Gary Furlong uses a friendly, objective style as he narrates this oral history of hard rock music. Amy McFadden helps by voicing the handful of women involved. Considering that this work includes some contentious contributors with divergent memories, Furlong and McFadden maintain an impartial, nonjudgmental point of view. Most recollections support the Spinal Tap stereotype of hard rock musicians—brainless hotel stunts, tour bus shenanigans, and similar decadent behavior. But some reminiscences are frighteningly grim—for example, Jack Rusell of Great White describes shooting a woman while high on PCP. There's also plenty of sex, drugs, and trivia. This head-banger audiobook should please hairspray-band historians and lovers of rock memoirs—or anyone who wonders why Milton Berle appeared in a Ratt video. R.W.S. © AudioFile 2021, Portland, Maine
Nöthin' But a Good Time: The Uncensored History of the '80s Hard Rock Explosion
Narrated by Amy McFadden, Gary Furlong, Richard Bienstock, Tom Beaujour
Tom BeaujourUnabridged — 15 hours, 58 minutes
Nöthin' But a Good Time: The Uncensored History of the '80s Hard Rock Explosion
Narrated by Amy McFadden, Gary Furlong, Richard Bienstock, Tom Beaujour
Tom BeaujourUnabridged — 15 hours, 58 minutes
Overview
This program includes introductions read by the authors.
"A backstage pass to the wildest and loudest party in rock history-you'll feel like you were right there with us!" -Bret Michaels of Poison
Nöthin' But a Good Time is the definitive, no-holds-barred oral history of 1980s hard rock and hair metal, told by the musicians and industry insiders who lived it.
Hard rock in the 1980s was a hedonistic and often intensely creative wellspring of escapism that perfectly encapsulated-and maybe even helped to define-a spectacularly over-the-top decade. Indeed, fist-pumping hits like Twisted Sister's “We're Not Gonna Take It,” Mötley Crüe's “Girls, Girls, Girls,” and Guns N' Roses' “Welcome to the Jungle” are as inextricably linked to the era as Reaganomics, Pac-Man, and E.T.
From the do-or-die early days of self-financed recordings and D.I.Y. concert productions that were as flashy as they were foolhardy, to the multi-Platinum, MTV-powered glory years of stadium-shaking anthems and chart-topping power ballads, to the ultimate crash when grunge bands like Nirvana forever altered the entire climate of the business, Tom Beaujour and Richard Bienstock's Nöthin' But a Good Time captures the energy and excess of the hair metal years in the words of the musicians, managers, producers, engineers, label executives, publicists, stylists, costume designers, photographers, journalists, magazine publishers, video directors, club bookers, roadies, groupies, and hangers-on who lived it.
Featuring an impassioned foreword by Slipknot and Stone Sour vocalist and avowed glam metal fanatic Corey Taylor, and drawn from over 200 new interviews with members of Van Halen, Mötley Crüe, Poison, Guns N' Roses, Skid Row, Bon Jovi, Ratt, Twisted Sister, Winger, Warrant, Cinderella, Quiet Riot and others, as well as Ozzy Osbourne, Lita Ford and many more, this is the ultimate, uncensored, and often unhinged chronicle of a time where excess and success walked hand in hand, told by the men and women who created a sound and style that came to define a musical era-one in which the bands and their fans went looking for nothin' but a good time...and found it.
A Macmillan Audio production from St. Martin's Press
"Nöthin' But a Good Time is an unflinching, all-excess look at an era that many snooty critics have written off as stupid, and its pages present a strong case for how people have underestimated the music and the dedication of the musicians who lived it."-Kory Grow, Rolling Stone
Editorial Reviews
11/16/2020
Revolver cofounder Beaujour and former Guitar World editor Bienstock (Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck) give heavy metal a flamboyant retrospective in this raucous oral history. The pair interview dozens of figures from the glam-metal eruption of the 1980s, including Ozzy Osbourne and David Lee Roth; the members of Quiet Riot, Twisted Sister, Guns N’ Roses, Vixen, Winger, Ratt, and Poison; and sound engineers, record company execs, roadies, security guards, and costume designers (spandex pants, readers learn, became ubiquitous because they wouldn’t split at the crotch during acrobatic dance routines). Accounts of recording session tantrums, trashed hotel rooms, guitar-virtuoso rivalries, and the inter-band arms race toward ever-bigger hairdos and ever-crazier shows—“e started making the fire sign and the torture rack and the raw meat box,” recalls W.A.S.P. stage designer Al Bane—and pure debauchery (“I would wake up out of a binge and there’d be naked people and drugs everywhere,” Mötley Crüe bassist Nikki Sixx remembers. “I’d have blood all over my hands and my feet and not know what happened”) round out this irreverent and fun narrative. Metalheads and those with a fondness for the over-the-top antics that marked the genre and era are in for a treat. (Mar.)
"the definitive account of the era" —PopMatters
"an intensive swim through what it felt like to be alive and flyering the Sunset Strip in the ‘80s" —Cryptic Rock
"Tom Beaujour and Richard Bienstock have a remarkable knack for placing readers in the moment with every page turn, resulting in a perfectly crafted masterpiece that encapsulates one of the most iconic eras in music history." —Vinyl Writer
"a quick-moving and engrossing read... a compelling conversation among a couple hundred people who defined the metal era." —Culture Sonar
"This is one heck of a book." —Metal Sludge
"Rock music fans will be banging their heads to this book." —Library Journal
"Beginning with the early days of Quiet Riot and Van Halen, the book takes the reader through glam’s ascent from L.A. clubs to arenas everywhere, spending equal time on Crüe-style debauchery and the behind-the-scenes business that made these bands superstars, through the arrival of Nirvana, which turned the hair metal craze into poison overnight." —Booklist
"Lively, comprehensive... An engrossing deep dive into a lurid, free-wheeling monument in pop music." —Kirkus
"Revolver cofounder Beaujour and former Guitar World editor Bienstock give heavy metal a flamboyant retrospective in this raucous oral history...Metalheads and those with a fondness for the over-the-top antics that marked the genre and era are in for a treat." —Publishers Weekly
"From the streets to the Strip, the studio to the stage, this is an epic tale told by the people that lived it. It's a backstage pass to the wildest and loudest party in rock history—you'll feel like you were right there with us!" —Bret Michaels of Poison
“If you want to relive the explosive decade, this is as close as you're gonna get. All right here, right now.” —Stephen Pearcy of Ratt
"Tom and Rich — the two music journalists most likely to be called as expert witnesses in a court case about hair metal — have compiled a fun, funny, and frightening chronicle of the so-called 'Decade of Decadence' with interviews from every major player in the scene." —Kory Grow, Rolling Stone
“Sure, there’s plenty of sex, drugs and rock & roll but, like the best rock books, Nöthin' But a Good Time is really about people and their stories. Those stories attest to the power of hard work, ambition, friendship and community. And that's what makes this hilarious, sordid and deeply researched book so inspiring.” —Michael Azerrad, author of Our Band Could Be Your Life: Scenes from the American Indie Underground 1981-1991 and Come As You Are: The Story of Nirvana
"No stone is left unturned in this deep dive into the bands you love, and the bands you love to hate. This book goes to 11." —Katherine Turman, co-author, Louder Than Hell: The Definitive Oral History of Metal
“An extremely well-written, thoughtful, and indeed inspiring exposé on one of the most misunderstood musical genres in history. Come for Yngwie Malmsteen, stay for Gunnar Nelson.” —Dave Hill, comedian, author, Parking the Moose
“Tom Beaujour and Richard Bienstock recreate the reckless and carefree era of hair metal—a fantastical, debauched world of car wrecks and casual sex, codpieces and Capezios, boys dressed like girls and girls dressed in almost nothing, cocaine and even more cocaine and no, seriously, So. Much. Cocaine. Nöthin’ But a Good Time is the literary equivalent of a pyro explosion.” —Rob Tannenbaum, author of I Want My MTV: The Uncensored Story of the Music Video Revolution
“I came for the debauched Guns ‘N Roses, Mötley Crüe and Poison stories and was not disappointed. I did not expect equally delightful stories about Stryper, Warrant, Faster Pussycat, Nelson and Trixter. Brilliant book of familiar and forgotten rock history.” —Steve Knopper, editor-at-large, Billboard, author, Appetite for Self-Destruction: The Spectacular Crash of the Record Industry in the Digital Age
02/01/2021
Wilco's Jeff Tweedy famously observed in the song "Heavy Metal Drummer" that metal music fans seemed to be having a better time than anyone else. The genre's lyrical content—largely devoted to parties, drinking, and sex—bears that out. However, though stories of debauchery abound in this oral history by Revolver cofounder Beaujour and Bienstock (coauthor, Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck), the book revolves mostly around the drive to make it big—constant touring and performing, mastering instruments, and honing songwriting skills. Artists such as Bret Michaels, Nikki Sixx, Don Dokken, and Sebastian Bach thoughtfully detail the inner workings of the music business, especially getting gigs and signing recording contracts. One entertaining chapter focuses on flyer distribution—a seemingly mundane task that was taken as seriously as rehearsing. Nevertheless, readers looking for sex, drugs, and rock and roll will be satisfied, too. The authors note that many accounts reflect outdated, sexist attitudes and emphasize that those "hoping for an outpouring of regret or a litany of mea culpas" will be disappointed; their objective was "to uncover what really happened from the people who lived it, not to make them apologize for it." VERDICT Rock music fans will be banging their heads to this book.—Brett Rohlwing, Milwaukee P.L.
Gary Furlong uses a friendly, objective style as he narrates this oral history of hard rock music. Amy McFadden helps by voicing the handful of women involved. Considering that this work includes some contentious contributors with divergent memories, Furlong and McFadden maintain an impartial, nonjudgmental point of view. Most recollections support the Spinal Tap stereotype of hard rock musicians—brainless hotel stunts, tour bus shenanigans, and similar decadent behavior. But some reminiscences are frighteningly grim—for example, Jack Rusell of Great White describes shooting a woman while high on PCP. There's also plenty of sex, drugs, and trivia. This head-banger audiobook should please hairspray-band historians and lovers of rock memoirs—or anyone who wonders why Milton Berle appeared in a Ratt video. R.W.S. © AudioFile 2021, Portland, Maine
2021-01-12
An oral history of the guitar-shredding rise and sleazy, druggy fall of 1980s hair metal.
In this lively, comprehensive saga of the much-maligned genre, Beaujour and Bienstock deliver plenty of the sordid tales of sex and hard living that the music often celebrated—e.g., Motley Crüe’s orgies, a drug-addled Ozzy Osbourne snorting ants, Guns N’ Roses in heroin-steeped disarray—while also showing how many of the musicians were hard workers dedicated to their craft. Guitarists playing the clubs on LA’s Sunset Strip all aspired to Eddie Van Halen’s greatness; acts engaged in full-scale “flyer wars” to get attention for their gigs; and they labored diligently on songs to land lucrative record deals. The hairspray and spandex, by the bands’ lights, were just part of the necessary promotion and evidence of the effort they were putting in. “People are lazy [now],” says designer Al Bane, who outfitted a host of acts, lamenting the end of flashpots and assless chaps. The atmosphere was thick with casual misogyny toward disposable roadies and video models; Poison cynically pursued “ugly fat chicks” to attend shows as a point of differentiation. Throughout, the anecdotes are copious and irresistible: Great White singer Jack Russell’s going to jail after a PCP bender, Axl Rose’s chasing David Bowie out of a club for looking at his girlfriend the wrong way, Skid Row’s Sebastian Bach’s “inhaling beers” and getting into a drunken fistfight his first night with the band. Conventional wisdom dictates that Nirvana and grunge killed hair metal, but the musicians argue that oversaturation of bands was the real culprit. Regardless, the best-known acts now do brisk business on the nostalgia circuit. “The older fans are slightly larger now,” says L.A. Guns’ Tracii Guns, “so it makes the room look even fuller.”
An engrossing deep dive into a lurid, free-wheeling moment in pop music.
Product Details
| BN ID: | 2940173234957 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Macmillan Audio |
| Publication date: | 03/16/2021 |
| Edition description: | Unabridged |
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