Book of Love brings its 40th Anniversary Tour to Dallas’ Granada Theater on Oct. 23
RICH LOPEZ | A&E Writer
Rich@DallasVoice.com
When Susan Ottavanio talks about the history of her band, Book of Love, she can’t believe it’s been decades since its debut. Apropos for Generation X, the 1980s still feel like not that long ago for those people. (Ok, for me. I am “those people.”)
But the singer also recognizes what BOL — which returns to Dallas for a sold-out show on Friday, Oct. 23, at the Granada Theater — has accomplished since its inception: Through honesty and grit, the New Wave band has endured as a pillar of queer music through its songs and support.
Over its course, Book of Love has retained all its original members. Ottaviano, Lauren Roselli Johnson, Jade Lee and Ted Ottaviano (no relation) have kept the band alive despite hiatuses, side projects and other career paths. Now, with this 40th Anniversary Tour, they celebrate the release of the eponymous album that started it all. And Dallas is the second stop on the tour.
Queer Dallas DJ Lord Byron opens the show. And although the show is sold out, fans should check ticket status at GranadaTheater.com.
Ahead of the show, Ottaviano discussed the band’s legacy, their queer appeal and staying true to their sound and vision.
Dallas Voice: You posted on Book of Love’s socials about coming back to the Granada. That’s incredible that you remember. Susan Ottaviano: We’ve sold it out before. That was in 2017. But I think sell-outs were different back in the day.
Well you’ve sold it out again. Yeah, and the timing for all this has been exciting. I do think now it’s a numbers thing, but I’ll take a sell-out.
I really see that the pop kind of ethos is back. And I see that in Chappel Roan’s songwriting and how they are making music that charts and is successful.
This is the 40th Anniversary Tour for Book of Love’s debut. Does it feel like 40 years? It’s crazy, and you just never think about making it to 40 years. We just kinda lived our lives, and now we’re 40? It moves a lot faster than you think it does.
That’s my generation so I hear you. It’s so unfair the ’80s were 40 years ago. It’s just insane that you can look at time like that but never think of a lot of things that come with it, like being in a different body and having a different brain even. It’s just interesting to observe that about yourself in a good way and sometimes not.
As you’re confronted with this anniversary, the tour and the album reissue, what do you notice about the band back then that you hadn’t realized until now? At the beginning, it was a passion for music, and we wanted to get our voice, our own story out there. We were big music fans. But then, later on, the impact that’s most important is the difference it made for the fans.
Our fans are just like us. We had these artists who made us feel and changed our lives, but they’re not the biggest artists. And, so, I feel like we identify as much with the fans, because we weren’t the biggest band at that time. We all kind of always preferred those kinds of fringe artists.
Speaking of fringe, back in those days, you had a big appeal for queer audiences which was certainly an “alternative lifestyle.” But also, you had songs like “Boy” that were directly speaking to the community. Now, your reissue came out specifically for Pride Month this year. Was that queer legacy simply part of BOL’s DNA outside of Ted’s own queerness? When these songs were written, we didn’t try to speak out to the gay community at the time. That was really just the life we lived, and I find it pretty cool because it’s just like, we were talking about the things that were going on in our life, and they became relevant for that reason. We didn’t set out to write a gay song, but the appeal I think was our honesty in what we were saying.
But you know, with Ted, I joked he wrote from his perspective as a teenage girl. I always loved that because it was just us being who we are, and he always tapped into something special.
There was an authenticity to that where artists now really feel free to express themselves entirely. That’s the advice I would give anybody who wants to create. Just be yourself and focus on that. You already know the sound and vision that you have, so run with it. That’s really what we did, and that’s why some of the things turn out to be personal.
Are you talking about “Pretty Boys and Pretty Girls?” You know, AIDS wasn’t spoken about in other parts of the country, but living in New York City in 1986, it was next door; it was everywhere. So that became part of our life. We weren’t looking to do anything political, but we wanted to say something.
I think the things that I’m most proud about are the things that we got the most pushback about. And when you’re young, you don’t know if that corporate pushback is for the good of the band. But we did it anyway, and those are lessons that we took and learned from.
Ted recently announced on social media his Parkinson’s diagnosis. What were those conversations like for you all? I want to say he’s just doing absolutely great. And we just announced this like a week ago because Ted just felt like it was time now, being that we’re on tour. And he’s interacting with the fans on stage and being viewed by crowds of people every night. He wanted to share his story, and he’s been brave and healthy, and I’m so inspired and proud of him.
Back to your songs, I love how they travel well beyond their release date. I think a song like “Boy” can now speak to trans and nonbinary identities. “I Touch Roses” feels more about having agency these days. Obviously, we can’t predict the future, but was there any notion how progressive you were being at that time? Not at all. Again, we were just being ourselves and writing about the things we knew. I think we became the voice of outsiders, you know. And that’s always been one of our strengths, especially through Ted’s songwriting. So when you’re an outsider carrying on with a strong groove, that’s gonna be progressive — whether we knew it or not.