I got lucky and came across some free pages of Richard Thompson’s memoir from last year on Google Books, and I really do not get some of his comments on Genie Franklyn. He says when they met, he asked if he should pronounce her name ‘Genie’ or ‘Jeannie,’ but like....that’s just the same name with two different spellings. You would already know just from looking at the names there isn’t different pronunciation. So that’s weird. He also says she lived with Lenny Bruce for ‘a couple of years,’ which I haven’t heard before and can’t find any more info on. It’s confusing because I was under the impression Genie and her best friend Ann Moses just happened to move to LA around the same time in 1965 (which is also the same year Genie started her fashion career). Lenny would have already been in a relationship with his last fiancee, Lotus Weinstock, by 1965 too. So I don’t know what Richard’s talking about claiming Lenny and Genie were once together.
I also really don’t like how Richard basically describes Genie as a groupie he was just going through the motions with and makes it sound like he was close to leaving her before she died. (He calls her a ‘talented and extraordinary person’ by the end of her passage, but also refers to her as ‘pushy’ and insistent that she be present at Fairport Convention events with his bandmates not liking her either.) I mean, maybe it’s true but it’s kind of rude considering the context of her death. Ann’s memory isn’t great a lot of the time, but at least she’s never thrown Genie under the bus [no pun intended], and only describes her as sweet and caring.
This whole thing is really unfortunate, imo, because there’s so little information out there on Genie already; and this book having a high possibility of being how new fans learn about her in the future is a disservice to her memory. I don’t know. Maybe this is just me wanting her to be nicer than she was and feeling irrational, but I really feel a successful, professional woman who enjoyed socializing and dating within the music scene shouldn’t be minimized because of it.
TL;DR, Sandy Denny is still my fave member of Fairport Convention
