RONNIE SPECTOR IN ROCK GOMORRAH

ISBN 9781938900327
Publication date: March 2020
60 Pages, 5.3” x 7”
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SYNOPSIS

Ronnie Spector in Rock Gomorrah traces the allure of “black” music in the white mind and the costs of being held in such a place.

EXCERPT

We were serious collectors with a rage for order.

Beatniks ossifying in abandoned cities for three to four decades, an old hat, an old jacket whose proper context was better times, personally.

Established critics tele-typing the story after the first act on artifactual computers.

Pilgrims of black soul.

Hipsters examining hard surfaces for the trace of authenticity.

Mothers struck flat by memory….

Music enthusiasts who spoke about the qualities of vinyl.

College kids yelping instinctually down preconscious folkways.

College kids who missed it the first time around.

Those who had seen it and had been waiting patiently all these years for the comeback.

PRAISE

“Ronnie Spector in Rock Gomorrah does incredible work not just to honor the often washed away history of Ronnie Spector, but also builds an entire ecosystem of black music history and its wide and far reach. The language is as musical as its subjects, but does not sacrifice a narrative arc. So much of the writing is pointing at the large and immovable sins of the American Rock N’ Roll Machine, but it is done with so much care and nuance. A teaching tool and a song, all at once.”

— Hanif Abdurraqib

“Much like the legend who carries its title, Ronnie Spector in Rock Gomorrah is equal parts entrancing, winsome, and tragic. The author tells small, lyrical stories, striking that tough-but-all-important balance between the intimate and the new. They make strangers of someones we thought we knew—Howlin’ Wolf, Little Richard, and most of all Spector herself—then rebuilds them in our imaginary as the kind of friend we might like to share a secret with.”

— Eve Ewing

AUTHOR

M. Delmonico Connolly is a graduate student at theState University of NewYork at Buffalo. He writesand revises sentences aboutrace and pop after the CivilRights movement.

DESIGNER

Book design by Betsy Medvedovsky.