Crummy Runaways Book Gets Crummier?

Will the real Neon Angel please stand up and be counted. Where's Neil Shusterman, by the way?

By Fred Mills

With all the hype surrounding The Runaways film happening right now - those of you whose bullshit meters flicker into the red whenever Hollywood gets involved with a rock ‘n' roll story, maybe check out this trailer and commentary - it was inevitable that various folks associated with the movie would drum up some side business.

Indeed, erstwhile frontwoman Cherie Currie has just announced the impending publication of Neon Angel: A Memoir of a Runaway, due March 16 (same week as the movie hits theaters) from It Books/Harper Collins. I'll go the extra mile and post the entire press release about the book below.

What's interesting is that the publisher states that the movie was based on the book, yet no mention is made of the fact that way back in 1989 Currie published a memoir bearing the remarkably similar title Neon Angel: The Cherie Currie Story. For this new book the press release indicates it took Currie "more than three decades" to write, but if you figure she originally quit the Runaways in the late '70, a book published in '89 took considerably less than 30+ years to complete.

Here's the editorial description from 1989 as detailed at Amazon.com from Publishers Weekly:

Currie powerfully recounts her teenage years in this candid autobiography, chronicling the experiences that destroyed her self-confidence and led her to drug and alcohol abuse. At 15 she became the lead singer for the Runaways, a female rock group. The Runaways soared rapidly to success, but Currie was overwhelmed by the pace and constant travel. As the pressure increased, Currie went from marijuana to Quaaludes; amid family conflicts and quarrels with the Runaways, she eventually became a cocaine addict. At age 17 she left the group to produce a solo album; her drug use continued to escalate, moreso when she learned that her father was dying of alcoholism, and her mother, of cancer. Currie lets readers know that drug abuse destroyed her family, her career and almost her life; she hit rock bottom before realizing that if she didn't get help she would die. This turbulent, frightening story sends mature readers a potent warning against drugs. Ages 12-up.

Wow. Turbulent. Frightening, even.

So is this NEW Neon Angel a totally NEW memoir? The 1989 edition lists a co-author named Neil Shusterman, while the 2010 book credits the book to Currie and Tony O'Neil. What the hell happened to Neil Shusterman? (Maybe he got carved up by a chainsaw - see below.) Of course, the 1989 edition totally blew chunks  - I've had it for years, and as a collector of music books I feel confident in saying that it is, er, a "lesser work" in the pantheon of rock bios and memoirs. The fact that Amazon.com is also listing it for sale among its used book vendors for $75 and up is cause for great mirth, too; caveat emptor.

Come to think of it, maybe that last term applies here too....

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Official Press Release:

LOS ANGELES, February 2, 2010: When Cherie Currie, the lead singer of 1970s teenage girl group The Runaways, sat down to write her personal memoir, NEON ANGEL: A Memoir of a Runaway (It Books/An Imprint of HarperCollins; On sale: March 16, 2010; $24.99; Hardcover) she never imagined the book would be made into a highly anticipated movie, starring some of Hollywood's hottest actors.

Cherri Currie is the original lead singer of ‘70s teenage, all-girl rock band The Runaways. At the tender age of 15, she joined the group, a talented group of girls who could play rock like no other female group before them. On the face of it, Currie's is a cool story of girl empowerment and fame. But the truth is darker, as Currie and her band mates dealt with predatory men who were not necessarily looking out for their best interests. On the road, unsupervised for months at a time, she had to grow up fast and experience things that no teenaged girl should.

Cherie's amazing resilience is inspiring.  As band mate Joan Jett says in the book's foreword:  "Neon Angel is a chronicle of a remarkable journey - the story of a remarkable woman, who has an uncanny knack of reinventing herself - from singer, to actor, to drug counselor, to physical trainer, to mom, to author, to painter, to chain saw carver...While excelling at every turn, Cherie has also exhibited an ironic flair for finding herself in dramatic situations." 

Writing NEON ANGEL itself, was a journey for Currie, and it took more than three decades before it was finally completed. Her story exposes the side of the music industry that fans never get to see. Chronicling the group's rise to fame, the book recounts their ultimate demise, and Currie's struggles with drugs, rape, violence and, ultimately, her fight to reclaim her life.  

The girls, Currie with Joan Jett, and Lita Ford on guitar and Sandy West on drums, arrived on the Los Angeles music scene in 1975, belting out provocative teen rebellion songs such as "Cherry Bomb." They  quickly catapulted from playing small LA clubs to selling out major stadiums. With her signature Bowie-hair cut and fishnet stockings, Cherie lit up the stage, singing hits such as "Cherry Bomb," "Queens of Noise," and "Born to Be Bad." Playing on Cherie's name, Joan Jett and Kim Fowley wrote the worldwide hit "Cherry Bomb" on the spot, for Cherie to audition for the band, one of the many compelling stories Currie tells in NEON ANGEL.

The Runaways were the first all-girl rock band to have hit songs, record platinum albums (at least 1,000,000 units sold), and tour internationally. But behind the scenes, NEON ANGEL is a story of five teen girls, runaways, thrown into a decadent, high-pressure world. As Cherie chronicles the band's rise from LA clubs to selling out their first US tour, she also weaves in a portrait of an amazing time in punk rock. The Runaways headlined shows with opening acts such as the Ramones, Van Halen, Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers, Cheap Trick, and Blondie. They played at CBGBs, and got into the London punk scene and hung out with The Sex Pistols.

Cherie's unique stage persona and fashion style has influenced many of the artists who came after, and that influence can be clearly seen in such very successful performers as Madonna and Lady Gaga.

With the help of multi-platinum hit songwriter and producer Kenny Laguna, Currie was able to have her book made into the feature film,  The Runaways --starring Dakota Fanning (War of the Worlds, New Moon, The Secret Lives of Bees) as Currie, and Kristen Stewart (Twilight, New Moon, Into The Wild, Panic Room) playing Joan Jett.  The Runaways also stars Oscar nominee Michael Shannon (Revolutionary Road) as manager Kim Fowley, and Oscar winner Tatum O'Neal as Cherie's mother. 

The Runaways movie is schedule hits theaters nationwide March 19, 2010.

About the author:

Cherie Currie rocketed to rock and roll stardom when she joined the Runaways at the young age of 15. She's been described as "the lost daughter of Iggy Pop and Brigitte Bardot."   Shortly after the band's demise, the rock star landed a coveted role in the Jodi Foster movie, Foxes, and later went on to appear in the films Wavelength with Robert Carradine, Parasite with Demi Moore, and Twilight Zone: The Movie, with Dan Aykroyd.

Currie is still performing, writing, and acting, and she continues to take on unorthodox endeavors.  One of the most prominent chainsaw carvers in the world, she was rated No. 7 in the world for chainsaw competition in 2008.

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NEON ANGEL: A Memoir of a Runaway

By Cherie Currie with Tony O'Neill

It Books/An Imprint of HarperCollins

Hardcover; On sale: March 16, 2010

Price: $24.99; Pages: 398

ISBN: 9780061961359