Product Description

The personal story of Wolfman Jack reveals the advent of his alter ego, multiple broadcast successes, appearance in American Grafitti, battle with drugs, and many celebrity adventures. 75,000 first printing. $75,000 ad/promo. Tour.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #578409 in Books
• Published on: 1995-06
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 362 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Host of America's first syndicated rock-and-roll radio program and the inspiration for George Lucas's American Graffiti, Bob Smith, aka Wolfman Jack, is one of radio's legendary figures, and this autobiography reveals that his life has been as colorful as his broadcasts. Wolfman recounts his childhood passion for the black music ignored by mainstream radio in the 1950s, his lowly beginnings as an ad rep for a small station in Norfolk, Va., and the wild story of his career as a radio DJ near the Mexican border?a career initiated by a wild west-style shootout with one station's owners. Writing with Laursen (Show Time), Wolfman dishes out his take on the politics of the music industry, the many music-biz celebrities he's known and what it's like to live a rock-and-roll lifestyle. His fast-paced story is peppered with generous tributes to the musicians?Chuck Berry, Ray Charles, Elvis Presley and a slew of others?who "supplied the original heart of rock 'n' roll." Rock music fans will find inspiration in these memoirs of a man whose finger has been on the pulse of American rock for decades. Photos. Author tour.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
Baby boomers will howl for this memoir from the popular personality.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
Some great rock songs have lyrics that make an indelible impression, while others impress because of their melodies or instrumentation, and still others are memorable because of their overall atmospherics, their "feel." Such is the appeal of Wolfman Jack's autobiography--its feel. The Wolfman lovingly and proudly communicates the atmosphere of the rock 'n' roll world as he describes his career--he started on a superpowerful, unregulated AM radio station in Mexico; he then landed network TV gigs, stateside disc-jockey jobs, and movie appearances; finally, he has become a contemporary icon. Station XERF, just across the border from Del Rio, Texas, reached most of the U.S. West and Midwest with plenty of radio ministries and Wolfman Jack's wild, howling shows. Always an advocate of black music, the Wolfman mixed records by blues and rhythm-and-blues artists with more mainstream rock to pioneer the parents-of-teens' aural nightmare that is now so familiar from its portrayal in numerous don't-knock-the-rock movies. The Wolfman then parlayed notoriety into fame and fame into fortune. It's a story he tells in a swashbuckling style that recalls his days in pirate radio, and although he names the names and fixes the places, it's not a rock reference but a highly entertaining peer to the finest recent rock autobiographies. Mike Tribby

Customer Reviews

Have Mercy Baby, He's Howling in Rock-N-Roll Heaven
Wolfman Jack "was" the ultimate D.J of all time. No one will ever fill his shoes. This book defines how his career got started, but it's too bad it wasn't accompanied by an "audio". You can't learn about or know "Wolfman" unless you've heard one of his shows. I was stunned that the entertainment world never gave him a tribute! But he "did"it in the way he lived his life! HAVE MERCY WOLFMAN. (insert a HOWL here!)

HAVE MERCY! Relives the era but fails to capture THE VOICE.
HAVE MERCY! takes a wild ride through an important era of broadcast history. HAVE MERCY! captures the renegade spirit that led a few pirates and pioneers to take risks for entertainment sake. HAVE MERCY! does a superb job of describing the times and painting a picture of what those who ventured into early rock were up against. HAVE MERCY! helps us to better understand what made one white boy howl in the night - and others sing the blues. HAVE MERCY! makes clear the impact of radio in the early days of rock-n-roll. Its a classic expose' on pop culture. HAVE MERCY! shows the drive and determination and focus and endurance and high energy it took to succeed in a highly competetive industry. HAVE MERCY! catches the gimmicks and the glamour. HAVE MERCY! drops all the right names in all the right places. HAVE MERCY! doesn't shy away from revealing the hazards, the hardships, the dirty deals and the difficult decisions either. HAVE MERCY! is a roller coaster without seatbelts - a wooden one with plenty of bumps and sharp turns and deep drops along the way. HAVE MERCY! chronicles the life of a street tough kid with a dream - someone least likely to succeed - who beat the odds and made it. HAVE MERCY! relives the roots of rock as told through THE VOICE that spoke for a whole generation. HAVE MERCY! grabs onto the craziness of THE VOICE but doesn't see the flip side. Nothing is revealed about the inner stuff the Wolfman was made of. HAVE MERCY! tells the what, when and where of Wolfman's story but fails to communicate the why well enough for reader's know who the Wolfman really was. Its as if the author is writing from a distance - on the outside looking in when a more compelling biography would be told from the inside looking out. HAVE MERCY! recants the making of the personality . . . but fails to see beyond the legend the Wolfman had become. If I hadn't already known the huge impact Wolfman had on my generation, I'm not sure I would've comprehended it from the book. The author tries, but fails to show the true connection between THE VOICE and his listeners. HAVE MERCY! gets the facts but not the feelings. Its like when a record company measures the quality of a song by its sales instead of its message or craftmanship. HAVE MERCY! records details but never gets the big picture. The author never catches the vision. He rides with the Wolfman but never contemplates the reason. He notes the Wolf's charisma but never understands it. Its clearly too overwhelming to describe and so its treated almost like an after-thought. Not a lot of effort goes into getting to know Wolf's fans or measuring his impact on the world around him either. HAVE MERCY! never sees the Wolfman as a wholistic being - the author never gets into his soul the way I, the reader, wanted him to. And so, the Wolfman came across as a wild, but somewhat packaged, entertainer with a well inflated ego - rather than a dedicated spokesman whose main mission may have been just to spread some joy. What if the radio was nothing more than a vehicle to enable the Wolfman to accomplish that goal? HAVE MERCY! only suggests such honorable motives - instead the author dwells on stereotypical indicators that suggest the Wolf was mostly after fortune and fame. The Wolfman is depicted as a relentless industry climber willing to do just about anything to claw his way to the top. HAVE MERCY! had me asking whatever happened to Robert Smith? Did he completely disappear whenever the Wolf came out to play? If HAVE MERCY! were an instruction manual on how-to develop a strong stage personality the author would succeed in covering the steps and listing the most sensational ingredients needed - but he'd fail to give a clue as to what makes the recipe work. The author wasn't able to make me feel the fire and the author didn't manage to make the Wolfman bleed. His pen barely scraped the surface. Had it dug deeper it may have gotten to the heart of the story. A good book gets the info, keeps the pace and tells an interesting story - but a great book goes beyond the expected by sharing keen insights and by giving the reader something valuable to hang onto long after the last page is read. HAVE MERCY! is a good book, not a great one. I walked away exhausted from a really wild journey - but still not certain as to who I'd shared it with. That's a shame because I'm certain there was more to the Wolfman than the world ever got a chance to know, or this author ever managed to uncover.

Have Mercy for sure!!
I read the book after he died. What a book!! The book takes the reader for a ride with a character that the reader will never forget!

The book will make a great movie and I hope that there is a movie made from the book.

I can not wait till the publisher starts publishing the book again because I will buy another one for sure.

HAVE MERCY!!