Boys Keep Swinging: A Memoir

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Whatever money was spent on our leisure, it was accompanied by his own elbow grease and ambitious imagination. He shares the good, the bad, the ugly with us, and did something so many of us fail to do—he didn’t quit.

At the cusp of the ’80s, Mesa, Arizona, was where the suburbs of Phoenix slowly transitioned into desert. Savage became something of a mentor to Shears after telling him on air that he should come out as gay to his parents; he took the advice, but it didn’t go very well, unfortunately. So this is really a book about how a kid named Jason Sellards, who grew up feeling like an outcast, became the platinum-selling rock star Jake Shears, and hints at why he had to walk away from it all for a while. The VHS boxes were graphic and scary, and I hovered near their lewd cardboard cases until I was made to retreat to the children’s section, where I supposedly belonged.

First performing in the smoky gay nightclubs of New York, then finding massive success in the United Kingdom, Scissor Sisters would become revered by the LGBTQ community, sell out venues worldwide, and win multiple accolades with hits like “Take Your Mama” and “I Don’t Feel Like Dancin’,” as well as their cult-favorite cover of Pink Floyd’s “Comfortably Numb. It wasn't until years later, during a trip to visit a childhood friend in New York City, that Jake met a talented musician nicknamed Babydaddy--the stage name of Scott Hoffman. Turns out this was because he and his uncle had painted a whole house with lead paint when my dad was eight.

the middle new York section was disappointingly unromantic, but it more than makes up for it by the end. Candid and courageous, Shears’s writing sings with the same powerful, spirited presence that he brings to his live performances. From 1963 to 1986 they ran Globe Air with a fleet of bombers and brave pilots, fighting fires and crop-dusting with DDT. Windi and Sheryl, my sisters from my dad’s second marriage, were nine and ten years older than I was, respectively, so by the time I was in kindergarten, their braces had come off to display sets of blinding white teeth. When a book has already been blurbed by the likes of Armistead Maupin and Sir Elton John and reviewed by Lambda Literary, there isn’t much that my two cents is going to add to the buzz.Jake Shears is so damn honest about everything, and it makes for an insightful read that leaves little to compare it to. For some reason, I find musicians more interesting than actors, and have read a fair number of memoirs by artists I know peripherally: Jewel, Keith Richards, Posh Spice. Boys Keep Swinging is no ghostwritten autobiography; Shears studied creative writing at Eugene Lang College in New York. Jason becomes Jake and ends up living the dreams that he had as a child, hanging off the footboard of his bed.

The time he spent in NYC in the late 1990s-early 2000s, when the city was rapidly gentrifying, was a cool look at the culture at the time as well. My father flew solo for the first time on his sixteenth birthday, the earliest he could get a pilot’s license. As he grieves the loss of freedom, the loss of friends, Shears is also overcome by the realization that the city that never sleeps didn’t enter a stasis, time didn’t freeze while he was gone, and we witness the contrast between Jason Sellards and Jake Shears and the difficulty of his coexisting with feet in two different worlds. They were patient and skilled at breaking down the movies into acts, turning blockbuster thrillers into bedtime stories. I was now on the lookout for adult women to connect with, mostly just friends’ moms in their kitchens, who were amused that I wanted to talk to them rather than play with their kid.Before embarking on my time with the Author, I know nothing of who he is or what the overall theme of his journey was. Finance is provided by PayPal Credit (a trading name of PayPal UK Ltd, Whittaker House, Whittaker Avenue, Richmond-Upon-Thames, Surrey, United Kingdom, TW9 1EH). As plain-speaking on the page as in his songs, Wainwright lays everything bare in this hilarious and heartfelt memoir of music and family. There are selfish, bratty scenes and yet I commend Shears for often recognizing that had his parents not been able and willing to help and give support when needed he likely would not have been able to position himself to successfully pursue his career in music. As with all of these kinds of books, it also feels like a cautionary tale of being careful what you wish for and realising that hitting the top doesn’t always mean you’re going to get a smooth ride.

Shears drops many names but even if you didn't know the characters involved you would still be able to "know" them through Shears' words. I loved hearing the behind the scenes stories of how the scissor sisters was formed as well as Jake's childhood. You can’t spell success without suck, you’ve got to push through the difficult stuff, and Shears did that, which is what made this memoir possible.It’s been almost six years since Scissor Sisters released their fourth album, Magic Hour , and now lead singer Jake Shears has gone solo.