The Burt Bacharach Discussion Forum

Checked out the Barnes and Noble website: Available for pre-order @ $17.55 is what is identified as an autobiography for release Nov 2nd by Dionne Warwick & David F. Wooley entitled: "My Life As I See It". I believe the working title for this was "The Amazing Dionne Warwick Story". This may shed some light on things that have been speculated on for years.

Maestrofan;

Thanks fot the update on Dionne's book!

I placed an order today!

Take care;

Vincent

I'll definitely read the book. However, to be honest, I can't say that I totally trust autobiographies because most people, in many instances, don't want to tell the whole truth. They want to put themselves in the best light possible.

I do hope she dishes the dirt and gives us a lot of juicy information.

Dionne has always been so closedmouthed about her personal life refusing to even defend herself or say anything bad about Patti LaBelle when her "friend" Patti ripped Dionne a new one in her autobiography; that little tiff was regarding Dionne talking to Patti about showboating with her usual narcissistic crap during the taping of "Sisters In the Name of Love" in the late 80s. Patti so resented Dionne calling her on it and Dame LaBelle was so catty about it...Patti is truly a passive-agressive diva and certainly has an inflated opinion of herself. Dionne has always said she would not dis her peeps and I believe her. I don't look for anything entlightening coming from this autobiography. Dionne has some interesting things in her life that few know about. I am looking forward to the unauthorized biography! Those usually aren't varnished nearly as much as those celebrity autobiographies...that would be worth reading! Dionne has had so many friendships and relationships with legendary people...she is one of the few celebrities of the BIG STAR generation left. Singers are a dime a dozen these days and they mostly sound the same and their music is forgettable...none of them are going to attain the status of legend as Aretha, Tina, Dionne, and the stars of their generation have.

BtoB--

Care to share any of those "interesting things" from D's life that few know about? I am dying to know! Love Dionne and want to learn more about her! I appreciate that she deserves her privacy, but it is frustrating for the fans. What really frustrates me is how the general public doesn't respect Dionne the way that people like Labelle and Franklin are "worshipped".

Labelle is not in the same league as Diana Ross, Franklin and Warwick. Never has been. Labelle never achieved the level of fame that Wawick, Ross or Franklin did; for that matter, she never achieved the level of fame Gladys Knight did either. Dionne is generally recognized as a legend and is respected by many influential rock critics such as Dave Marsh and Steven Holden formerly of the NYT. She is generally held in disdain by the RRHOF's Jann Wenner and his ilk because she was deemed too MOR in the 80s, an assessment I don't generally disagree with although most everyone was MOR in the 80s and Aretha and Dionne were no exceptions. If Dionne had halted her career in 1978, she would be in the RRHOF. Interestingly, Warwick recieved very favorable coverage in Rolling Stone throughout the 60s and 70s. It's some of the younger general public who DON'T know her history and disdain her as the "psychic lady". Labelle is not "worshipped"; that's a stretch. Until On My Own and New Attitude hit the top 10 and top 20 respectively in the mid 80s, Labelle was relatively obscure (when compared to Franklin and Warwick, who were household names) except for fronting the group LaBelle and the tune "Lady Marmalade". Patti has had modest success on the Billboard Hot 100 Singles Chart when compared to Franklin and Warwick, who are the #1 and #2 female hitmakers in the rock era (1955-1999) according to Joel Whitburn and his Billboard Chart History tomes. No comparison, although La LaBelle frequently speaks of herself, as do her publicists, in the same breath at Warwick and Franklin. Interesting to note that young Hop Hop artists are sampling a lot of Warwick's old music these days and that community respects her contribution tremendously. LaBelle, not so much.