Knocking on Roll & Roll Heaven's Door

Monday, December 03, 2007
Picture courtesy Amazon.

Oh, untimely death! Along comes a book that is either fascinatingly morbid, or morbidly fascinating, depending on which way you look at it: Rock & Roll Heaven: A Fascinating Guide to Musical Icons Who Have Joined the Great Gig in the Sky, by Robert Dimery and Bruno MacDonald. Here's the description from the inside flap:

Rock & Roll Heaven is a fascinating look at over 100 of popular music’s most famous fatalities, from legendary rockers who lived fast and died young to tragic and self-destructive poet-musicians.

Discover whose body was washed up at the foot of Beale Street, home of the blues. Find out why country legend Gram Parsons’ corpse was stolen. Read about the grisly coincidence that links Keith Moon and Mama Cass.

Artist portraits feature career highlights along with details of their untimely demise, accompanied by stunning photographs.

This is your graveside guide to the final days of some of popular music’s legends. Featuring 120 late-but-great icons that have knocked on heaven’s door or driven down the highway to hell, each entry includes a revealing account of the star’s death, along with a wealth of fascinating facts and tantalizing trivia. Here’s how the end came for . . .

Buddy Holly . . .Died Feb. 3, 1959 . . . Cause: plane crash
Sam Cooke . . .Died Dec. 11, 1964 . . .Cause: gunshot
Jimi Hendrix . . . Died Sept. 18, 1970 . . . Cause: asphyxiation
Janis Joplin . . .Died Oct. 4, 1970 . . .Cause: drug overdose
“Mama” Cass Elliot . . .Died July 29, 1974 . . .Cause: heart attack
John Lennon . . .Died Dec. 8, 1980 . . . Cause: gunshot
Marvin Gaye . . .Died Dec. 28, 1983 . . . Cause: gunshot
Jeff Buckley . . .Died May 29, 1997 . . .Cause: drowned

You’ll get inside stories on these tragedies and many more in Rock & Roll Heaven.


It's retailing for $16.49 on Amazon.

1 comment:

  1. The only comment/fact that I just found out this weekend is related to the Buddy Holly accident. Do you know who gave up his seat for the Big Bopper in that plane wreck--Waylon Jennings! Never knew that!!

    ReplyDelete

Powered by Blogger.