There Goes Gravity: A Life in Rock and Roll (4*)

Lisa Robinson has straddled a fine line since she began flying on the Rolling Stones's private plane at the height of their popularity in the 70s:  writing about rock bands without alienating them.  Of course that's a challenge facing most celebrity writers but the line seems to have been a lot blurrier in the music industry when she began her rather extraordinary career. 

The photos in There Goes Gravity: A Life in Rock and Roll offer persuasive evidence that she really did hobnob with rock legends (Led Zeppelin, Lou Reed, John Lennon, George Harrison, Michael Jackson, The Clash, Bono, & Eminem) for more than four decades but there's also an element of "in-crowd" braggadocio (Lady Gaga cooked her dinner) which raises the question:  how far back did she have to pull her punches to get such access, given the fact that until she began working for Vanity Fair--long after her own youth had faded--did she write for any publication more widely read than the New York Post.  She also makes it pretty clear that everyone treated her as one of the boys inferring that she wasn't sleeping around with members of the band.

Robinson relentlessly worked the boundary-less aspects of the music business to her advantage.  Her husband, a small-time producer, provides her with initial entree, and soon enough she becomes a presence just by virtue of hanging out with the right people, particularly at Max's Kansas City.  She evokes a long-lost New York City I recall with great fondness.

In those days, no one went to a gym. We all smoked.  No one went to Brooklyn; there was no reason to.  We didn't talk about money except to bemoan not having any.  No one--ever--mentioned, or cared about, the stock market.

It's not surprising that Robinson begins many of the stories she tells with "nobody remembers this the same way" but the fact that she recorded all her interviews lends her more credibility than some of her drug-addled subjects.  Still, what gives the book more than a little significance is her unique perspective which also explains how she has managed to maintain her relevance for so long:  up  and coming musicians, as much as her readers, want to hear the real dish about figures who became unknowable legends over time.  Yoko Ono won't be as happy as David Johansen, that's for sure!