Fire
- By: Maurice White, Herb Powell
- Narrated by: Dion Graham
- Length: 11 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
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The late Grammy-winning founder of the legendary pop/R&B/soul/funk/disco group tells his story and charts the rise of his legendary band in this sincere memoir that captures the heart and soul of an artist whose groundbreaking sound continues to influence music today. With a foreword by David Foster.
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Maurice--Earth, Wind and Fire
- By Linda Ealey on 02-28-17
By: Maurice White, and others
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Just Kids
- By: Patti Smith
- Narrated by: Patti Smith
- Length: 9 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
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Just Kids begins as a love story and ends as an elegy. It serves as a salute to New York City during the late 60s and 70s and to its rich and poor, its hustlers and hellions. A true fable, it is a portrait of two young artists' ascent, a prelude to fame.
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Darkly Self Centered & Narrow View
- By Sara on 10-05-15
By: Patti Smith
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Hit So Hard
- A Memoir
- By: Patty Schemel
- Narrated by: Patty Schemel
- Length: 8 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
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Patty Schemel was a drummer at the epicenter of the Seattle grunge scene in the early '90s, best known for her work with the alternative rock band Hole. Hit So Hard begins with stories from a childhood informed by the AA meetings Schemel's parents hosted in the family living room. Their divorce triggered her rebellious adolescence and first forays into drinking at age 11, which coincided with her passion for punk rock and playing drums.
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The BEST Book I have ever read. Hands Down.
- By Crystal on 11-22-17
By: Patty Schemel
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Broken Horses
- A Memoir
- By: Brandi Carlile
- Narrated by: Brandi Carlile
- Length: 10 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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Brandi Carlile was born into a musically gifted, impoverished family on the outskirts of Seattle and grew up in a constant state of change, moving from house to house, trailer to trailer, 14 times in as many years. Though imperfect in every way, her dysfunctional childhood was as beautiful as it was strange, and as nurturing as it was difficult. At the age of five, Brandi contracted bacterial meningitis, which almost took her life, leaving an indelible mark on her formative years and altering her journey into young adulthood.
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I have almost 2000 audible books and ...
- By M. Lynn on 04-22-21
By: Brandi Carlile
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Life
- By: Keith Richards, James Fox
- Narrated by: Johnny Depp, Joe Hurley
- Length: 23 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
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Now at last Keith Richards pauses to tell his story in the most anticipated autobiography in decades. And what a story! Listening obsessively to Chuck Berry and Muddy Waters records in a coldwater flat with Mick Jagger and Brian Jones, building a sound and a band out of music they loved. Finding fame and success as a bad-boy band, only to find themselves challenged by authorities everywhere....
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Ins and outs
- By Jesse on 11-07-10
By: Keith Richards, and others
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Tranny
- Confessions of Punk Rock's Most Infamous Anarchist Sellout
- By: Laura Jane Grace, Dan Ozzi
- Narrated by: Laura Jane Grace
- Length: 6 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
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One of Billboard's 100 Greatest Music Books of All Time: The provocative transgender advocate and lead singer of the punk rock band Against Me! provides a searing account of her search for identity and her true self. It began in a bedroom in Naples, Florida, when a misbehaving punk teenager named Tom Gabel, armed with nothing but an acoustic guitar and a headful of anarchist politics, landed on a riff. Gabel formed Against Me! and rocketed the band from its scrappy beginnings-banging on a drum kit made of pickle buckets-to a major-label powerhouse.
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Powerful story and performance.
- By Beerarchy on 02-11-17
By: Laura Jane Grace, and others
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More Myself
- A Journey
- By: Alicia Keys, Michelle Burford
- Narrated by: Alicia Keys, America Ferrera, Bono, and others
- Length: 9 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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As one of the most celebrated musicians in the world, Alicia Keys has enraptured the globe with her heartfelt lyrics, extraordinary vocal range, and soul-stirring piano compositions. Yet away from the spotlight, Alicia has grappled with private heartache - over the challenging and complex relationship with her father, the people-pleasing nature that characterized her early career, the loss of privacy surrounding her romantic relationships, and the oppressive expectations of female perfection.
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Title should be Safe Version of Myself
- By Mel on 04-05-20
By: Alicia Keys, and others
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Born to Run
- By: Bruce Springsteen
- Narrated by: Bruce Springsteen
- Length: 18 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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In 2009, Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band performed at the Super Bowl's halftime show. The experience was so exhilarating that Bruce decided to write about it. That's how this extraordinary autobiography began. Over the past seven years, Bruce Springsteen has privately devoted himself to writing the story of his life, bringing to this audio the same honesty, humor, and originality found in his songs.
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Me Springsteen's book moved me beyond words...
- By Ellen O'Brien on 12-12-16
What listeners say about Girl in a Band
Highly rated for:
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- kathleen
- 03-06-15
I really wanted to love this book..
What did you like best about Girl in a Band? What did you like least?
...but I just could not seem to get through it. I still think Kim Gordon is great but why did she fall prey to depending on name dropping and boring cliche rock star detail? Maybe it was the publishers..I'll give her that. I am glad she read it herself, it did seem more real and I am thankful for when she did talk about her true feelings. I grew up listening to her genre and I thought there just might be more of interest, but maybe we were all just young and looking for something that was never really there in the first place.
Would you recommend Girl in a Band to your friends? Why or why not?
Yes, but not worth my only audible credit this month..
What three words best describe Kim Gordon’s voice?
A little monotone, but I was glad she read it not someone else.
Was Girl in a Band worth the listening time?
I guess..
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3 people found this helpful
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- travelbluerudy
- 09-13-15
better then I expected with a lot of vulnerability
better then I expected with a lot if vulnerability.
I would love to hear her reflection on the affair a few years from now when it is less fresh.
it is a complete taboo what he did, but a relationship is always 2 people.
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- Morning Star 0724
- 03-12-15
Enlightening
I enjoyed her life story and the way she told it. The story bounced in time, but still seemed to flow forward. The part I liked best was her reflections on being a 'girl'. I could relate to some of her stories, and enjoyed her reflections.
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- AB
- 10-04-18
Fantastic
This is one of the best celebrity memoirs, in terms of story and writing quality, I've ever read/listened to. Smart, well-paced, and well-read by Gordon. Love it.
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- Shanghai
- 05-01-24
She is a good story
Great band, great story. Liked the honesty and delivery. Would have liked more insight into the process of choosing to be an artist.
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- DSM
- 03-05-15
Great book!
I loved hearing her story of growing up and how she developed her artistic life. Very honest, real and inspiring.
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4 people found this helpful
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- turqouisemama
- 03-19-15
Rock mom revealed
Author narrates so listening felt like a conversation. I have always been curious about this perspective and I enjoy hers...juggling world tours with motherhood...finding career streams...what a great life despite the struggles!
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- todd
- 10-02-15
Needs no description.
Written with total bare bones clarity. Chapters begin and end abruptly, without introduction or conclusion, only the facts of the amazing life of an iconic artist. Presented humbly and honestly-who but Kim herself could read this? Wonderful.
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- Frieda-raye
- 10-20-15
A great reading by author
It brings so much more to the memoir to have Kim's be the voice which reads. I sunk right into her story.
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- Ray Hyde
- 04-10-15
Kindred spirit.
Kim Gordon's story mirrors mine in time...she is a year older, moved to NYC at same time, experienced Lennon's death, 9/11, garbage strikes, even having a child at the same time, etc. Her details are different from mine but a great listen and to hear her tell a story about a band I sometimes followed kept me wanting to know her more. New respect for the GIrl in a Band, especially since I have played in bands with "girls".
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