Boys Keep Swinging: A Memoir

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I was disappointed when they finally emerged from the salon, not with giant, freaky hairdos that could barely fit into the car but with simple, feathered blowouts. As he grieves the loss of freedom, the loss of friends, Shears is also overcome by the realization that the city that never sleeps didn’t enter a stasis, time didn’t freeze while he was gone, and we witness the contrast between Jason Sellards and Jake Shears and the difficulty of his coexisting with feet in two different worlds. Shears grew up in kind of a weird grunge/post-grunge era where music really wasn't all that good and gay people weren't that accepted, so he had to forge ahead with his own organic musical persona. Read more about the condition New: A new, unread, unused book in perfect condition with no missing or damaged pages.

As a gay youth, Jake exposes the struggle to come to terms with one's sexuality early in life during the late 80's-early 90's and the myth of the ease of coming out for this x generation. It always plunked on the ground yards away from me, like a dead shooting star, its flame long extinguished. If only it had been my salon, they would have looked like super-vixens with ashen bushfires encircling their painted faces.

We rode to and from his work on the airstrip, me in the back of his blue Datsun 280Z, crouched behind him in a kind of trunk with no seats, much less a seat belt. I wore Vivienne Westwood shorts that tied all the way up on the side, half obscene, making me look naked, thin black suspenders, a leather cap, and a giant feather brooch.

Shears may be a born showman, but he’s nothing if not a natural born storyteller who picks at the threads of memory and weaves them into a compelling novel. I had to lie flat, with my face propped up in my hands as he explained to me concepts that seemed abstract, like how an instrument wasn’t just something that made music. I stepped into a sunset-kissed Union Square in destroyed black cowboy boots and a Heatherette tie-dyed hoodie with Amanda Lepore’s face stenciled on the front. I picked up Jake Shears’ memoir Boys Keep Swinging because I was a fan of his glam-rock/disco band the Scissor Sisters, who have been M. I decided to read Boys Keep Swinging, a new memoir by Jake Shears, the lead singer of the musical group Scissor Sisters, both because I was a big fan of the group's music and because, well, I'm fairly enamored of Shears, who has a penchant for posing for and taking pictures of himself in various states of undress.

My mom passed me the silver can, which I would deliver to him just in time for the CBS Evening News with Dan Rather. How many young people trying to come to terms with their sexuality and wondering if they'll ever find happiness haven't felt the way he did? I have been a fan of the Scissor Sister since they first made it big and had the pleasure of seeing Jake live 3 times this month when he was supporting Kylie Minogue on her Golden Tour in Australia.

Whether it was some toy slime creature that didn’t secrete like it had in the commercial, or Michael Jackson not actually performing in Captain EO at Disneyland—it was just a 3-D movie of him that played all day long—the world was full of exaggerations. Sometimes a little shocking and not for the prudish (but you knew that if you have followed SS or Jakes career), this book made me laugh and made me cry, made me gasp and made me want to sit in the car and hear more.Jake Shears lays bare his youthful angst, the misfit years, family and school life and his path to pop stardom and being taken under the nurturing wing of Sir Elton John.