'Retto Ruminations
By: Amy Sciarretto
Last updated June 24th , 2010

I just ordered Pat Benatar's new autobiography, Between a Heart and Rock Place.  I cannot wait to read it. I have a cross-country flight to LA next week, so I am sure I can blast right through it while I am flying the friendly skies. While I can usually get promotional - free - copies of a book I want to read, write about and review, I actually purchased Benatar's book since as a fan, I wanted to read it. I didn't plan to write about it, but here I am. Writing about it. It's almost involuntary at this point.

I saw Pat play the Hammerstein Ballroom a few years ago. I bought my ticket, which I usually never need to do, since as a prolific music journalist, I am always on the receiving end of promotional tickets, as well. But as a fan, I wanted to attend the show, sing along to "Hit Me With Your Best Shot," "Fire and Ice," "Hell is For Children," a song which made me think that Pat hated kids, because at my young age and with my not fully developed brain at the time, I wasn't educated enough to pick up on the nuance of metaphor, and "We Belong." But I ended up writing about it, because I wanted to, because I had such a good time at the show.

I grew up watching Pat Benatar videos on MTV, with her black zip front catsuits and red belts and her close cropped hair. I loved her pouty lips. I loved her voice. I was like six-years-old at the time, but damn if I was not inspired.  I have mentioned before that I started to listen to music about the day I came out of the womb, because my older, music-loving brother took it upon himself to expose me early and expose me a lot. It reminded me of when MTV used to actually play videos and when videos were an extension of the song you loved to hear on the radio or on your record player. It was a whole new visual element to something that was previously audio-only. While hearing a song only allows you to create a whole scene in your mind about it, videos took it a step further for me. I could further indulge the artist's creativity by watching the video and connecting with the artist and the song visually. It was win-win. It was another way to pull back the curtain and let the fan see a bit more into the band.

Now I have to put up with Jersey Shore and 16 and Pregnant if I am flipping channels and happen to stop on MTV for a hot, wasted second. I loathe the former program, because I am from New Jersey my whole life and I am Italian and you will never, ever, hear me say that the stereotype that Snooki and The Situation perpetuate doesn't exist, because it does. That demographic rocks Wildwood, Seaside Heights and Ocean City from May through September. But people outside of the Garden State make the mistake of thinking that the small subset is representative of the whole. But the point is that this is what MTV peddles as culture. They don't play videos in favor of their original programming and if they do air videos, they are at inopportune hours. The music video seems like a dead medium anymore. I find it ironic that "Video Killed the Radio Star" is the first clip ever aired on MTV and that the very channel that existed to play videos is what's offing videos in general. Sad, but true, to borrow a line from James Hetfield of Metallica.  Pat will go down in the annals of rock music for her contributions. In two years, no one will remember or care about Snooki. I am still befuddled and flummoxed about why anyone even is in the first place, other than the train wreck aspect. But that gets older than an octogenarian after a while.

Yeah, so I am going to read Pat Benatar's book, cover to cover. I am going to soak in and absorb the details of her life that I didn't and couldn't possibly know while watching her videos as a kid in New Jersey, who loved rock 'n' roll at the earliest possible age. I am going to learn things, re-read passage and always lament that videos where another sensory element that drew me into this artist, and how that medium has changed so much that it is barely recognizable. Then I'll probably go watch old clips of Pat performing on YouTube. 

That's me, one foot in the past, feeling all nostalgic and shit, while the other is addicted to and absorbing any and all new technologies. I'll probably Tweet and edit my Facebook status when I am reading PB's book, to encourage folks to buy it. I am so looking forward to what I am going to learn about her life. There is interest and intrigue coming from me, for sure. I don't know much about Pat, and I want to glean what I can from her book And not on Kindle, since there is something about my fingertips turning the page, my fingerprints being left on the paper, of flipping pages, of cracking the spine, of dog-earring pages, of smearing the ink. The real thing will always trump the digital element for me. 

Go to her site, www.Benatar.com, to find retail locations for her tome. I got it off Amazon.com. The mailman cannot come fast enough. ~ Amy Sciarretto

[Tags] Metal, Rock

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