Although I vaguely noted the news stories when this band of idiots went on the road in 1993, I only ran across this book by chance three days ago. I read it in less than two. Although the whole idea of authors forming a rock band and doing a tour sounds pretty stupid and self-indulgent, the results were not only good for them, but surprisingly moving and inspiring for anyone who might read this book. I'm sure I enjoyed it no less than the two previous reviewers, but I'm a tough grader, so I gave it four stars.I always knew Stephen King and Dave Barry were regular guys I would just love to meet and have a beer with, but what a shock to find out about the lovely, funny, human sides of Amy Tan, Barbara Kingsolver, Al Kooper (the musical director of this motley crew), Dave Marsh (rock critic and editor) and others!
I laughed 'til I cried over Barry's chapter. Everyone has his or her funny moments, but the chapters by Tan, Kingsolver, and Marsh are refreshingly touching and vulnerable, too.
Best quotes:
--King calls himself "a kind of Norman Rockwell version of Freddy Krueger"
--Kooper: "The mere fact that you're reading this right now is a testimony to the selfishness of twenty-three bored people."
--Roy Blount, Jr.: being on stage in a rock and roll band is "like being inside a forest fire that you're helping, however modestly, to spread"
--music critic Joel Selvin: "Most people seem to think critics are as useful as tits on a priest."
--Barry: "Our groupie budget is kinda low, so we're not getting top quality -- at times, they get a little angry at us and throw their walkers at us and stuff like that."
--Barry again: "...you can imagine how excited I was when I discovered Buddy Holly. Here was a guy who had glasses at least as flagrant as mine; a guy who did NOT look like a teen heartthrob, but more like the president of the Audiovisual Club, the kid who always ran the projector for educational films with titles like _The Story of Meat_."
--Tabitha King: "Greil Marcus informed me Southerners think the (...) they call coffee is coffee."
--Kingsolver: "...we all knew no amount of rehearsal could ever make us into a first-rate, or even cut-rate, or irate, or reprobate, rock and roll band."
There are tons of photos, black and white AND color (the ones of Tan in her black leather, chains, and whip for "These Boots Are Made For Walkin'" and of Marsh in a white prom dress, spattered with ketchup and armed with a plastic knife to attack Stephen King during his showstopping rendition of "Teen Angel" are priceless), all shot by Tabitha King.
The book ends on a weak note: Ms. King is neither the writer nor the humorist that the others are, and Michael Dorris's fable-like reverie just kind of makes you go "huh?"
I'm kicking myself repeatedly for not buying the Rock Bottom Remainders video I saw in a cheapo rack at a Fred Meyer supermarket in Coos Bay, Oregon some years ago....
