If a picture is worth a thousand words, then the cover of Amanda Lear’s 1979 album “Never Trust a Pretty Face” says it all. Depicted as history’s chicest sphinx, Lear at once cemented her status as a beauty icon as well as one of the disco era’s most mysterious figures. No one seems to know if she’s a she or a he, but rumors tell the tale of a young male expatriate who beguiled Salvadore Dali into financing a star-making sex change. True or false, Lear’s sexuality is as cloudy as those decadent disco nights.
A brief education at the legendary St. Martins coupled with catwalking for Yves Saint Laurent and Coco Chanel in mid-60′s Paris were Amanda’s first forays into the increasingly hybrid worlds of fashion, music and art. Soon after, an engagement to Bryan Ferry and simultaneous affair with David Bowie only added fuel to the confusion and intrigue. However, Amanda Lear is best known as a disco star who performed her recitative vocals over lush disco melodies in nightclubs across Europe throughout the late 70′s and into the 80′s.
Although Amanda’s stage persona was full of camp tropes of the time, her self-written lyrics are full of symbolism in songs like “Follow Me” and “The Sphinx” in which she hints at her ”devil in disguise” emanation. On the other hand, “Fashion Pack” tells the story of a night at Studio 54, mocking “those crazy people” begging for entrance while name-dropping Halston-ites Bianca, Paloma and Margeaux over a production that sounds assumedly like Boney M. Eventually jaded by the European fashion scene, Amanda married a producer and moved on to a quiet life in rural France. The liner notes for the album “Sweet Revenge” (1978) read like the tale of a transexual icon:
“This album is the story of a girl who sold her soul to the Devil and won. A lonely child, disenchanted by the society she lives in, she has no friends until the day she listens to the tempting offer of the Devil who promises her anything she wants (“Follow Me”). Her first wish is for riches (“Gold”), and then for fame. After turning to her mother for help (“Mother Look What They’ve Done To Me”), she runs away (“Run Baby Run”) and retires into solitude and memories. Renouncing her selfish need, she offers her love to a man who really needs her, her sweet revenge over the Devil’s offer…’
Amanda Lear, February 1978”
Pictures after the jump — Michael Scanlon
