Product Details
I'm with the Band: Confessions of a Groupie

I'm with the Band: Confessions of a Groupie
By Pamela Des Barres

List Price: $14.95
Price: $10.17 & eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25. Details

Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com

46 new or used available from $8.42

Average customer review:

Product Description

The stylish, exuberant, and remarkably sweet confession of one of the most famous groupies of the 1960s and 70s is back in print in this new edition that includes an afterword on the author's last 15 years of adventures. As soon as she graduated from high school, Pamela Des Barres headed for the Sunset Strip, where she knocked on rock stars' backstage doors and immersed herself in the drugs, danger, and ecstasy of the freewheeling 1960s. Over the next 10 years she had affairs with Mick Jagger, Jimmy Page, Keith Moon, Waylon Jennings, Chris Hillman, Noel Redding, and Jim Morrison, among others. She traveled with Led Zeppelin; lived in sin with Don Johnson; turned down a date with Elvis Presley; and was close friends with Robert Plant, Gram Parsons, Ray Davies, and Frank Zappa. As a member of the GTO's, a girl group masterminded by Frank Zappa, she was in the thick of the most revolutionary renaissance in the history of modern popular music. Warm, witty, and sexy, this kiss-and-tell–all stands out as the perfect chronicle of one of rock 'n' roll's most thrilling eras.


Product Details

  • Amazon Sales Rank: #27803 in Books
  • Published on: 2005-10-28
  • Original language: English
  • Number of items: 1
  • Binding: Paperback
  • 320 pages

Features


Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
Fortunately, Des Barres injects humor into these accounts of degradation, which exemplify the subculture of rock music. As a California teenager during the wild 1960s, she attached herself to members of various rock bands and other celebrities. More bragging than confessional, the story explicitly details this particular groupie's sexual exploits with Mick Jagger, the late Brandon de Wilde, Led Zeppelin's Jimmy Page (he liked using whips and handcuffs to enhance sex, we're told here), future Miami Vice star Don Johnson and many others. Now in her 30s, Des Barres has recovered from longtime drug abuse as has her husband, Michael, a musician. Though still "making the scene," they have settled down somewhat, as parents of a son. There are profoundly sad, shocking revelations here, and the reader understands why John Lennon glanced at the groupie and her adolescent female gang in 1964, "his face full of contempt and sorrow." Photos not seen by PW.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

"She charms me every time she refuses to regret. And she regrets nothing."  —Los Angeles Times



"Sunny, uninhibited prose."  —Slate.com


"Her prose is...glittery, raw and real."  —Indie-music.com


"Should spur enough interest...that...her story can be made into the movie it needs to be."  —The WOW Report


"Granted it's gossipy, but it's also a worthwhile document of the blossoming of an innocent California flower-child."  —Star Tribune


"Eminently readable, offering all the fun of a trashy read without resorting to sensationalism or mean-spiritedness." —North Bay Bohemian


"A must-read for all lovers of great music and men."  —Playgirl

About the Author

Pamela Des Barres is the author of Let's Spend the Night Together and Take Another Little Piece of My Heart. A spokesperson for her generation, she is an authority on classic rock and the freewheelin' rock 'n' roll lifestyle. She has written for the New York Times, Rolling Stone, Cosmopolitan, and many other magazines.


Customer Reviews

Fun, Vicarious Adventure Without the Disappointment5
After reading other books by other groupies (who adamantly refuse the title of groupie although that's what they were), I wasn't expecting too much but was so sweetly surprised. This is how I always imagined a groupie should be like--star struck, believing that by adoring and being available to these rock idols would somehow make these idols fall hopelessly in love. And no matter how many times she got her heart broken she kept believing, continued to be optimistic and open far longer than most of us would have been. I am glad Miss Pam did find someone to love who loved her back for awhile at least--she deserved it--and hasn't wound up a has-been with nothing of her own to lay claim to (as so many other groupies do). I enjoyed the adventure; she captured a slice of what life could sometimes be like for a flower child with stars in her eyes.

Rock On Pamela!5
I read this book a long time ago, before this latest re-release. It was so funny and I wish so much that I could have known Pamela Des Barres because her sense of adventure and her uncanny knack of putting it all down in print left me in awe of her.

She led the life that I could only have dreamed of leading. Of course, there are people out there who would call her names and scorn her for what she did in her past, but all I can say is "You go Girl!"

I suppose you could call this book No Holds Barres, because she was so candid and she let us all into her world and it was a world full of magic and love and such fun. I think Pamela would laugh if she could see the copy of my paperback book. It is covered in suntan oil and the ghosts of many Pina Coladas, since this was like my bible for many summers of laying by the pool.

So many of the people she met went on to lead productive lives and are still in the limelight, others met an unfortunate demise, but one thing for sure, they all loved Miss Pamela and she loved them back. I think anyone would be lucky to have a friend like her. You would never get bored because the tales she has to tell would keep you interested for an eternity.

Read the book, it's a rock and roll journey you don't want to miss.

Love you Miss Pamela
from a devoted groupie!

A great book for chicks & classic rock fans3
This book is especially enjoyable if you're into celebrity "name-dropping" books. You won't believe some of the famous men that made Pamela's acquaintance! I don't name-drop, so read the book for yourself if you're intrigued. I will say, however, that among them are several musicians of the 60's & 70's and one actor who briefly made white suits popular again.

This book will also be of interest to true classic rock fans.

While the author is no Shakespeare, she sure knows how to spin a tale! I admire her because she followed her heart and lived an "alternative" but fulfilling lifestyle when other women her age married young and started breeding. Bravo to Pamela for lavishing in her youth and "getting it out of her system"!

Read this if you're looking for something fun that'll keep you turning the pages...but not thinking too hard...