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Detroit
Collection of poetry and song lyrics by Detroit rocker Carolyn Striho. Striho's most recent album, Afterthought , was on the GRAMMY(R) Awards 2018 First Ballot for Best Rock Album of the Year. Carolyn has won 11 Detroit Music Awards and a Billboard Magazine Award for her songwriting, albums, musicianship and live performances. Carolyn also has toured overseas six times in Europe, and also had a two-month tour of Japan. She's played many national and international festivals including Lollapalooza, Rome Italy's Donne In Musica, London U.K. Meltdown, and many more.
86 pages, Paperback
Published October 10, 2019
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April 9, 2020
The last time that Iggy Pop played in Detroit he said a few words that made quite an impression on me. It wasn’t the usual playing up to the crowd as Iggy has never needed to do that. Instead he said: “Thank you Detroit! – you spawned me”. In his mind, everything that Iggy has accomplished was all based on what he gave Detroit and what Detroit gave back to him. I kept thinking of that line over and over as I was reading this extraordinary collection of poems and lyrics by Carolyn Striho. Her collection, simply entitled “Detroit (Maiden Energy)”, showcases another artist who was spawned by Detroit.
I first became of fan of Carolyn Striho when she fronted the Cubes, one of those early punk bands that helped showed us in Detroit that all the great music in the late 1970s wasn’t limited to New York and London. I will always remember the Cubes at Bookie’s banging out their Detroit-style version of something that was a cross between Blondie and the Stooges and yet was completely original. After the Cubes there was Rough Cut and Detroit Energy Asylum and she’s still playing great music today. (Yes – I was definitely spinning all of her music and even found some great stuff on YouTube that I didn’t even know existed).
In this book, Carolyn gathers many of these lyrics and poems into her first collection and provides us with a path to follow so that we can get a glimpse of what has driven her over all of these years. Her love of Detroit jumps out at you and grabs you on almost every page. What is Detroit and why does it have such a profound impact on all of us? You can get an idea on page 14: (from Detroit (Street Princess)
Stands in the litter
but gorgeous energy lights the sky
dirt in the mouth
but gold in the heart….
This kind of sentiment flows throughout the book – it’s a city that’s rough and unforgiving, yet it’s a city where people can make the impossible happen. It’s not a long book, but through her artistry and music Carolyn Striho has shown what makes Detroit such a fountain for creativity and kick-ass music!
I first became of fan of Carolyn Striho when she fronted the Cubes, one of those early punk bands that helped showed us in Detroit that all the great music in the late 1970s wasn’t limited to New York and London. I will always remember the Cubes at Bookie’s banging out their Detroit-style version of something that was a cross between Blondie and the Stooges and yet was completely original. After the Cubes there was Rough Cut and Detroit Energy Asylum and she’s still playing great music today. (Yes – I was definitely spinning all of her music and even found some great stuff on YouTube that I didn’t even know existed).
In this book, Carolyn gathers many of these lyrics and poems into her first collection and provides us with a path to follow so that we can get a glimpse of what has driven her over all of these years. Her love of Detroit jumps out at you and grabs you on almost every page. What is Detroit and why does it have such a profound impact on all of us? You can get an idea on page 14: (from Detroit (Street Princess)
Stands in the litter
but gorgeous energy lights the sky
dirt in the mouth
but gold in the heart….
This kind of sentiment flows throughout the book – it’s a city that’s rough and unforgiving, yet it’s a city where people can make the impossible happen. It’s not a long book, but through her artistry and music Carolyn Striho has shown what makes Detroit such a fountain for creativity and kick-ass music!
Displaying 1 of 1 review