Table of Contents
Foreword Joan Jett ix
1 Michael Jackson Is Dead 1
2 Confessions of a Musical Klutz 9
3 Hunting the Gods Inside 11
4 How I Accidentally Started the Sixties 17
5 The Einstein Imperative 21
6 A Tale of Two Hormones-A Brief History of Pop 39
7 Inventing the Heavy-Metal Magazine 49
8 The Kennedy Assassination, the Watergate Break-in, and, Well, Ummm, Me … Sort Of 53
9 How Vince Furnier Became Alice Cooper 61
10 The Case of the Headless Record Company 69
11 You Fucking Nun … Stephanie Mills, Napoleon, and The Wiz 77
12 Dot Records and Country Crossover-Breaking Out of the Bible Belt 87
13 Blood in the Corridors 93
14 ZZ Top-Taking Texas to the World 107
15 The Birth of Disco-Firemen Come Out of the Closet 119
16 Ralph MacDonald-The Man with Atomic Clock Fingers 125
17 Working Miracles-Saturday Night Fever 133
18 Chris Blackwell and Betty Davis-The Man Who Made Reggae 137
19 Buddha Records-The Face Drained by the Mob 143
20 The Secret Policeman's Ball-Planting Amnesty International 149
21 Genesis-The Band That Wouldn't Talk 151
22 Peter Gabriel-The Rocker Who Got Computers Right 153
23 The Police-Punk and the Dad Who Co-Founded the CIA 157
24 Al Green and Cream Records-The Mecca of Memphis 163
25 Soul and Passion Points-Meet the Geese Who Fall in Love With, Well, With You 167
26 Supertramp-Escaping the Industrial Nightmare 173
27 Simon and Garfunkel Reunite 179
28 The Man Who Bit the Head Offa Bat-Ozzy Osbourne 183
29 Joan Jett-The Story of the Singing Fist 187
30 Lessons from Joan Jett-Power Moms 193
31 REO Speedwagon-The House That Slid Into a Better Neighborhood 197
32 Styx-The Man Who Saw the Future 203
33 Queen, Soul, South America 213
34 Bob Marley-Turning Dying Into Living 217
35 Earth, Wind, and Fire-the Path to Prince 229
36 Prince 233
37 Prince's Puppets 241
38 Purple Rain 251
39 Rap-Shit All Over Your Face 267
40 John Mellencamp-Hurt So Good 275
41 Bob Guccione Jr.-The Slaughter of the Hutu and the Tutsis 295
42 How MTV Came to Be 301
43 Billy Idol-The Client Who Almost Died 303
44 Billy Joel-Dumbed Down by Love … and by Christie Brinkley 309
45 Lionel Richie-I Failed 315
46 Bette Midler and the Talking Dog 319
47 The Stars I Could Not Grok 325
48 The PMRC-The Witches of Washington 331
49 Who Killed Michael Jackson? 339
50 Michael Jackson's Sexual Crucifixion 361
51 Perceptual Imprisonment 367
52 Sickness-The Blade of CFS 371
Notes 381
Index 405
