Customer Reviews

Take a Walk on the Dark Side: Rock and Roll Myths, Legends, and Curses

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

After listening to author Patterson on Coast To Coast A.M.,
I was sufficiently intrigued to get this book. And I am SO GLAD that I did!

This book is really a standout from other Rock bios I'd previously read, primarily due to the SUPERB investigative skills of Patterson! He literally leaves no stone unturned
in uncovering intriguing and often frightening "connections" in the deaths of noted Rock icons-connections that defy simple explanation or coincidence.

Patterson combines fascinating and well researched information with his uncanny abilities as a "born storyteller". Unlike so many other books of this genre, I found myself enthralled by his literary style:warm, engaging and GENUINELY affecting. His sincere love of the music(and respect for the artists who create it)comes shining through in each paragraph!

BE WARNED:once you pick this book up, you WON'T want to put it down til it's over! It's like a TERRIFIC mystery novel, but-as the saying goes-truth REALLY IS stranger than fiction!

I did not purchase this book on Amazon, but at the local bookstore and just by reading the cover notes. So I did not read any reviews before buying. I wish I did though. The book really is not that deep at all, the writer sticks to some main bands and almost everything written requires a huge stretch of imagination - and I am not really into that.

Lots of factual problems and poor writing.

Bottom line is the book contains - 33% Fact, 33% Rumor, and 33% complete rubbish made up by the author. The remaining 1% is the paper the book is printed on (for the mathmaticians out there)

Couple of examples below.

I'm a big fan of Cheap Trick and they are mentioned in the book as being an Ohio band (Wow!). If such a simple fact is missed, how can I NOT think most everything else I am reading is garbage? I think most people know Cheap Trick are from the Chicago area (Rockford to be exact). And if anyone did not know that fact it is pretty damn easy to find out as they flaunt it everywhere and the information can be found on practically any article or written piece on the band (their latest CD is even called "Rockford" - but after the book was written, however it still shows that Cheap Trick is ROCKFORD!). Also the writer mentions a rumor that Cheap Trick got their name from a ouji board - There are many possible stories behind how they got their name, but never heard that one and not sure any fan of the band has either. Trick is probably the farthest band away from occult type activities and given the author's scope in the book it seems so illogical to even slip that one in there. It is so out of place given the bands he is writing about in that section.

The Janice Joplin story said the band was worried that Janice did not show up to recording sessions the next morning so went to her hotel room to check on her. However, in the next sentence she was pronounced dead at 1:40am. Wow, the next morning starts early for those guys! I don't believe it, I can't believe that Janice Joplin had a scheduled recording session to start between 12:01am and the time she was pronounced dead at 1:40am. A lot needs to fit into that window of time.

There are countless other examples. Cool concept, but just not put together well at all. 2 dimly lit stars.

R. Gary Patterson's book, "Take A Walk On The Dark Side - Rock And Roll Myths, Legends, And Curses", interested me enough just from viewing the title. I've always been interested in myths, legends, and the occult anyway.

Getting into it, I found that much of the content was quite far-fetched, a real stretch of the imagination to say the least. Nevertheless, it was entertaining all the same.

It didn't take long for me to notice the book's problems. The professionalism commonly displayed by reputable publishers was lacking profusely. It appeared throughout that they didn't bother taking the time to edit, for errors in the text were plentiful. Inaccuracies don't always bother me, though, as grammatical mistakes are often imperceptible within a good read. However, the style of the book was annoying in places. The author often repeated information as if it were never written before. In other words, instead of throwing in something like: `as I had mentioned earlier', or, `referring back to', the author merely reiterated throughout.

I did find the subject matter on the Buddy Holly curse, Robert Johnson, The Allman Brothers Band, Aleister Crowley, and Jimmy Page and Led Zeppelin to be quite interesting, even though I knew most of it already. You'd have to have recently climbed out from beneath a rock and heard your first rock and roll song to find these stories unfamiliar. However, the information on numerology, especially that of John Lennon and the number 9, is fascinating. But most of the crazy legends and curses can be taken with a grain of salt, because the author often gives the impression he had way too much time on his hands. The endless section on Jim Morrison could be abbreviated, as it seems the whole concept of the book is forgotten and overshadowed by what turns into a Morrison biography.

I often thought the author attempted to convince the reader of the legitimacy, or even the existence, of much of the content, even though the opposite was implied. But when telling the tale of the phallic symbol found on early covers (keep in mind I'm talking about the VHS *cover* here, not the actual film) of Disney's `The Little Mermaid', he denounced the finding as untrue, a figment of imagination. I've seen a few old VHS covers of 'The Little Mermaid', and I know he's wrong; the symbol is there in plain sight (not on newer covers of the same). It's kind of ironic that after so much hyperbole he then criticizes something that's actually true. (In fact, in Snope's website, the cover's phallic symbol is there for anyone to view.) Though this isn't much, and it has nothing to do with the book's musical content, the moral of the story is that one shouldn't believe in a myth, legend, or curse, until one knows for a fact it's true. The rest makes for fine fiction. This book is proof of that.

All things considered, I love reading about rock and roll and its hype. Consider the content to be all in good fun, because that's what it is.

By Jackson Griffith, Sacramento News and Review

As a lifelong armchair thanatologist, I typically relish the arrival of any book that delves into the shadowy world of celebrity death, especially if it is the result of stupid human tricks, delving into the occult or, better still, a combination of both. So, it was with mouthwatering glee that I tore into this 278-page trade paperback, subtitled "Rock and Roll Myths, Legends, and Curses," only to realize that its author is no Nick Tosches and that the dead, from Robert Johnson through Kurt Cobain, deserve better than some hack job that's culled from other sources and then stitched together with dull, moralistic writing. While reading the laughable section on backmasking, I nearly tossed this into the loo. When people exit with style, shouldn't their epitaphs read with a little style, too?

Having heard the author on a radio talk show, I felt motivated to buy this book, which offered to tell stories of the "dark side" of rock and roll, a chronicle of the myths and tragedies that have become part of the history of the music industry. What I got was a book that was filled with a lot of interesting facts but was only intermittently well-written.

The premise of the book - only half-believed by the author himself - seems to be that the creation of rock was somehow tied to a pact with Satan, resulting in a curse that afflicted the business, resulting in death and tragedy for many artists. The principal character in this story is Robert Johnson, who supposedly sold his soul for musical talent and eventually became one of the progenitors of rock and roll. As the genre developed, the deaths started occurring, beginning with "the day the music died" when Buddy Holly, Richie Valens and the Big Bopper all died in a plane crash. This led to a string of deaths that were all tied together by dark coincidences. Besides Johnson, the other principal character in this saga of rock is a satanist named Alisteir Crowley who rose to prominence in the early 1900s and later had influence on some of the biggest names in music.

For the most part, this book doesn't really assert these myths are facts, just a conspiracy theory developed by rock fans piecing together random facts to find patterns where none truly exist. Nonetheless, the author Patterson doesn't spend much time refuting many of these myths (although he does question the truth of some of them, especially the one on backward tracks) even if they are presented in a somewhat skeptical manner.

Patterson also is not the greatest of writers, with a tendency to lean on the same words over and over again. The word "ironic" appears around once every other page or so, and not always appropriately; it sometimes seems he uses it as a synonym for another overused word, "coincidental." Is this a great book? No, but it is a good one, a strong three starts, filled with enough entertaining facts to offset the weaknesses in presentation. If you're interested in the myths of rock history, this is a recommended read.

I was hoping this would be more about the artists and their lifestyles related to the occult. However it went very deep into explanations of the occult with just enough references to the artists to make the connection. The author is very well educated in the occult.

Several years ago, I took a chance and interviewed R. Gary Patterson on my radio show about his book, " The Walrus Was Paul " " The Great Beatle Death Clues of 1969."

The reaction I got from my listeners was unprecedented. People called to complain saying they were late for work because they refused to leave their cars until the interview was over.

Time has passed and we lost touch. Then I saw that Gary had written a new book so I took chance number two and purchased it. Wow, " Take A Walk On The Dark Side " by R. Gary Patterson, is a chapter by chapter compilation of weird and spooky Rock and Roll myths and legends, warnings and harbingers, premeditated and organic, gruesome deaths and peaceful endings, coincidences and once in a lifetime tall tales.

They're all wrapped up in a dandy book that can serve as common ground for young people and their elders, who have long shared and passed along in urban legend fashion over the past 50 years ( save Robert Johnson ) of these person to person whispered rock secrets.

These are the tales my friends and I spoke about in the dark, in hushed breaths, blankets over our heads with the ghosts of electricity howling by flashlight onto the bones of our faces. Back then, rock and roll itself was the mysterious force that separated, divided and distinguished my generation from that of our parents.

Until Gary Patterson came along, there was no one to represent the interests of this musically macabre constituency. The funereally fascinated can take ( a still beating ) heart because " Take A Walk On the Dark Side," surely will be their cup of blood.

For me, the chilling thrill of finally reading about tales that have heretofore only existed as the shrouded starless spectral secrets of rock's far more intriguing underside is triumphant, if overdue validation that my friends and I have not been the only ones interested in this saturnine subject.

At this point I think it necessary to address what seems to be a misconception of some of my fellow reviewers. It appears to me that the objective of the book is to assemble many of the more mysterious and compelling stories from the " dark side " of rock and roll and bring them into the light of day. Gary Patterson has done just that.

Reviewers mrliteral and HDBboth expressed dismay that the confirmation or dismissal of these tales is sometimes missing.

I searched through the book after I read their reviews to see if Patterson ever stated that that was his goal.

Looking for confirmation or debunking? Forget it. Nowhere is it stated that he has set out to debunk these stories - what fun would that be?

If that's what you want, take a trip to snopes, which would have been the correct thing before bringing up the Little Mermaid minister's phallus legend. Our reviewer claims it's true because he saw it with his own eyes.

Snopes claims that to be totally untrue.

However, if what you crave is an extended visit to rock and roll's ever enthralling " dark side, " R. Gary Patterson's " Take a Walk On the Dark Side " Rock and Roll Myth Legends and Curses is lurking in the shadows for you.

Can't wait for the film or TV shows to follow.

First of all, I have eagerly awaited this book since its release in July. I was NOT disappointed. I have listened to the author many times on Coast to Coast AM and he is the only guest that can keep my attention for the full three to four hour span of the interview. Several times, I have been very groggy the next morning at work, but this was a small price to pay for the entertaiment. value.

The book is written in a warm conversational style that is very compelling. The stories are fascinating and I can assure you that once started you will not be able to put the book down until you have completed it. The "decades long run of bad luck" for many of the bands makes us realise that nothing just happens on its own. I especially enjoyed the sections on the Buddy Holly Curse and "The Club". It is amazing the number of peformers who died in their twenty-seventh year.

After reading some of the reviews given here, I thought that I may have a reading comprehension problem. This work is not a listing of rock and roll obituaries (thank God) and I found no evidence of moralising on the role of backward tracks. I found a very objective look at backward masking that included a great deal of humor by the author. I remember the early 1980s when religion clashed with the rock industry. Those accounts are given objectively in the work and I suppose some individuals have formed an opinion (such as the phallas reference in "The Little Mermaid." I slowed the frames down and the referenced section is clearly the minister's knee). Obviously, this is the proper role of the urban legend, and this is another strong point of the work in that the reader can choose to let his interpretation continue after being presented with opposing facts. It is all in fun but sometimes the ultimate truth is NOT in the ear of the individual but the uniformed listener.

The writing style is very engaging and is not like the typical rock history that reads as historical fiction or is as dry as an encyclopedia reference. As readers, we form our own opinions. I suppose my definition of a "hack' is someone who attacks a work and clearly misses the purpose of the work itself. Maybe that is what is wrong with the media today, but we can only hope that a volume of rock and roll obitiaries makes it way to a bookstore soon--but don't bet on it--it's been done and overdone.

If you ever liked "The Twilight Zone", "Thriller", and "Night Gallery", and if you ever enjoyed sitting around a campfire at night listening to ghost stories and tales of the unexplained, or if you'd like to be the life of the party in your knowledge of fascinating rock trivia, this book is for you. As one reviewer said of "Hellhounds on Their Trail", "you'll never listen to the music the same way again!"

I found most of the ironic and frightening tales within this book to be quite entertaining, though I had heard most of them before. Television and the media, especially MTV and VH1, have been all over this material for years. It was still fun to read about them all again, contained in one short volume. Though the book was a bit amateurish, grammatically speaking, the writer at least knew how to amuse, especially by making mountains out of molehills. It's all coincidences mostly, of course. I found it interesting that a reviewer had brought up the phallic symbol seen on old copies of Disney's `Little Mermaid', a legend the writer discounts. I've seen it too, as a family member had shown it to me a while back. They say it's unintentional (though I don't know how it could be), but it truly does exist on those old videocassette covers. It's just one of those comical things in life. This book is too.

I was so excited to read this book, I found it at an amazing price, and it's about music! I got through the first 25 pages and had to walk away. I felt like a high school English teacher grading a research paper. The author comes off as trying too hard to sound like a REAL author and spitting out facts and things he heard throughout life. Blah blah blah....I would suggest finding a book that doesn't determine "legends" by the number of times the author has heard the story in a lifetime. This was not entertaining at all...now I know why it was sold for such a small price.