Book Review #19: Red: My Uncensored Life in Rock

 Red: My Uncensored Life in Rock (2011)

I'm a huge fan of Sammy Hagar. Now, if you had ask me during the Van Halen days when Roth and the boys were at their Apex if I would ever accept anyone, let alone Sammy as the new lead singer I would have told you to "fuck off". Come to think of it, that's exactly what I did say.

But ever since 5150 dropped, I have been a fan of his. The guy just brings so much raw energy to whatever he does and on top of that he gives some of the best interviews out there and is a likable guy. After reading the excerpt of Red: My Uncensored Life in Rock in the pages of Rolling Stone magazine a few months ago, I couldn't wait to get my hands on this book. Reading those few pages about his time with the Van Halen brothers had me convinced this was going to be the greatest Rock Bio of all time.

That was not the case here. The book is a very good and easy read. But it's far from perfect. It starts off rather slow. It's not until we get into his Montrose days does the book kick it up a notch. But once it gets into the Van Halen years or more to the point of when Sammy dishes on all things Eddie and Alex does this book go to a completely different level. You will find yourself turning pages as fast as you can. This is the fastest I have ever read any book. Less than a day. Sheesh!

Me and my buddy Rich (should I have phrased it like that? It sounds like I'm talking about a drummer. Haha.) have been talking about Van Halen and all the fucked up things in and out of this band for years. So this book is like reading what we have always been talking about for the last 10 years. This is good stuff right here and will have you looking at Eddie in a completely different light.

Unfortunately these are the only high points of the book. There's plenty here to keep you busy. But I was disappointed that there wasn't more to the story about his tour with David Lee Roth. I knew there was some bad blood between the two out on the road and I was hopeful that we would get all the dirt once and for all. Sadly, that doesn't happen here.

After such a huge, thrilling ride for pretty much the entire book, it goes flat at the end. Not a whole lot was said about Chickenfoot at all to close it out which is kind of disappointing. 

Having said that, I can absolutely recommend this book if your wanting to hear some juicy details about the VH boys.

Rating: 4 Stars out of 5

Review by Chiprocks1

Red Tour Promo #1

Book Review #18: Queen: The Ultimate Illustrated History of the Crown Kings of Rock

Queen: The Ultimate Illustrated History of the Crown Kings of Rock (2009)

Queen: The Ultimate Illustrated History of the Crown Kings of Rock is definitely a labor of love for those that put the book together. There are tons of pics that I had never seen before till this bad boy came out. The book is exactly what the title claims itself to be, but it's so much more than that.

Most coffee table books are all pictures and nothing else, which you end up "reading" inside of 30 minutes and then your done with it. But The Ultimate Illustrated History is both a picture book as well as a retelling of the history of Queen, with input from Brian May, Roger Taylor and John Deacon. And there are a handful of testimonials from the likes of Rob Halford and Slash just to name a few that expound on the greatness of Queen and what the band means to them.

Along with the recounting of their history, there are discography reviews of all their studio albums. Yes, even the one with Paul Rodgers is included. The only thing that's really missing from the book are the insights into the music videos they made. It would have been nice to hear some stories about behind the scenes stuff here. Only a couple of videos are mentioned and not much is said about those in great detail. Oh well.

I highly recommend this book to any Queen fan and non-fan. There's a lot to take from the book and it will take you awhile to read through it. FYI, the book is heavy. This can be used as a doorstop or a destructive weapon. Your choice.

Rating: 5 Stars out of 5

Review by Chiprocks1

Book Review #17: Is This The Real Life? The Untold Story Of Queen

Is This The Real Life? The Untold Story Of Queen (2011)

Is This The Real Life fails to live up to my expectations. Once again I fell victim to reading a Biography from someone not in the band and paid for it with sheer boredom. The thing about books like this, especially coming on the heels of a wide assortment of other like-minded Bio's about a group like Queen, is that once the well has been tapped, the latest author then has the task of coming up with "new" stuff to justify reading his book about a band that has be written about countless times.

This book falls in line with Bon Scott's Bio that I recently read. If you checked out that review, then you have a pretty good idea of what Real Life is like when it comes to reading a bloated book. Too much time is devoted to stuff that Queen fans or just readers in general really don't need to know or even want to know.

It's unfortunate that authors feel the need to pad pages and make a book bigger than it really is. There is nothing new or revealing here. This was a waste of my time.

I do not recommend this to anyone. Don't believe the hype surrounding this book. All the 4-5 Star reviews you may find out there in internet-land are from people that will give better reviews simply for being a fan of the band. I'm the biggest fan here, but even I know a terrible read when I come across one. 

I need to get rid of this bad taste in my mouth and read Queen: The Ultimate Illustrated History Of The Crown Kings Of Rock.

Rating: 2 1/2 Stars out of 5

Review by Chiprocks1

Book Review #16: The Baseball

The Baseball: Stunts, Scandals, and Secrets Beneath the Stitches (2011)

I like to think that I know a lot about Baseball and I do. But I don't know everything. The history of the game is well over 100 years old and is next to impossible to know everything out there about the game. This is the reason why I gave The Baseball a chance. It seemed like it was going to open up a Pandora's box of more never-before-heard-of tidbits about the game.

Well, there were quite a few things that I had never heard of till I read this book. But there were also plenty of things that were rehashed given the fact that some of the stories were well-known and most baseball fans would have already known about prior to this book.

This book did not live up to what I thought it was going to be. It started off one way and then turned into something else all together. The first four chapters to me is where the fun is. All the stories here are extremely engaging even if you have heard of them before. After this, it's all down hill. The rest of the book is devoted to the making of a Baseball and how it's put together. And then it gets to what the book is really about: Ballhawkers.

Ballhawkers are those people that are at games for the sole purpose of getting as many baseballs as humanely possible, be it during batting practice or snagging foul balls and home runs during the actual games. Once I realize that the best part of the book was already long gone, it dawned on me that this book is nothing more than self congratulatory "how to become a successful" ballhawker. I say self congratulatory because it's really about the author Zack Hample bragging about how many baseball's he has snagged over his lifetime. Hell, there is a section devoted entirely to other Top 10 Ballhawkers in a Q & A section. This was just a little redundant and unnecessary and a waste of time. This and a lot of other useless things are in the book for the sole purpose of padding the pages as much as possible to make the book "legit" in size. 

A good chunk of the book goes into the ins and outs of where to position yourself for the balls as well as what Baseball parks are the best and worst for ballhawkers. One section of the book, Zack completely dropped the ball in regards to the history of Commemorative Baseballs through the years regarding stamps and stitches from the All-Star games,World Series, Playoffs and other special occasions  He touts how cool and different these balls are from regular season balls, and yet, all the photos are in black and white. Dude, if your going to have a chapter on this, at least have color pictures to back up what it is your going ga-ga over.

I would only recommend this book to those that are already ballhawkers. Nope, I wouldn't recommend it to them either. Check it out at the Library for just the first four chapters only.

Rating: 2 1/2 Stars out of 5

Review by Chiprocks1

Book Review #15: Game Of Shadows

Game Of Shadows (2007)

Game Of Shadows is about BALCO and the impact that it had on the sporting world at large from Baseball (Barry Bonds, Jason Giambi, Gary Sheffield, Benito Santiago, etc...) to Track and Field (Marion Jones) to Football (Bill Romanowski). But the main crux of this book focused squarely on Barry Bonds, detailing his steroid use starting in 1999.

If Hollywood ever decides to make a movie about BALCO, this is the book they will no doubt use as it's blue print. I for one would love to see it happen because this book was a gripping, fantastic read. I could not put this book down for one second and that's saying a lot since I knew pretty much the entire sordid story before even reading it.

With all the knowledge of what's been happening in real life concerning BALCO, the more I read the book, the more I devoured what was happening in the pages here. Knowing how it all ends, it was fascinating watching, er...reading about this group of people and associates that comprised BALCO as they were building their house of cards. A very shaky house of cards at that. It amazes me that the house didn't collapse sooner than it did with Victor Conte at the helm. He is nothing more than a spoiled little child, crying out for attention. He never amounted to anything in life so the only way he could feel like "someone" was to hang on to celebrities.

I can recommend this if you want an excellent read that will have you flipping page after page, even if it is "incomplete" in that Barry Bonds was never convicted in a court of law or that the book came out before his assault on Hank Aaron's all-time Home Run record which is not documented within'.

On a personal note not related to the book itself, I think Barry Bonds is a dick and an asshole and does not deserve to go into the Hall Of Fame. Period. Even though he was never convicted, I (along with everyone else that doesn't live in San Francisco) think he was on the Juice and tarnished the game of Baseball that will take years to recover from. Fuck you Barry! And that goes for you too McGwire and Sosa!

Since I am on a rant...why stop now? Pete Rose....you suck!

Rant over. :)

Rating: 5 Stars out of 5

Review by Chiprocks1

Book Review #14: Maybe I'll Pitch Forever

Maybe I'll Pitch Forever (1962 First Print/1992 Reprint)

For awhile I had been looking to find a book on Satchel Paige that I could read. But there were a lot of books out there to choose from, but I could never pick one . It wasn't until I read Buck O'Neil's book that I settled on Maybe I'll Pitch Forever. If this book was good enough for Buck, then it was good enough for me.

As for Maybe I'll Pitch Forever, this pretty much tells it like it is from the man himself: Leroy "Satchel" Paige. It's your typical biography detailing his life from his days as a rambunctious kid to his time in the Negro Leagues to his eventual call up to the Major Leagues. Throughout the book as you listen in on Satch telling his stories about his barnstorming days, players like Josh Gibson and Jackie Robinson, you come away with a better understanding of the man and what he did for the game of Baseball.

There are a handful of players that I wish that I could have gotten the chance see to play: Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Joe DiMaggio, Ted Williams, Walter Johnson, Jackie Robinson, Josh Gibson and of course Satchel Paige. 

This book was pretty fascinating to read and was hard to put down once I started the book. It's quite engaging and funny at times. But you have to know something about the man himself. He was a showman of epic proportions and had a tendency to exaggerate his accomplishments during his playing days for the benefit of the writers that were following him at the time. Don't get me wrong, he was every bit as good as the legend tells it. But you will find yourself wondering from time to time about some of the stories he tells. But this doesn't take away from the thrill of reading about him though.

One last thing I have to point out before I wrap this up, it's still mind boggling to think that Satch at the age of 59, pitched 3 innings in the Big Show. Sheesh! And THAT story is true! :)

Rating: 4 Stars out 5

Review by Chiprocks1

Book Review #13: Vindicated

Vindicated: Big Names, Big Liars and the Battle to Save Baseball (2008)

I really didn't have a desire to read this because based on his ego from his first book Juiced and the title of his follow up Vindicated, I knew what was in store. Sure enough, Jose Canseco's ego is out of control. I don't know who has a bigger ego, Gene Simmons or this meathead. I will let Gene slide since he can actually back up his achievements. Jose, not so much. How can you really take this guy serious when he says that "Cal Ripkin has played for a thousand years, but does he have more home runs than me?" 

Dude. Stop embarrassing yourself. Comparing yourself and saying your better than Ripkin is just asinine on your part.

I do believe that Canseco should have called this book "Nah nah nah nah, I was right and you were wrong, so you can go fuck yourself for doubting me". This pretty much sums up the entire book in a nutshell. The reason why this book exist is obviously to cash in on the first one by also promising to name even more players here: Roger Clemens and A-Rod. 

These two guys are the only reason why this book was eventually turned into a book. The rest of Vindicated is a rehash of Juiced and stroking his ego ad nauseum. The book was a pretty fast read, but not very entertaining though. If you want a drinking game while reading this one, then I have a drinking game just for you. Every time Jose mentions his achievements in baseball regarding his 40-40 club, down a shot of hard whiskey. By the end of Chapter 4, you will be fucked up. By the end of the book, you will be dead if you continue playing this game and drinking.

About 3/4th of this book is a waste because he literally uses whatever means necessary to pad the book to make it appear bigger than it really is. Reprinting his congressional speech word for word or both his lie detector test and a good chunk of the Mitchel Report is not what I call good writing. It's a cop out if anything.

And the Epilogue at the end is another wasted chapter to add more pages to fill in for the fact that after the Roger Clemens and A-Rod chapters, there is no need for the book. Here's what you get in the Epilogue. You get to hear what Jose does now days. He likes to bowl. He likes to ride his motorcycles. He likes to play poker. And if that isn't enough, he launches into the virtues of playing poker. Oh brother.

I'm being very generous giving this book 2 stars, one for each Chapter on Clemens and A-Rod. I absolutely do not recommend this book.

Rating: 2 Stars out of 5

Review by Chiprocks1

Book Review #12: I Was Right On Time

I Was Right On Time (1996)

Anyone that knows me, knows that I'm a Baseball fanatic. And every year, I always watch Ken Burns' Baseball documentary, usually at the start of Spring Training or at the beginning of the regular Baseball season. That's the case yet again this year. The only thing that's different this time is that instead of watching it once, I decided to watch the entire 9 innings again along with the the sequel The Tenth Inning as well.

The reason why I love this series comes down to not just the sport itself, but the heart and soul of the documentary in the form of Buck O'Neil. This guy was pretty much an unknown to the general public outside of hardcore Baseball fans when the series premiered on PBS. Since then he has become the face of the documentary as well as an ambassador for the sport. He became a celebrity and rightly so. I can never get enough just listening to him talk about his time in the Negro Baseball Leagues. His stories about Satchel Paige, Josh Gibson and countless others are simply amazing to hear and relive.

But rather than watching this again for a 3rd straight time, I thought now would be a good time to read his book, in his own words. The results would be I Was Right On Time. If you know Buck, or have watched the documentary Baseball, you will know that he has been telling his baseball stories to anyone that will listen for the past 60 plus years. I've heard all of them and I never get tired of hearing them and I want more.

The book basically picks up where the documentary left off. By this, I mean that when you shoot filmed testimonies, a lot of the stuff is going to end up on the cutting room floor due to editing purposes. This book fills in and rounds out a lot of the stories that are told in the documentary. There's more to the man then what you see, This is a pretty good read and very insightful of how he was brought up and what he had to endure. The best stories of course still center around his relationship with Satchel Paige and Josh Gibson.

I highly recommend this book to everyone, whether your a fan of the sport or not. You will come away enlighten and a better person after you read this one. Pick it up and pass it along to a friend.

Rating: 5 Stars out of 5

Review by Chiprocks1

Book Review #11: The Heroin Diaries

The Heroin Diaries: A Year In The Life Of A Shattered Rock Star (2007)

Before I get into the review for The Heroin Diaries, I have to address this books construction. I originally intended to read this along with Tommyland, but due to the horrible binding of this book, it literally fell apart in my hands when I opened it. I had to take it back to the library and ask if I could get another copy. She said that it wouldn't be a problem as they had multiple copies floating around at other branches. When she did further research on the book, she saw that all the copies had suffered the same fate and all had to be repaired as well. The current copy I just read had a few pages that started to come apart, but I manage to actually get through and finish the book without any further damage.

This is hands down the worst and most ill conceived book put together of all time. Just looking at the binding "new", you can tell it would and will eventually fall apart. Just horrible. Since I'm talking about the construction of the book I should at least mention the actual design itself. It's different from your typical paper stock as this is all glossy paper. And on top of that the pages are designed to represent the chaos of what Nikki Sixx was going through with his doping. I think it's actually a pretty cool look and feel to it, although there are some pages that were extremely hard to read when it was red text on black pages.

So for the construction of the book, this gets....

For the design elements within the pages, this gets...

Now onto the book review. Heroin Diaries is kind of what Hit Hard by Joey Kramer wanted to be and it makes perfect sense that Nikki Sixx did the forward for Joey's book. It's another "self help" book as it deals primarily with Nikki's year long battle with heroin, coke, and every other drug you can think of during 1987, or the Girls, Girls, Girls Tour. How is this like Hit Hard? Well, Heroin Diaries is dealing mainly with the root problem of his childhood and his relationship with his Mother. To say that Nikki had a pretty messed up childhood is an understatement. His broken family led to his depression which eventually led to his constant need to self medicate to mask this problem.

Now why does this get a better review then Hit Hard then if it's basically the same topic? A lot has to do with how it's written and constructed. This book literally plays like an episode of VH1 Behind The Music. Just think of the diary entries as the reenactments and the Guest Author's describing each entry as the "on-camera" testimonials to bring it into context of what was going on at the time.

This is a pretty engaging read and I couldn't put the book down at all. It's these testimonials that actually save the book and it's cool to get input from a lot of different people that were involved at one time or another through his year long downward spiral. Those that lend a hand with their insight are: Tommy Lee, Vince Neil, Mick Mars, Doc McGhee, Vanity (this one is the trippiest by far), Rick Nielsen and Slash just to name a few.

One thing I have to mention here is that when I was reading this book, Nikki mentions a lot of the time that he could never be in a room full of people he didn't know if he was sober. He couldn't relate to other people and would literally run out of the room because it was almost claustrophobic in a way when trying to be social. So obviously when this kept coming up in the book, I was left remembering the time I met and talked to Nikki once before and at no time did he hint at being uncomfortable. So either I am such an awesome and cool cat to talk with, or he was strung out and did an amazing job of hiding it, which I never would have guessed because he was very articulate, engaging and cool when talking with me. I'm just gonna say that this was one of those rare sober moments that he could talk in a social environment. 

Now, Tommy Lee on the other hand had to have been high, because no matter how awesome and cool I am, even he couldn't be THAT happy to see and talk with me. Haha. Both were really cool and down to earth, so I have no idea if they were high or not.

I can definitely recommend this book if you can look past the redundancy of his drug use. It does get repetitive in hearing about him scoring, hallucinating and then vowing to quit. But because of the other's input in telling the story, it keeps you engaged throughout.

I need to take a break from reading Rock Biographies for awhile. The whole drug thing is making me ill just reading about it. Blah. Gonna hit some Baseball Biographies and Comedy books for the foreseeable future. 

Rating: 4 1/2 Stars out of 5

Review by Chiprocks1

Nikki Sixx Talks About The Heroin Diaries

Book Review #10: Hit Hard: A Story of Hitting Rock Bottom at the Top

Hit Hard: A Story of Hitting Rock Bottom at the Top (2009)

As a long time fan of Aerosmith, I was very excited and looking forward to reading Hit Hard, knowing the struggles of Joey Kramer and his combative relationship with Steven Tyler, which  was hinted at in the long-form video for The Making Of Pump. But now having just finished the book, I'm very disappointed with the results of reading it. The best way I can describe Hit Hard is that it's a "self help" book disguised as a Rock and Roll Biography. While reading through the book, I felt cheated as a reader and fan because a lot of stuff is just glossed over, moving on to the next thing. 

If you're looking for inside information about Aerosmith and Steven Tyler and the rest of those that make up the band, you are in for a rude awakening. This book isn't your typical rags to riches memoir. This is about Joey Kramer and his depression that came from years of psychological warefare inflicted upon him as a child at the hands of both his Father and Mother, and then later on his Wife, Steven Tyler and Aerosmith band Manager Tim Collins.

If it sounds like I'm ragging on the book, I'm really not....kinda. Just be aware that this is a different kind of book than the norm. I applaud Mr. Kramer for taking a different route than the tried and true format. It just would have been nice to get a little more insight into the band and the wealth of stories related to the creation of some of their biggest masterpieces, which obviously isn't what this book is about anyway. This book just seems like it's a bit undercooked here.

I have to point out that there are 2 things that stuck with me after reading the book. His reconciliation with his Father at the end was absolutely heartbreaking and will leave even the most jaded person on the planet in tears. And the story regarding the band's Manager is pretty riveting in watching a man do anything to retain control of his golden goose by way of pitting everyone within' Aerosmith against each other.

I can't really recommend this book unless you're looking for something a bit different. So, you have been warned.

Rating: 3 Stars out of 5

Review by Chiprocks1

Book Review #9: Scar Tissue

Scar Tissue (2004)

After reading Scar Tissue, to say that Anthony Kiedis is a womanizing douche-bag is only putting it mildly. Hey, he would agree with my assessment here. Hell, he even says as much in the book. Before I tear into my review of this book, a little background about my take on Red Hot Chili Peppers. I'm not what you would call a die hard Peppers fan in the sense that I would know everything about their personal lives or even the history of the band itself prior to reading Scar Tissue.

I only have two of their albums: Mother's Milk and Blood Sugar Sex Magik. Since then, I have only "followed" them by way of whatever new song came on the radio or the latest music video of theirs. That's it. That's as far as I would go when describing myself in relation the the band. So there are a ton of things that I didn't know about until I read Scar Tissue. I was definitely in for an eye opening experience here.

This book is a riveting look into the life of Mr. Kiedis. Now I was aware of his troubled past regarding drugs. I just wasn't aware of just how bad it had gotten and how early he had started his downward spiral. After reading this book, there is no way in hell he should still be alive. The stuff that he subjected himself is just insane...as well as assinine.

Having been on a recent tear of Rock Biographies lately, I figured this was just going to be more of the same: Sex, Drugs and Rock and Roll. But this one takes it to a whole other place. So much so, that by the end of the book I seriously needed to take a shower. I felt dirty by the end. Blah! 

Kiedis does a great job of painting a picture describing everything in detail when it comes to his non-drug moments, especially the first 3/4th's of the book. He creates the environment that seems to bring him a lot of joy, that unfortunately is punctuated with a drug binge at the end. By the tail end of book, these "paintings" cease to exist and we are left with nothing but "I fell off the wagon and then got fucked up. Then I went to rehab, did my time, got out and got fucked up some more". For awhile the joyous moments in his life were completely gone. All we get are his drug runs. This really became too much to read at the end and is the sole reason why it doesn't get a perfect 5 star rating from me.

After awhile, I was just pissed at him in how he kept going back and doing the same shit over and over. It was like be bludgeoned over the head in "how many dumb ways can he think of to purposely fuck his life over". By the end I just didn't care anymore. Thus my need to shower and get rid of this filthy feeling. What is definitely missing here is some humor (ala I Am Ozzy) to lighten the heavy load of drug binges littered throughout this book.

His drug spiral is only half of what makes up this book. The other half is his womanizing ways. Kiedis clearly suffers from narcissistic personality in leading on every woman he comes in contact with. I don't know anyone that can fall in "love" as much as he does and keep a straight face in the process. It's insane that he didn't get his dick cut off by at least one of his "true loves" that ends up getting jilted at the end. He clearly believes that since he is "in love", this makes everything alright to him because I never really saw any remorse in the carnage he was leaving behind in his wake. 

There are a ton of stories that you will find fascinating here from Cher to Ione Skye to the genesis of RHCP. It's all here, warts and all.

I can recommend this to anyone looking for a good book to read in how not to go about living a fucked up existence. 

Rating: 4 Stars out of 5

Review by Chiprocks1