02342cam a2200337 i 4500 214873704 TxAuBib 20150424120000.0 120626s2012||||||||||||||||||||||||eng|u 2012026041 9780399159381 trade $26.95 039915938X trade $26.95 (OCoLC)778419241 TxAuBib rda LaVette, Bettye. A woman like me / Bettye LaVette ; with David Ritz. New York : Blue Rider Press, 2012. 262 pages, [16] pages of plates : illustrations (some color) ; 24 cm. txt rdacontent n rdamedia nc rdacarrier Includes discography (p. [245]-252) and index. Publisher's Weekly, September 2012. Publisher's Weekly. An autobiography of rhythm and blues singer Bettye LaVette, discussing her childhood, her early career, her decline into poverty, and her comeback performances at the 2008 Kennedy Center Honors and President Obama's pre-inaugural concert in 2009. The singer's autobiography charts one missed chance and blown opportunity after another on the way to belated renown 40 years into her career. Born Betty Haskins in Michigan, she was a high school dropout, married and a mother by the age of 15, and ran wild through the Motor City clubs. Rechristened Bettye LaVette, she dove into the music scene, notching a top-10 national R&B hit on Atlantic in 1962. While she reached the top 40 several more times through the early '80s, LaVette never experienced sustained success. Her latter-day albums for the independent label Anti- finally brought her the audience she coveted. Her own recounting suggests she was the victim of her own monumentally misguided judgment. She indulged heartily in alcohol, cocaine, marijuana and sex--she counted Otis Redding, Solomon Burke and Jackie Wilson among her many paramours, sustained a decades-long affair with record exec Clarence Paul, had a long-term female lover and worked off and on as a prostitute. 20130118. LaVette, Bettye 1946- Singers United States Biography. Ritz, David.