I'm With the Band: Confessions of a Groupie

Rating:
Summary: AN XCELLENT ROCK MEMOIR
Review: Pamela was there...this is a great book, a cool read and no BS...highly recommended for all classic rock fans. The book is fascinating and is one of the best accounts I've found that describe the Doors and Led Zeppelin from a close up point of view. If you enjoyed "Almost Famous" - you'll appreciate Pamela's book.

I was pretty mad when my friend lost my copy, but I'm gonna get another one!

Rating:
Summary: An Intensely Personal Piece of History
Review: The biography served two purposes for me personally: it helped me to understand an era I am too young to have lived through, and it helped me to understand women better.

Pamela Des Barres, the author, was a post-feminism woman in a pre-feminism world. Do not be intimidated by the title and the concept -- this is not an endless parade of sizzling, raunchy sex scenes. If anything, you'll be whipped by Pam's emotions and handcuffed to her heart.

It gives a rare look at a person who simply bares her soul, and that is what is compelling to anyone, even if they do not know who The Who is. It is quite possible that this book will stand the test of time for its glossy look at gritty humanity. It could very well be retained in the collective consciousness as a book that is sufficiently well-written to trick future generations of readers into accidentally reading about this moment in history, much in the same way The Great Gatsby still unwittingly educates its readers about the 1920's (only, of course, this is non-fiction).

My main complaint about the book is that it was written in a linear but sporadic group of stream-of-consciousness scenes, and often left me wondering if I as a reader was seeing the whole forest through the trees. The characters were adequately bizarre, but many of them in roughly the same way, and without much depth. For instance, after reading the book, I could not tell you very much about each individual person in the GTO's, the girl group around whom much of this book is loosely centered. Such are the perils of writing accurate but concise non-fiction autobiographies, however, and to her credit, Pamela does not hold back her own thoughts and feelings to any noticeable extent, and that is the glue that ultimately holds this book together.

As the ancient Greeks noted, it is almost a sin to imprison something as sacred and free as speech (or song) into something as cold and confining as the written word. That thought echoed through my mind over and over again as I read this book. For one thing, sex and emotions seem so sadly trite when simply written on a page. On a second, much more frustrating level, there was no sound track to go with this rock and roll story. Some of the very many songs that Pam quotes in the book, I simply did not know the tunes for, so while it was almost as good to just accept that they meant something to her and to just let it go at that, it was not quite as good. In order to fully appreciate this book, I think it was important to understand how these rock stars were able to drive people to do such compelling things, and sadly that cannot be grasped without the use of sound, although this is certainly no fault of Pamela's. It was nice, for instance, to read in the couple of interludes that this book devotes to George Harrison that he was more than just a keeper of gaudy, overpriced eBay auction material, but without hearing him live, the reader can never know for sure how much more (although listening to his records is of course helpful). Her impressive accomplishment here is that even with the use of nothing more than the written word, Pamela keeps a small but genuine piece of his essence alive, along with a host of other music figures and friends from that era.

In short, I thought this would be a book about sex, drugs, and rock'n'roll. Instead, I got history, humanity, and Pamela.

Thank you, Pamela!

Rating:
Summary: PAMELA ROCKS!!!
Review: This is one of the best rock n' roll books I have ever read. I'm a huge fan of 60's 70's music and have read ton's of books. Pamela really captures the times. She was a free sprit who grew up in LA in the late 60's. She went to the local clubs and saw alot of shows, met and dated guys in bands, she had a blast!! I really enjoyed the stories about, Jimi Hendrix, Jim Morrison, Noel Redding, Mick Jagger, Gram Parrsons, etc.. She writes straight from the heart, and has a great sense of humor. Most of the book was taken from her dairy. It has a intimate feeling as if she is sharing her life with a close friend. She lived her dreams and wasn't afriad to do what she wanted. Rock on Pamela!