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Groupie

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A groupie is a person who, while she/he may be a fan on some level, seeks intimacy (most often physical, sometimes emotional) with a famous person.

Types of Groupies

Groupie is derived from group, meaning a musical band, but now has more general application. The term "groupie" is often, although by no means always, used derogatorily.

Female groupies in particular are known for a long-standing tradition of being available for sexual intercourse with celebrities, rock stars, professional athletes, politicians, and other public figures regardless of the fact that the objects of their obsession may already be married with children, or otherwise already in a committed relationship.

There are other male dominated professions and occupations that appear to attract groupies as well, such as law enforcement and firefighters (especially after 9/11[1]), the military (these women are sometimes referred to as "Allotment Annies", "debs", "badge bunnies", or camp followers)[2], preachers and ministers. Even convicted criminals sometimes have followers.

Motives of Groupies

While perhaps only a small number of groupies are truly promiscuous in that they are willing to trade sexual favors for attention (and often expensive gifts), the tradition of "rock and roll groupies" continues to the present day, contributing to the image of the rock-and-roll lifestyle as one where sex and drugs are readily available at any time.

The techniques used by groupies to get close to their targets vary almost as much as the groupies themselves. Certainly, female groupies can wear clothing that highlights their physical attributes — or remove clothing, for that matter. Sometimes their availability and dogged persistence at pursuing their lust object are enough.

Some groupies go so far as to create an imaginary world wherein they would be the replacements for their targets’ primary relationships (marrying them, or at least becoming their "road wife"), with some making themselves available to any famous celebrity (any rock band that rolls into town), while others focus closely on one particular target (and becoming a "regular").

In film

Perhaps the best-known work dealing with groupies is the 2000 Cameron Crowe movie, Almost Famous (although the groupie characters insist that they are, instead, "Band Aides"). Groupie is defined in that movie as follows: "Groupies sleep with rock stars because they want to be near somebody famous." Later, a character, looking at some groupies, says: "They don't even know what it is to be a fan. You know, to truly love some silly little piece of music, or some band, so much that it hurts."[1]

In the movie Bull Durham, Susan Sarandon played a character named after groupies called Baseball Annies.

In the 2002 comedy movie, The Banger Sisters, Susan Sarandon and Goldie Hawn both play middle aged women who were groupies on the Sunset Strip in the 1970s. They meet up 20 years later in Phoenix, Arizona and the encounter forces them both come to grips with their past. Hawn's character, Suzette, is an unemployed bartender, still wild as ever and somewhat delusional about her importance as a groupie. Sarandon's character, Lavinia, had re-invented herself by marrying a wealthy lawyer with political ambitions. She's become a suburban housewife who doesn't want her family to know that she was a groupie as a youth.

In The School of Rock, a young girl adamantly refuses to be given the role of 'groupie' as she says: "Groupies are sluts! They sleep with the band!" To which all she gets in reply: "No....they're like cheerleaders."

In the biopic Sid and Nancy, Chloe Webb portrays Nancy Spungen, a punk and rock band groupie prior to becoming the girlfriend of Sex Pistols bassist Sid Vicious.

In print

Pamela Des Barres wrote two books detailing her experiences as a groupie, I'm With The Band (1987) and Take Another Little Piece of My Heart: A Groupie Grows Up (1993), as well as another non-fiction book, Rock Bottom: Dark Moments in Music Babylon.

Bebe Buell wrote a book about her experiences entitled Rebel Heart. Buell has gone on record as saying she does not consider herself a groupie. However, she is still labelled as such.

Karrine Steffans authored Diary of a Video Vixen. The book detailed her liaisons with famous hip-hop stars and athletes as well as the time she spent as a video girl and groupie.

Germaine Greer, the feminist writer and academic, told the New York Times in an 1971 inteview that she had been a "supergroupie." "Supergroupies don't have to hang around hotel corridors," she said. "When you are one, as I have been, you get invited backstage. I think groupies are important because they demystify sex; they accept it as physical, and they aren't possessive about their conquests."

In music

"The Mud Shark" by Frank Zappa, was recorded live during a Fillmore East gig in June 1971. The song lyrics reference the infamous shark episode involving members of the supergroup Led Zeppelin and a groupie that allegedly occurred at the Edgewater Inn in Seattle, Washington on July 28, 1969.

"Superstar" is a pop song written by Leon Russell and Bonnie Bramlett. It is a love song about groupies, with the story told from the point of view of the groupie rather than from the opinion of the star. The song appears on the Joe Cocker album, Mad Dogs and Englishmen and is sung by Rita Coolidge. It was performed live by Bette Midler on The Tonight Show. In 1971, it was a #2 hit song and Grammy Award nominee for the Carpenters (some of the lyrics were changed to better fit their cleancut image). The song has also been successfully recorded by Luther Vandross and Sonic Youth.

Also in 1970, Tony Joe White's "Groupy Girl" was a minor hit on the British charts and elsewhere.

The Dr. Hook song "Roland the Roadie and Gertrude the Groupie" depicts and lampoons/celebrates the groupie stereotype in a tragic romance.

In the 1973 rock song by Grand Funk Railroad, We're an American Band, the band sings about the groupies they encountered while touring. In one verse, the women were referred to as "chiquitas". In another part of the lyrics one famous groupie, Connie Hamzy, was mentioned by her nickname. "Sweet sweet Connie/was doing her act/she had the whole show/and that's a natural fact."

"What's Your Name" by Lynyrd Skynyrd, about a one night stand with a nameless groupie, reached #13 on the single airplay charts in January of 1978.

The AC/DC song "The Jack" describes the aftermath of one of Bon Scott's many sexual encounters, this time with one of the band's groupies -- through playing-card metaphors, the song attempts to portray Scott's gonorrhoea the following morning. Later, a much more direct version was released, with the metaphors replaced by contemporary English and Australian colloquialisms.

The Guns N' Roses song "It's So Easy", from their debut album Appetite For Destruction is largely about groupies and the fact that getting signed suddenly increased their interest in the band.

In a December 14, 2005 interview (French language, not available online) in Le Journal de Montreal, Gary Greenbaum, a fan of the band Simple Plan being interviewed prior to seeing their show for the fiftieth time, states "I am not a groupie, I am a fan."

The Japanese band Pizzicato Five paid homage to the groupie lifestyle in 1994 on a track from their Japan-only album Overdose called "If I Were A Groupie". The song originally featured vocalist Maki Nomiya singing in Japanese over a documentary recording of an American groupie recounting her exploits with glee ("The Groupies", c.1969, produced by Alan Lorber), while a serious Japanese voice delivered a simultaneous translation. The following year the song was re-recorded (presumably for copyright reasons) for the band's second U.S. album release The Sound of Music by Pizzicato Five, with one of the band's U.S. management team providing the "groupie's" spoken words.

Mark Knopfler sings "Well, them groupie girls ain't what they're cracked up to be..." on the song "There'll Be Some Changes Made" from the album Neck & Neck with Chet Atkins.[2]

Heavy metal band System of a Down have a song about groupies in their sophomore album Toxicity. The song is called "Psycho" and here is a characteristic part of the lyrics: "Psycho, groupie, cocaine, crazy/So you want to see the show/You really dont have to be a ho"

In 1992, Juliana Hatfield released the album I See You, which included the track "Rider" with the lyrics: "She has no brain at all/Her head's about to fall/People always laughing/In her face and behind her back...You stupid groupie/You stupid slut/By the time you're bruised and bloody/Have you had enough?/Or is there any blood left in you/Or are you really just a whore?/Do you think about what you've been doing/Or don't you wanna know?"

Notes

  1. ^ Crowe, Cameron (1998). "Almost Famous Transcript" DailyScript.com (accessed May 4, 2006)
  2. ^ Knopfler, Mark et al. "There'll Be Some Changes Made" lyrics Mark-Knopfler-News.co.uk (accessed May 4, 2006)

See also

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