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You Are Beautiful and You Are Alone

The Biography of Nico

You Are Beautiful and You Are Alone Open the full-size image

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By Jennifer Otter Bickerdike

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$31.00

Price

$39.00 CAD

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  1. Hardcover $31.00 $39.00 CAD
  2. ebook $15.99 $19.99 CAD
  3. Audiobook Download (Unabridged) $31.99

This item is a preorder. Your payment method will be charged immediately, and the product is expected to ship on or around August 10, 2021. This date is subject to change due to shipping delays beyond our control.

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A new, definitive biography of the iconic and mysterious singer, Warhol superstar, Velvet Underground collaborator: influential solo artist Nico.

YOU ARE BEAUTIFUL AND YOU ARE ALONE is a new biography of Nico, the mysterious singer best known for her work with the Velvet Underground and her solo album Chelsea Girl. Her life is tangled in myth–much of it of her own invention. Rock and roll cultural historian Jennifer Bickerdike delivers a definitive book that unravels the story while making a convincing case for Nico's enduring importance.

Over the course of her career, Nico was an ever-evolving myth: art film house actress, highly coveted fashion model, Dietrich of Punk, Femme Fatale, Chelsea Girl, Garbo of Goth, The Last Bohemian, Heroin Junkie. Lester Bangs described her as 'a true enigma.' At age 27, Nico became Andy Warhol's newest Superstar, featuring in his one commercial break out hit film Chelsea Girls and garnering the position of chanteuse for the Velvet Underground. It wasn't Nico's musical chops which got her the gig; it was her striking beauty. Her seeming otherworldly and unattainable presence was further amplified by her reputation for dating rock stars (Brian Jones, Bob Dylan, Jim Morrison, among others). She became famous for being Nico.

Yet Nico's talent and her contribution to rock culture are often overlooked. She spent most of her career as a solo artist on the road, determined to make music, seemingly against all the odds, enduring empty concert halls, abusive fans, and the often perilous reality of being an ageing artist and drug addict. She created mesmerizing and unique projects that inspired a generation of artists, including Henry Rollins, Morrissey, Siousxie Sioux and the Banshees and Iggy Pop.

Drawing on the archives at the Andy Warhol Museum and at Nico's record labels, various private collections, and rarely seen footage, and featuring exclusive new interviews from those who knew her best, including Iggy Pop and Danny Fields, and those inspired by her legacy, YOU ARE BEAUTIFUL AND YOU ARE ALONE reveals the complicated, often compromised, self-destructive and always head strong woman behind the one-dimensional myths.
 

Genre:

On Sale
Aug 10, 2021
Page Count
512 pages
Publisher
Hachette Books
ISBN-13
9780306922909

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Jennifer Otter Bickerdike

About the Author

Dr. Jennifer Otter Bickerdike is a rock & roll cultural historian and author, working across music heritage, fandom, broadcast and academia. Originally from Santa Cruz, California, she has appeared in over 50 documentaries about pop culture and is the author of a number of books on music, including YOU ARE BEAUTIFUL AND YOU ARE ALONE, BEING BRITNEY, and WHY VINYL MATTERS, among others. Bickerdike lives in Devon, UK with her husband and rescue dog, Woody.

Learn more about this author