I'm not sure how I feel about Miss Pamela after reading I'm With the Band. On one hand, I respect her because she did exactly what she wanted to do. Her life was enviably wild and free. Who am I to judge her, especially when reading her stories is so endlessly fascinating? However, it rubs me the wrong way how she organized her whole world around men. Not only did she love to service them sexually, but she ironed their shirts and darned their socks. And she believed she was getting the best deal because they had deigned to grace her with their presence. I imagine most of the musicians she courted genuinely liked her, but I doubt any of them looked at her in the awe-struck way she looked at them. Most of these men were all too ready to jet off somewhere new, forget about her, and fuck dozens of other women.
Pamela Des Barres has lived an amazing life and has very astute insights about rock and roll. She's adorable and sweet, and it shows in her writing. But it took her decades to even become a real writer, because she was so busy catering to her rock star lovers. Her stories are fun and juicy, but I just don't know if her experiences were as empowering as she would like to think. I've decided that I prefer the memoirs of other women from the rock and roll world, like Marianne Faithfull. Miss Pamela was just a bit too fawning and accommodating for my tastes.
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