Rock Bottom: Dark Moments in Music Babylon (Hardcover)

~ Pamela Des Barres (Author), Paul Kemprecos (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

The best selling author of I'm With the Band, the classic groupie memoir, now writes from the relatively upright perspective of a magazine journalist. Pamela Des Barres recounts the classic tales of rock star overindulgence, and the book's own press material honestly bills it as a compendium of "horror stories." Rock Bottom contains something to offend just about anyone, but, strange to say, the book is actually quite readable as an appropriately skewed history of rock. Des Barres seems to have diligently done her research, talking to the principles of the mayhem, or, in many cases, to their survivors, and does deliver a series of pieces documenting some very dark corners of pop culture.

From Publishers Weekly

Having parlayed several heady years of rock groupiedom into her two dippy yet heartfelt memoirs (I'm with the Band and Take Another Little Piece of My Heart), Des Barres now offers a lightweight and largely predictable collection of rock's sorriest tales, interspersed with her own gushing opinions. American readers may be unfamiliar with the automobile crash of 1970s heartthrob Marc Bolan, or the slow and weirdly eccentric descent into drugs of Pink Floyd founder Syd Barrett, but Sex Pistol Sid Vicious's helter-skelter nosedive into heroin and self-inflicted pain is old stuff by now, likewise the brief lives and messy deaths of Jimi Hendrix and Jim Morrison. Des Barres's own amorous experiences should mean that the sections on John Bonham and Keith Moon, respectively the late drummers for Led Zeppelin and the Who, should crackle with authenticity, but they don't. Also, the author merely gets bogged down in a surfeit of biographical detail and hapless hero worship. While some of her subjects barely deserve their own chapters, the few scant notes in the introduction barely scratch the surface of the legendary badness that is Jerry Lee Lewis. A goodly portion of the hundred black-and-white photos feature thin, dissolute young men in partial stages of undress.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: St. Martin's Press (October 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312148534
• ISBN-13: 978-0312148539
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.4 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,028,436 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Don't bother...., July 6, 1999

By A Customer

A disappointing rock-n-roll- speed kills- quick thrills about Rock using the same format as Hollywood Babylon. Apart from a couple of shocking revelations ( to be found elsewhere if you are really that interested ) about Chuck Berry I found it the usual re-churned prose about Hendrix, Moon, Joplin - who deserve better... The photo of Sid Vicious used is a still from the awful film 'Sid and Nancy' and is actually Gary Oldman!

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Behind the scenes of Rock and Roll!, November 2, 1999

By A Customer

I found this to be a fascinating book and so did my girlfriend who borrowed it and enjoyed it so much she didn't want to give it back. It is so accurate and full of detail - real rock and rock history. The photos and the way it is written really evoked memories for me.. A powerful book worth reading.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A well-written book on rock sleaze and tragedy, November 30, 1998

By A Customer

This is a very well-written book on the sleazy and tragic stories in rock & roll history, but many of the stories told in this book reveal nothing new to those knowledgeable of rock history.

There are obligatory chapters on Jimi Hendrix, Keith Moon, Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison, Sid Vicious, John Bonham, and Kurt Cobain. Some of the stories are better-written than others.

The author should be commended for including stories slightly off the beaten path by not focusing only on the super-famous. There are chapters on people like Gram Parsons and Johnny Thunders, who would've easily been omitted from other books of the same nature.

Each chapter in "Rock Bottom" is a quick read with straightforward writing, and everything appears well-researched. Descriptions of the author's personal encounters with some of the subjects add an appealing, unique touch.

This is a must-read for anyone who believes in the myth that rock & roll excess is very glamorous.