Pamela Des Barres - Rock Bottom

[glampunk]

Pamela Des Barres - Rock Bottom: Dark Moments In Music Babylon (Little Brown, 1996)

Introduction
Acknowledgements

Laughing Syd Barrett - Scream Thy Last Scream
Jan Berry - Riding The Wild Surf To Dead Man's Curve
Marc Bolan - Twentieth Century Boy
John 'Bonzo' Bonham - In Through The Out Door
Kurt Cobain - All Apologies
Eddie Cochran - Untamed Youth
Freddie Mercury - I've Always Admired A Man Who Wears Tights
Sam Cooke - A Change Is Gonna Come
Marvin Gaye - Sexual Healing
Jimi Hendrix - Bold As Love
Rick James - Slow Draggin' With The Devil
Brian Jones - Standing In The Shadows
Janis Joplin - Buried Alive In The Blues
Keith Moon The Loon - Hope I Die Before I Get Old
Jim Morrison - The Lizard Of Aaaaah's
Rick Nelson - Some People Call Me A Teenage Idol
Gram Parsons - Fallen Angel
Johnny Thunders - Too Much Junkie Business
Stevie Ray Vaughan - The Sky Is Crying
Sid Vicious - Hit Me With A Flower
Dennis Wilson - Pacific Ocean Blues: A Beach Boy's Funeral At Sea

Final Chapter
Jim Gordon & Kurt Struebing - Mother, I Want To ....
Chuck Berry - My Ding-A-Ling
G. G. Allin - Public Animal Number One
Axl Rose - Welcome To The Jungle

Bibliography
Index

Written by former groupie and leader of Frank Zappa prodigies the G.T.O.'s (Girls Together Outrageously), an utterly charming rock 'n roll depravity primer featuring the usual terminally naughty suspects plus some shamefully neglected contenders. High/ low lights include an alarming interview with Merle Allin, brother of the late G. G., nicely set off with that photo (no, not that one, although it's in here too: This touching demonstration of brotherly love shows G. G. at rest in his coffin and dear old Merle performing him a .... uh ... service because "it's what he would have wanted"). Likewise unforgettable, the cautionary tale of Chuck Berry and why it's time to start worrying when the great man informs you it's time for his "breakfast" ... Euw.

A guilty pleasure - there's no point denying it - but carried by Des Barres wit and, most of all, compassion. The author understands the essential - and scary - truth that rock music at it's best is about rebellion and, however mindless and self-destructive that can get, it's infinitely preferable to the sanitised, soulless dross that constitutes much of today's chart smash pop "action".