We Gotta Get Out of This Place: The True, Tough Story of Women in Rock

Rock and roll has traditionally been a boys' game. It has forced female artists to work twice as hard, usually for half the recognition -- but without their contributions, American music would be radically impoverished. Called a kind of female Cameron Crowe by the Chicago Tribune, Gerri Hirshey has been writing about music for two decades. Now, in a narrative based on frank original interviews and a vise grasp of American cultural history, she serves up a tasty platter of girl groups and soul queens, acoustic goddesses and priestesses of the avant-garde, punk grrrls, glamazons, and innovators of hip-hop and neo-soul. We Gotta Get Out of This Place is the passionate history of a century of women in rock that is deft, authoritative, and a sheer delight to read. A literary soul queen, an Aretha of the page ... -- Karen Schoemer, Elle We Gotta Get Out of This Place ... helps set the record straight. -- Dan Gilgoff, U.S. News & World Report Hirshey doesn't write about rock and roll. She writes rock and roll. -- L. D. Meagher, CNN.com Vivid, impassioned, [and] lively. -- Francine Prose, O Magazine