Product Description

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #5510 in Books
• Published on: 2005-10-28
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 320 pages

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

"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

About the Author
Pamela Des Barres is the author of Rock Bottom and Take Another Little Piece of My Heart. She has written for Cosmopolitan, The New York Times, and Rolling Stone, appeared on Geraldo, Jenny Jones, Larry King Live, Oprah, and numerous MTV and VH-1 specials, and was the subject of an E! True Hollywood story.

Customer Reviews

The literary equivalent of a bad hangover
Reading this book reminded me of that enervating feeling I once felt, circa 1979 or so, during a midnight viewing of Led Zeppelin's "The Song Remains the Same." It was a flash of horror in which my excitement over the rock n' roll life (I was in a band at that time, my head filled with ambitions and pretensions) gave way to a feeling of aimlessness: What is with all this cheesy medeival imagery? How come these guys don't look cool, but just scrawny and strung-out? Do I really need to hear an eight-minute drum solo? What the hell have I been doing wasting my time with all this?

Des Barres' book left me with a similar feeling of the blahs: some books make it seem like there was more to the 1960s-70s rock culture than previously realized. This book makes one feel like there was a lot less.

I picked up the book hoping that it would bring the sights, sounds, and philosophy of a unique time back to life. It didn't. Despite having had dalliances with titanic figures ranging from Mick Jagger to Jimmy Page to Gram Parsons to Don Johnson, the author conveys very little of their artistry. In fact, she rarely tries to discuss or describe their music at all: passages on what makes a Mick Jagger or a Jim Morrison sexy sound as though they could have been written about any high school bad boy, musician or no.

And indeed, that adolescent attitude pervades this book. The book begins with the author entering a boy-crazy period in high school, and is related largely through excerpts from her diary, replete with CAPITAL LETTERS and exclamation marks(!!!!!!) about how COOL this guy is and how WHEN HE KISSED ME I THOUGHT I WAS GOING TO FAINT!! Blecch. Most of the remainder of the book has a similar tone, merely transplanted to a larger stage.

The effect is more trivializing than anything else. I had hoped this book would reveal something about this woman and her ability to connect with these creative figures. Instead, this book made it sound like her life was nothing more than a series of hedonistic distractions, draped over a nothingness. The book makes the reader feel not as though her generation was liberated from the hidebound ways of the previous ones, having moved on to higher, more exciting pleasures, but rather that no more original ideas existed in her life or in her head than finding the next naughty guy to sleep with.

That's perhaps a bit harsh: she does deliver a couple of winning passages in the book, one on the excitement of a Led Zeppelin performance, another on her less-than-stellar acting debut. She also managed to convince me that she had an aesthetic value or two, specifically in advocating for the Burrito Brothers' injection of folk/country influences into the psychadelic scene.

But the lingering images of the book are the downers: the poor three-year-old son of irresponsible substance-abusing-party-addicts who let him plummet to his death through a skylight -- barely interrupting their partying lifestyle for a few months. The look of scorn and contempt on John Lennon's face, when witnessing the author's pathetic attempts to put meaning in her life by flinging herself at the band. I didn't find myself judging the author so much as feeling badly for her. Well, I *did* judge her writing, I suppose, and not favorably.

It's not a terrible book; it's too light a read to be that. But if you are looking for a book to make you feel that the 1960s were a time fraught with meaning and revolutionary philosophy, you'd be well advised to avoid this one.

Entertaining, fun, and informative!!
I got this book for Christmas from my mother, who knows that I have a great love for classic rock and roll. I couldn't wait to read it, and it did not disappoint in the least. This book wasn't a tell all, but a look into what it was like to be part of the "scene".
There were parts I would have liked to have heard a little more about...she seems to skim over being on the road with a simple, "I spent the next five days on the road with Zeppelin." Kind of would liked to have heard a little more about that. But the stories that she does share are amazing.
She gives us great insight into some of the most amazing artists of our time. This is a must read for anyone with a love of rock and roll and the 60's. I can't wait to read her other books.

I'm with the band - book review
I was disappointed with this book by Pamela Des Barres. It was predictable and quite boring. I managed halfway through the novel already and have lost interest.
Even though she was able to meet many famous musicians throughout her life, you already knew she would use sex to get attention from them and then they would just move on to the next groupie. Nothing new.