Showing posts with label rock. Show all posts
Showing posts with label rock. Show all posts

Rock and Roll War Stories Review

Rock and Roll War Stories
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Rock & Roll War Stories is the new book of fan, musician, gadfly, author and critic Gordon Gebert and a co-author and is comprised of different, and seemingly unrelated unless one takes the eccentricity of rock musicians as a theme, real-life stories and episodes of different music personalities - as narrated by the authors and other collaborators. The authors have ample experience in the world of rock and roll, as do the other contributors who turn out to be musicians, groupies or music industry types.
One cannot even be sure if half the stories in the book are legitimate - GG swears to all of them of course - but even at fifty-percent GG and co-writers have been on a hell of a ride - and so will the reader. The book is laugh-out-loud funny, insightful and voyeuristically entertaining. In fact, it is an unbridled (rock 'n roll) riot. Tales and sordid chronicles of musicians come thick and fast shattering myth and ego without mercy. It is always good to laugh at the expense of the music business and the over-inflated ego of rock stars and this book is just the tool to help in the endeavour. It is just too bad that certain narrations are anonymous. That is made up for in the appendix which features direct quotations from different industry types. One is sillier and funnier than the other.
The escapades of the glorified groupies are simultaneously comical and vulgar. The chapters are titillating not only because of the detailed publicization of the personalities' idiosyncrasies and priorities, but one also wonders whether the narrators realize how pathetic and self-demeaning it all is to them. Not deterred by any forthcoming accusations of commercialism or lewdness, the author has placed racy photographs of half-clad tramps in military uniform throughout the book. It might be the perfect pretext for Rock & Roll War Stories II for the author has now assured himself communication from rock musicians!
Elsewhere, and admittedly the book was not after the literate target market to begin with, the work suffers from poor English. There are one too many spelling and grammatical mistakes present. 'Formally' substitutes for 'formerly,' one has to read 'they're' when coming across 'their' and the old stand-by 'your' is constantly substituted for 'you're.' What do they teach in schools in America? Nothing serious, which would be a good maxim for this book.
No matter, Rock & Roll War Stories is funny, candid and a good antidote for a case of the blues.

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From the critically acclaimed, and sometime damned Author, Gordon G. G. Gebert, comes his third book, "ROCK & ROLL WAR STORIES" whichyou now hold in your precious hands. Youwill never listen to your favorite band againwithout thinking of these twisted stories.Musician turned Author, Gordon G. G. Gebert, has done it again. He will take us past the "velvet rope" at warp speed, pinned with a plethora of all-access passes (that would make Wayne and Garth envious), into the utter chaos and mayhem of rock and roll with an uproarious collection of TRUE stories on the road, in the studio, and everywhere else in between. No one will stop you as you will be dragged through the bowels of hell and back whether you like it or not. Gordon, along with Philadelphia's premiere rockjournalist, Lynn Ramage, takes you on an insane rock and roll tripthat will keep you reading as if you've just seen a train wreck.Gebert's previous smash hit books, KISS & Tell and KISS & Tell MORE!,sent the actual members of KISS and die-hard KISS fans reeling when Gebert revealed "the man behind the curtain" in his candid expose' ofAce Frehley and KISS. One thing critics and fans all agree upon isthat KISS & Tell and KISS & Tell MORE are ENTERTAINING MUST-READS!One way or another, by the end of this tour you'll know what it takes to be a REAL rock and roll war veteran. It's as close as you'll ever get to being partof the entourage.Read it! Live it! Rock on!

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The L. A. Musical History Tour: A Guide to the Rock 'n' Roll Landmarks of Los Angeles Review

The L. A. Musical History Tour: A Guide to the Rock 'n' Roll Landmarks of Los Angeles
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Upon receiving this book I immediately tore through it to find my old hangouts. A couple are missing but this book has an extensive collection of photos/descriptions of rock halls...long live rock!

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An illustrated guide to the clubs, hotels, studios, record companies, residencies and restaurants which have been frequented by rock stars in Los Angeles.--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

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Riot On Sunset Strip Review

Riot On Sunset Strip
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It's amazing how many music styles melded on one stretch of road in one city during just a two-year period! This is not an ordinary road but the main one - Sunset Strip (actually Sunset Boulvard) - and not just any city. It's HOLLYWOOD, CALIFORNIA!
Sure there were hard rock bands - the image you get from both the title and the cover photo of this fascinating book - but there were also the Beach Boys, The Mamas and Papas, Petula Clark and lots of small comedy and folk clubs. This was the music I gravitated to during 1965 and 1966 and I found lots to reminisce about on as I read and looked through this book. Of particular interest to me was the section on Teen TV shows which emanated from the LA scene. Though, growing up in the Philadelphia area, I was more of an American Bandstand viewer, we did get Lloyd Thaxton in the afternoon and, of course, Shindig! in the evening. Then there was the T.A.M.I. Show film - which still has never been legitimately been released on home video - and it was filmed there. Fiore devotes a large section to this and I learned things we "kids" on the East Coast never knew. Just looking at the picture, and reading the captions, was an experience.
I can certainly recommend this - as a memory jogger - to anyone who was a teen in 1965-66 and it'll definitely be a must for anyone who watch Rock and Roll television in Southern California in the 1960s.
Steve Ramm
"Anything Phonographic"


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