Groupies

The view from Jimmy Page's pants: groupies claim their 15 minutes

Comments (0) By Jennifer Maerz Wednesday, Jul 25 2007

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Of course, groupies can sleep with whomever the hell they want. And yeah, taking home a performer can add new thrills to a random sexual encounter. But Des Barres is married to this concept that her groupies are different from today's loose ladies jacking off drummers — she quotes Bebe Buell saying, "I'm sick and tired of being associated with scantily clad girls with no eyebrows and silicone breasts." But the author offers little evidence as to the difference between yesterdays' gypsy girls and today's gummy-boobed groupies, when in the end so many of the affairs seem to involve the same love-'em-and-leave-'em attention spans from the male rock stars.

In today's world, women are involved in all facets of the music community, from playing in bands to managing them, writing about them, booking them, and, sure, sleeping with them, too. But let's celebrate booty calls for what they are, and leave the term "muse" for the women who contribute more than their flesh. Yoko Ono and Courtney Love have both been reviled as groupies, but these women worked in artistic fields alongside their former spouses and created music long after becoming widowers. Women who want a piece of music-industry action can share in locker room talk, but it's a hell of a lot more compelling when their war stories involve using their brains as much as they do balling dudes.