Customer Reviews

The Rock And Roll Book Of The Dead

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Comfort begins his book with by claiming to present "for the first time... an impartial point of view committed not to adulation or defamation, but to the truth" and then proceeds to instead compose a mishmash of bits and pieces from a multitude of the seamier "tell-all" books that have been written about his subjects. This is a more than a bit disingenuous but is actually the least of this book's problems. There are an endless array of factual errors in this book that leave me believing that he knows little to nothing about the musicians that he is writing about. I will list only a few examples, as a thorough list would be enough for a book in itself. He claims Jimi Hendrix's mother died when he was ten and in the very next paragraph says she died when he was fifteen. In a brief aside about Brian Wilson, he errantly attributes a condition Wilson suffered from called tardive dyskinesia to LSD use in the '60s, when in fact it is well-documented that the condition (which Wilson suffered from in the '80s) was a result of antipsychotics prescribed to him by Dr. Eugene Landy (this condition is a well-known side effect of the specific medication that Wilson was prescribed). On one occasion he follows the phrase, "Lennon sang..." with lyrics actually sung by Paul McCartney. A couple of quotes in the Jerry Garcia section are attributed to "Grateful Dead manager Vince Welnick" (Welnick was the band's keyboard player, not manager). Like I said, these mistakes are but a few of dozens that this book is riddled with, and it makes it hard to take anything here very seriously. If you want "all the dirt" then there are plenty of books out there that are far more well written.

Not entirely without merit - this book did at least generate enough interest that I now want to read some legitimate material on a couple of the Seven, as Comfort so portentously calls them. The Lennon material I was already very familiar with, however, and I KNOW that portion is riddled with misinformation, which leads me to be sceptical of this rest of this sensationalist hash. Lennon did NOT write or sing Helter Skelter. He never wrote a song called Dream # 9 (#9 Dream, and it was not on the "Mind Games" album). At one point he quotes a Lennon lyric that I've NEVER encountered anywhere (it's possible I'm in the wrong here, but I don't think so), and he ascribes malicious intent to Yoko's sending John sailing off into the Bermuda Triangle, which can only mean she meant to murder him, right? I mean, but for the fact that the myth of the Bermuda Triangle has been de-bunked about a thousand times over, he was sent into certain death, wasn't he? Check again. Ships and planes routinely traverse the Bermuda Triangle daily, with no disproportionate mayhem ensuing.
I will say that he makes a soundly reasoned-out case for Courtney Love's involvment in Kurt Cobain's death, provided it's an undistorted account. I found this section fairly compelling, and would like to read more.
I think the book has more facts right than wrong, and I was interested enough to finish it. I just think Comfort saw, as can we, the dollar signs that guided him.

David Comfort creates a captivating narrative of seven ultra-famous rock stars that is hard to put down. Even though I already knew many of their stories, I learned (or re-learned) new details from reading the book. That said, I found some of his attempts to connect the seven with common threads a stretch. He also tends to stitch two or more disconnected lines of song lyric together to prove a point about the artist's thoughts, a questionable leap in some cases. Finally, there are enough minor lyrical misquotes attributed to the stars whose songs I know well (Lennon, Hendrix, Morrison) to make me wonder if the same isn't true of other details. Any book that claims to take a cold, hard look at lives filled with myth and legend should take extra care to get the facts straight -- and lyrics that support one's conclusion are facts. So, in the end, I was left with the same feeling that I get when watching a 'docu-drama': it's an interesting theory, but is it the truth?

This is not a book for fans that deify these artists or for the faint of heart. The truths revealed in this fascinating biographical montage of "terminal fame" are brutal. The author provides a careful journalistic deconstruction of their life histories from kids to rock icons, carefully exploring the metamorphosis that begins to occur as they become increasingly famous and, ultimately, the hermetic prison of fame, narcissism and drugs that culminates in their deaths. Because this material was amassed from a careful vetting of all the major sources,it is all the more shocking for its credibility. All of this serves as the necessary context for the author's "interludes." In these analytical chapters interspersed throughout the book, Mr. Comfort distinguishes himself by teasing out the deeper questions that once again bring these deeply flawed and driven artists back into the human fold and thus deserving of something more that a cursory dismissal as drug addled neurotics. After all, it is our individual hunger for recognition and some little piece of immortality that in the end elevates these artists to demigods. And then, just as in Greek Tragedy we watch with collective fascination as the Gods come crashing down to earth.

The Rock and Roll Book of the Dead is in a category of its own. All rolled into one, it is: a biography, a murder mystery, a rags-to-riches tale, a love and betrayal story, a rise-and-fall tragedy, and a psychological and sociological analysis. Remarkably, the author juggles all this in a seamless, dramatic narrative that is both entertaining (I couldn't put it down!) and enlightening (I learned more from this book than many other biographies combined). The research is meticulous and encyclopedic, the insights keen, and the writing brisk, vivid, and edgy. "Pop culture" titles are not well known for their depth, complexity, or literacy. This book is a rare exception. It approaches true literature. Truly... a must-read!

OUTSIDER PERSPECTIVE

I like this new book for its outsider perspective. It goes without saying that most star biographies are by insiders - family, friends, lovers, surviving band members, roadies. They might know the inside scoop, but how much are they willing tell? Understandably, they don't want to damage their star's legacy, hurt record sales, or offend other insiders by betraying embarrassing secrets. Some agree to collaborate with established writers for "authorized" biographies. But, the titles authorized by Yoko Ono or Courtney Love in particular, seem more like infomercials then biographies. Others seem more candid, but too often have an airbrushed quality.
The Rock and Roll Book of the Dead is a true outsider expose. The author obviously doesn't owe anything to anybody, and it shows. He goes after the truth doggedly and wherever it may lead. He gleans little known revelations and confessions from literally hundreds of sources, gathers together all these diamonds in the rough, and puts them together in explosive portraits of these musicians we have never seen before.
Too many other biographies give us rose-colored glasses to view the stars. This book gives us both a microscope and a telescope.

Providing a fresh, provocative portrait of just one of these individuals is daunting enough - but seven? Then weaving them together to create a single, haunting portrait of a driven, fatalistic artist? It seems like an impossibly ambitious undertaking. But the author succeeds with flying colors. I've not read anything else like it. The Rock and Roll Book of the Dead leaves you breathless.

In some ways, this book reminded me of Albert Goldman's much vilified (but bestselling) Elvis and Lennon biographies. It is brutally frank and iconoclastic. But with a difference. Caustic and even malicious, Goldman's biographies were hatchet-jobs. Comfort, on the other hand, writes with an enormous respect for his subjects, but does not try to gloss over or rationalize their B-sides.

John Lennon, for instance, could indeed be an all-you-need-is-love, give-peace-a-chance, imagine-no-possessions guru and crusader; on the other hand, he had a hateful, violent, materialistic side. Without condemnation or exaggeration, Comfort explores and details the dark sides of all the stars, along with the light, revealing the yin and the yang that often drive complicated, struggling creative artists like these. He shows how these dark sides became black holes with the pressure and isolation of superstardom. The themes here are especially timely in light of the Michael Jackson tragedy.

An excellent book, well written and enormously detailed. I recommend it highly.

With a title like "Rock & Roll Book of the Dead", one would expect a listing with info on all of rock music's many casualities. Instead it's a book on only a few of them.

The major omission is the Day the Music Died (February 3, 1959), which is the central event of rock & roll history (and I have studied rock history for a lot of years). The central and most important figure of rock music history, Buddy Holly, rates one paragraph. And then the author says the plane crashed in Kansas (a recent CD of Ritchie Valens' work claims the crash happened in Wisconsin). Where did this author do his "research"? The Beechcraft Bonanza crashed in a farm field near the towns of Clear Lake and Mason City, IOWA. I have read (and have copies of) newspaper reports from February 3 & 4, 1959, and have read a very excellent book called "The Day the Music Died" by Larry Lehmer.

David Comfort has taken on the immense task of condensing the biographies of seven of the world's arguably greatest rock artists. From the sixties of Janis Joplin and Jimi Hendrix to the seventies of Jim Morrison, John Lennon and Elvis Presley to the latest life and death of Kurt Cobain. They read like seven novella's with extensive foot notes and quotes from various people, most notably, the artist's themselves.

Many common threads of the artists are presented from childhood through to the end of their lives. Who could conceive that so many of these artists experienced traumatic childhoods, bouts of severe alcohol and drug abuse, sexual promiscuity and ambiguity all accompanied by severe low self-esteem. It seems that the brilliance in the artist lies in the pain and lack of a normalcy that drives them to stardom. It's hard to believe that some of the prophetic quotes are from the artists themselves.

"I've been dead a long time" - Jimi Hendrix.
"The more you live, the less you die" - Janis Joplin.
"Cancel my subscription to the resurrection" - Jim Morrison.
"My life is over. I'm a dead man!' - Elvis Presley.
"Everybody loves you when you're six feet in the ground" - John Lennon.
"I'd rather be hated for who I am, than loved for who I am not" - Kurt Cobain.
"Fame is the soul eater" - Jerry Garcia

Particularly fascinating is the life of Janis Joplin. From a poor family in Port Arthur, Texas to being a huge success at the time of her death, Joplin's life is a daily tragedy. She is a good example of the artist with no self esteem that rises to stardom with the accompaniment of heavy drug and alcohol use. Sexual promiscuity is just another drug. Family and friends tore her apart and her basic need of simply wanting to be loved is heart-breaking.

Kurt Cobain, on the other end of this timeline, also suffers the same struggles as the other six, particularly similar to Joplin, in that his sexuality is never truly defined, his childhood was marred with abuse and the drugs and alcohol both fueled his talent and destroyed it. Of particular interest is his marriage to Courtney Love, who unlike so many of the other artists love interests or partners, is truly evil. There is no guessing or speculation here. Comfort provides well documented facts. Cobain's story is one of the most interesting and bizarre. Was it a suicide or homicide?

All seven of these artists share the same emotional problems, bad upbringings, drugs, poor relationships, abuse from managers and friends, that it's mind boggling to read each story, much less seven. David Comfort has supplied an enormous amount of information and delivers it in a thorough and fast-paced manner . You won't be able to put this book down.