Girls in the Band: My Summer of Rock Memoirs

I’ve always been curious about being in a band. The camaraderie, the conflict, the unwashed glamour, and the power of performance have eternally fascinated me. My brief, aborted attempts at bandom, fortunately, never made it out of the practice room. My guitar skills were mediocre, my singing voice was not even remotely dynamic, and my attempts at songwriting were self-conscious and stiff. I realized that making music with others—music that people actually want to listen to—requires an almost masochistic inclination to give control over to something larger happening in a room with the people you’re making music with. Not everyone has the power or inclination to give over to something like that—and to do it in public, repeatedly. Sadly, I’m not possessed of that inclination. I am, however, unable to stop thinking about it. What could it have been like if I’d been