| Title | : | They Just Seem a Little Weird: How KISS, Cheap Trick, Aerosmith, and Starz Remade Rock and Roll |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 0306845199 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9780306845192 |
| Format Type | : | Hardcover |
| Number of Pages | : | 320 |
| Publication | : | Published December 1, 2020 |
It was the age when heavy-footed, humorless dinosaurs roamed the hard-rock landscape. But that all changed when into these dazed and confused mid-'70s strut-ted four flamboyant bands that reveled in revved-up anthems and flaunted a novel theatricality. In They Just Seem a Little Weird, veteran entertainment journalist Doug Brod offers an eye- and ear-opening look at a crucial moment in music history, when rock became fun again and a gig became a show. This is the story of friends and frenemies who rose, fell, and soared once more, often sharing stages, studios, producers, engineers, managers, agents, roadies, and fans-and who are still collaborating more than forty years on.
In the tradition of David Browne's Fire and Rain and Sheila Weller's Girls Like Us, They Just Seem a Little Weird seamlessly interweaves the narratives of KISS, Cheap Trick, and Aerosmith with that of Starz, a criminally neglected band whose fate may have been sealed by a shocking act of violence. This is also the story of how these distinctly American groups-three of them now enshrined in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame-laid the foundation for two seemingly opposed rock genres: the hair metal of Poison, Skid Row, and Mötley Crüe and the grunge of Nirvana, Alice in Chains, and the Melvins. Deeply researched, and featuring more than 130 new interviews, this book is nothing less than a secret history of classic rock.
They Just Seem a Little Weird: How KISS, Cheap Trick, Aerosmith, and Starz Remade Rock and Roll Reviews
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They Just Seem a Little Weird by Doug Brod is a 2020 Hachette Books publication.
Mommy's alright, daddy's alright, they just seem a little weird.
Surrender, surrender, but don't give yourself away, ay, ay, ay.
The title of this book caught my eye and made me give it a closer look. At first, it confused me- Starz? What does a cable movie channel have to do with seventies arena rock? 😕😕
As familiar as I thought I was with the music of this era, I honestly have no memory of a rock group named Starz- which is partially the point of this book, as is the way these groups are connected- maybe not through six degrees, but they often rubbed elbows with one another all through the various stages of their careers.
The author alternates chapters between the four featured groups, giving the reader a brief history, and then taking us through their careers as they became successful enough to fill arenas. In the meantime, the author also shows how members of the four groups kept crossing paths in one way or another, even winding up on tour together.
Along the way Aerosmith and KISS had a complicated love/hate relationship, while both groups loved Cheap Trick. Starz on the other hand, who had a similar look to KISS, but had a different, more diverse, sound, had trouble making it off the launching pad. It could easily have gone another way- and the author examines the various elements at play that kept them from enjoying the same success as the other three bands featured in this book.
The author also examines the climate of the seventies that was ripe for the sort of raunchy, choppy, edgy sounds of Aerosmith and the comic book theatrics of KISS. The magazines – like Creem, and Circus, the famous groupies, the behind- the -scenes dramas within the bands, the songs, their inspiration- lots of cool trivia.
But, of course, the popularity of this brand of rock music reached a peak and the public turned their attention to MTV and the eventual surge of over produced music and hair metal- which certainly owed a debt of gratitude to the bands featured here. But then came grunge…
KISS conventions, and a mega-tour with KISS and Aerosmith kept them in the public eye well into the 2000s, and now Cheap Trick, KISS, and Aerosmith have all been inducted into the Rock Hall of Fame.
After giving us a little background on each band, we move through their highs and lows, breakups and reunions, and where they all eventually ended up. Sometimes it was the luck of the draw that propelled one group to mega stardom, while others are now currently residing in the ‘where are they now files’- but too often it was politics and power plays that promoted one band, while obliterating another’s chance for fame and fortune.
The book is very well- researched. In fact, it took me a while to read it, because I spent a healthy amount of time Googling some of names mentioned in the book or reminiscing about some forgotten song or band… like ‘Angel’ for example. I hadn’t thought of that group in decades. I also never heard of Enuff Z'Nuff or Piper - though I do remember Billy Squire- as a solo act.
I have my own opinions about these groups and of course, my opinion is always different from everyone else. I thought KISS remained one-dimensional- not much growth musically, but they did a remarkable job marketing the group as a brand. Rock n Roll All Nite is a quintessential rock anthem- but I have a soft spot for Hard Luck Woman from the early days. I always thought it was ironic that KISS removed their makeup in the hair metal craze, while all the other MTV glitz and glam rock stars were piling it on. Poor KISS – they struggled in those days.
Aerosmith- always seemed to be compared to other groups- “the poor man’s Rolling Stones”, for example- were also stuck in a rut for a long time- but managed to pull themselves together for another resurgence. I confess- I’ve always been a fan, and have seen the group live- in various stages of their career.
Some babe’s talkin’ real loud
Talkin’ all about the new crowd
Try and tell me of an old dream
A new version of the old scene
Cheap Trick- probably the most original of the three- a unique look- no scarves, makeup or costumes- I loved them in my late teens, and I appreciate their contributions and talent- I still turn up ‘Dream Police’ if I hear it and have really fond memories of ‘Surrender’- the song that provided the title for this book.
While I admit I added this book, thinking it would be a nostalgic trip down memory lane, the book turned out be a comprehensive look at select portion of hard rock music, compartmentalized in a moment of time, but one that inspired a myriad of other bands and trends in music and pop culture.
It’s also examined the way the music transitioned- branching away from mammoth rock pioneers like the Stones and the Who. It takes a deep dive into management, promotion, the competition between bands, and the underbelly of the business.
It occurs to me know now, looking back on the seventies rock era, that there were other rock ‘cliques’, like Styx, Journey and Foreigner, for example. I’m sure there were other similar groups who ended up as ‘also rans’, like Starz.
The talent, the look, the music was all there, right on target- just like the bands filling stadiums, but they were extinguished by the powers that be, or didn’t offer kick backs to the radio stations, or caught on just as the fire started to lose its flame.
Whatever happened to all this season's losers of the year?
Every time I got to thinking, where'd they disappear?
When I woke up, mom and dad are rolling on the couch.
Rolling numbers, rock and rolling, got my kiss records out.
As for Starz- they got a raw deal in many ways. I'm glad this book called attention to them and I honestly found their story to one of the more interesting aspects of this book.
This is an absorbing book- it’s one- part musical history and criticism and one part pop culture. The tone is not really one of warm nostalgia, though- as I had originally thought. It’s more of a serious study, almost like a history class on a concentrated segment of seventies rock music.
Maybe the author will do another book like this one- over another group of rock cliques- maybe one like Deep Purple, Bad Company and Foghat or maybe one with a southern theme- like The Allman Brothers, Molly Hatchett, and Lynyrd Skynyrd – or like Bob Segar, The Eagles, and Fleetwood Mac- I could probably do this all day- so I’ll stop there- but if Doug writes another book like this one- I’ll be the first in line to read it.
4 stars -
WARNING: TYPICAL LONG-WINDED REVIEW AHEAD
I’m not sure about the whole “Remade Rock and Roll” thing. That just may be publishing-house historical revisionism.
First off, a caveat. At the tender age of 63, I’m still a wide-eyed fanboy when it comes to the 70s output of all four of these bands. After that, not so much. Don’t tell me to grow up. I already tried that. I’ve been waiting for a book like this nearly as long as I’ve been waiting for that next Kinks album (27 years and counting). Ray? Dave? Anybody home?
What passed for chewy American hard rock was in a funny place back in 1976-1977 – like my entire graduating high-school class, arguing about whose turn it was to drive down to Cobo Hall, Masonic Temple, or the Michigan Palace, or who "misplaced" Manus' oz. when the Faces Farewell Tour touched down in 1975 (they actually had a fully-functional bar right on stage - have times changed or what?) - marooned in a corporate no-man n's land between blooze-based wax from long-haired guys from England and the just-released first Ramones album, whose ripples had not yet circled the pond and back around again.
With "Destroyer," KISS began their long, painful descent into irrelevance, creating, along with their own personal Phil Spector (Bob Ezrin), an album for themselves, blowing their entire production budget on party favors like children's choirs, orchestral backing tracks, and an array of sound effects. Their motto of “If it’s worth doing, it’s worth overdoing” was clearly past its sell-by date.
With one of the greatest logos from the golden age of logos tucked under their arms, Starz were four guys from Jersey with ex-pat Reb Michael Lee Smith at the mic whom, despite all appearances, didn't really want to be KISS despite hiring Bill Aucoin and Sean Delaney as their tour guides down the road to anticipated riches. In lead singer Smith and lead single "(She's Just A) Fallen Angel," Starz was eerily prescient of a still-two-years-down-the-line Van Halen, both in terms of tri-monikered, alpha-male front men and bubblegum metal with hooks galore (see David Lee Roth and "Dance The Night Away" from "Van Halen II" respectively).
And in the grand tradition of KISS' "Detroit Rock City," Alice Cooper's "Be My Lover," and Nazareth's "Jet Lag," the band instantly endeared themselves to the entire population of metro Detroit with the thug guitar stomper "Detroit Girls," makin' love a la mode (that's French) with a quick stop at the local health clinic for repairs along the way. Unfortunately, their career was shuffled aside while Aucoin tended to the dirty business of capturing and securing KISS’ elementary-school demographic with a grand marketing scheme swirling with lunch boxes, dolls, trading cards, and do-it-yourself Kabuki make-up kits. Don't believe the jacket blurb about a "shocking act of violence" derailing them; it was neither.
Although the world would eventually catch up with them for a short while only to lose track after their short tour as chart-conquering behemoths came full stop, Cheap Trick’s eponymous debut was too smart for KISS fans (although “Surrender” may have eventually won them over two albums down the line with its mention of Mom and Dad groping, fumbling, and mouth breathing on the sofa with Aucoin’s charges as a backdrop) and too loud for AOR, Rockford, Illinois’ apostles of absurdity figuring the best way to keep ‘em entertained was to keep ‘em guessing. If that first album had touched down in 1965, “16” Magazine or “Tiger Beat” would be telling us about the band’s favorite foods, colors, and TV shows.
For Aerosmith, well it was still forever 1971, with the scarves, the mirror shades, and the rakishly-cocked bottle of Jack. They were the Counterfeit Stones, Fake Faces, and Led Zep Lite, scoring zero points for originality but rocking like a bastard anyway. At least until they got off the dope and sauce, but that story’s been told elsewhere.
For anyone who has been following the plot, or graduated high school in the mid to late 70’s in the Midwest or on the East Coast, in particular Detroit, Chicago, Philadelphia, Cleveland, Boston, or New York, the stories of Aerosmith and Kiss should be terra firma. The douchery of Gene Simnons, the squabbling between the Toxic Twins... It's old hat. The real draw here are the career trajectories of Cheap Trick and Starz, of which there is a surprising dearth of information out there.
The career arcs of all four bands are nearly identical: early career wellsprings of creativity, record sales, critical acclaim, gimmicks, and drug, sex, and booze-fueled indiscretion followed by record company pressure for new product (record, tour, record, tour, etc.) and stooping to working with outside songwriters like Desmond Child and Diane Warren, both of whom are responsible for destroying KISS and Aerosmith in the minds of their original fan bases. Their accountants may try to convince you otherwise. And the less said about KISS’s celebrated MTV unmasking, revealing themselves as nothing so much as ugly mall chicks jacked up on Revlon and Mabelline who just raided the bandana rack at Chess King, the better.
But there’s plenty here to recommended to hopeless no-lifer, aging hipster doofuses like yours truly or anyone who ever remembers having to run a gauntlet of drug dealers to get into a concert, clawing your way through a haze of pot smoke rivaling the mushroom cloud over Nagasaki once you got inside, or queuing up for a concert tee that disintegrated after a few wash cycles.
Highly recommended. -
Former Spin magazine editor, Doug Brod has created a detailed inside look at a very particular pocket of 1970's American hard rock. He follows the trajectory of 4 bands: KISS, Aerosmith, Cheap Trick, and the lesser known Starz. Brod covers how the groups were formed including bands that the band members were in before these groups. We see how they are connected through producers, collaborators and more. There are friendships and rivalries, and of course competition at various levels. There is mention of the expected rock star life style and how that impacted their careers...Gene Simmons grandstanding and the toxicity of Steven Tyler and Joe Perry. While all of this 70's rock was a bit before my time (I was but a babe in arms), I remember the Cheap Trick, KISS, and Aerosmith of the 80's, 90's and beyond. The book discusses how the bands morphed and reinvented themselves after the dawn of MTV and later 80's glam/metal and the grunge rock of the 90s.
I am not a big fan of KISS but growing up in Boston already knew a bit about Aerosmith due to the local connection. I've even run into Aerosmith drummer Joey Kramer at a frozen yogurt shop (sooooo Rock & Roll!). Despite not being a mega fan of these groups, I still enjoyed learning more about them and this corner of American music history. I recommend this to any fans of rock music!
Thank you to the publisher for the review copy! -
"It's been so long since your vital signs went / And you don't look the same in that oxygen tent" —"Pull the Plug" by Starz, an unintentionally hilarious attempt at a serious song about Karen Ann Quinlan that I sincerely believe may have been the inspiration for Spinal Tap
This is a quest by a rock critic to explain the impact of four bands that released albums in the 1970s: KISS, Cheap Trick, Aerosmith, and Starz. "Who are or were Starz?" you might ask. They were never very successful, but the author believes they had significant influence on younger rock musicians. I don't know about that, but including a never-was band in this book makes it a lot more interesting and poignant. To my untrained ear, Starz sound great, even though some of their lyrics are awful. And their record company put a ton of money into promoting them. They just never caught on.
Including Cheap Trick is also poignant because they have spent most of their careers struggling. And KISS and Aerosmith are interesting because of their success, their rivalry, and their tantrums. All four of these bands included tantrum-having members, but KISS and Aerosmith are richer, so they have more opportunities for bigger shenanigans.
Some interesting (and sometimes tragic) gossip from the book:
* Gene Simmons, famous for being extraordinarily mean and petty, mentions his nickname for the eternally crabby Peter Criss, based on Criss's original name: Ayatollah Criscuola.
* Cheap Trick's Rick Nielsen flatly states that Aerosmith's Steven Tyler is a heroin addict.
* Aerosmith love Cheap Trick and invited CT to open for them. But Aerosmith canceled so many concerts (one allegedly because Tyler screamed at Aerosmith's employees for so long that he damaged a blood vessel in his neck) that CT lost money. The next time CT opened for Aerosmith, they insured Aerosmith. That entire tour got canceled, but CT made money anyway because of the insurance payout.
* Steven Tyler's heel got torn off in a motorcycle accident.
* Joe Perry and Steven Tyler hate each other but own a restaurant together?! Even though restaurants are known to lose money frequently and therefore are usually considered risky investments, and Perry and Tyler are already in a risky investment together, namely a rock band?
* Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley hate each other but put on massive tours together because money?! I guess it worked for Simon and Garfunkel.
* Peter Criss bitches all the time about everything, but if my bandmates paid me $10K a night while they made millions, I might bitch all the time too.
* Tom Peterssen's marrying a model and then having her manage his career right into the ground also has some strong Spinal Tap vibes.
While reading this book, I couldn't help thinking of a Robert Plant interview I read years ago. The interviewer asked how Plant felt about Aerosmith and other rock bands trying to imitate his work in Led Zeppelin. Plant laughed and said something along the lines of, "They should try harder. Aerosmith are a pop band." So I'm guessing that everybody quoted in this book loves Robert Plant, yet he probably disdains them all. That's rock & roll. -
Why did I just read a 320-page book that tries to explain the following: “How Kiss, Cheap Trick, Aerosmith and Starz Remade Rock and Roll”. I certainly don’t agree with this, but I do have to confess that I was guilty of owning (and even playing) 8-tracks of all of these bands in the 1970s. The first Cheap Trick album even made it into my vinyl collection and I was at that memorable night at the Royal Oak Music Theater on March 5, 1977 when Tom Petty and Cheap Trick opened up for the Runaways. I even had the first Starz 8-track with some ridiculous notion that they must be from Detroit if they’re singing about “Detroit Girls”. Oh yes, those wonderful days before the Internet when all you knew about a band came from Creem or from hanging out at record stores trying to understand what a Brinsley Shwarz was.
All this music and many of my friends were purged from my 8-track box and life when the Ramones, Sex Pistols, Clash, Damned, Adverts and the punks really remade rock and roll. I kept a pleasant relationship with Cheap Trick through the Dream Police era but this also came to an abrupt halt as Black Flag and the Dead Kennedys rolled into town. Kiss and Aerosmith seemed to exist in an alternate universe where guitar and drum solos were interspersed with decent songs that could never quite make it through the murk. Here we are 40 years later and I’m diving into Doug Brod’s entertaining new book wondering if I really missed anything after taking the plunge into punk.
The book is well-written and full of anecdotes and crazy stories that we would expect about the 1970s rock scene. The underlying theme are the connections between these four bands and they run the gamut of incompatible tours, jealousy and sniping in the press to actual fights between sound crews. A bunch of people who played with the various musicians pop up with their memories and often add to the general confusion. As somebody put it so well – “rock bands aren’t built to last forty years.” The fact that these three bands still exist in some form or fashion is pretty incredible. The commercial success of Kiss and Aerosmith obviously stand out, but Cheap Trick has soldiered on and is releasing a new album soon. Starz is one of the bands that could have, should have but never really did. They could have only existed in the 1970s and their career ended after 4 albums. (I did find out that they were from New Jersey).
The book is fun and brings back lots of memories (mostly bad); it’s sitting in Tier C at Cobo Hall and wishing & hoping that there isn’t another guitar solo coming (there always is). For the most part, punk rock doesn’t exist in this universe and everybody seems happy having to decide between Kiss and Aerosmith. The various squabbles and members leaving are inevitable and we find out a lot about the people behind the music. So yeah, this was well worth the read, but I’m still convinced that the Clash were way better than anything else that ever came out in those last 40 years. -
My only criticism with this book is it's title. I don't believe these bands necessarily "remade" rock and roll per se but they definitely changed the way concerts were promoted, billed and performed and also had an undeniable influence in the creation of the AOR FM radio format. There was great insight into the behind scenes goings on with the label execs and concert promoters throughout this book as well as the relationships (or lack there of) that the bands had with each other. It is truly an interesting time to read about. This book really is a good read. Highly recommend it.
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Doug Brod spins an entertaining and cleverly anecdotal history lesson as he weaves the careers of three Hall of Fame mega bands and one buried gem together through various interviews and stories with the main characters.
Aerosmith and Kiss, two starkly different bands sonically, broke at the same time and have ridden the roller coaster of rock fame for 5 decades while Cheap Trick hung on in the margins on the momentum of massive talent and creative songwriting. Starz, the black sheep of the quartet had the look of Kiss, the swagger of Aerosmith and the sound of Cheap Trick and their trajectory once pointed in the same direction, yet by the end of the turbulent 70s, they were ghosts.
Decadent and debaucherous tales of Rock n Roll fighting for survival abound in Brod's narrative which hooks you like a Kiss chorus and whips you around like an Aerosmith riff. If you're a fan of 70s hard rock and it's ripple effects, this is a must read. -
I can't believe this books exists! Kiss, Aerosmith and Cheap Trick are probably my favorite bands to have emerged in the 1970s, a time author Doug Brod describes as "for me, perhaps the most exciting era of modern popular music."
Brod's key insight is that Kiss, Cheap Trick, Aerosmith and, to a much lesser extent, Starz influenced not one but two cohorts of rock bands: the hair-metal acts and the alternative bands that came after them. Anthrax guitarist Scott Ian describes what it was like to see the original lineup of Kiss regroup and put on makeup and costumes in 1996: "I went ten times and I cried every night."
Brod, a former editor of Spin magazine, put at lot of reporting in into the book. He's also a good writer. He describes Steven Tyler as having a "monkey jaw and twig-hipped Jagger mien" that made him "resemble nothing less than a creature conceived in test tube labeled ROCK STAR."
If Brod has a favorite among the four bands, it's Cheap Trick. The extra attention Cheap Trick receives works out well for the reader, because the band has not been written about as much as Kiss and Aerosmith. I also enjoyed reading about the origins of the AOR radio format, which I grew up listening to, for better and for worse. -
My old friend Doug has concocted an idiosyncratic and very engaging rock history that can be pleasurably read even by disinterested observers of the bands under examination. He's very funny, gets the reasons the bands are worth taking seriously in the first place, and handles the potentially confusing family trees and alphabet soups with the coherent deftness of the best managing editor you've ever met (which Doug has been).
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4.5 stars.... truly engrossing book - a page turner. My sole gripe being how little Aerosmith is actually covered in the book. All kinds of info pertaining to Starz that I didn’t know. Well worth the money and the time spent reading it. Highly recommended to fans of especially Starz, Cheap Trick and KISS but also fans of hard rock in general who love behind the scenes type books.
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Full disclosure - I'm more a child of the '80s than the '70s, so that may have effected my reaction to this book. I had heard of Starz because
Martin Popoff has written about a couple of their albums in his Ye Olde Metal series. That's where I've also heard of Angel. But otherwise, I would never have heard of either of these bands, and now that I've checked out their music a bit, I don't think I missed much. I had never heard any Cheap Trick before my first year of university when their video for their cover of "Don't be Cruel" was in heavy rotation. At some point, I picked up their greatest hits, along with those of Foreigner and Bad Company, and didn't really find much on it to my liking beyond "Dream Police."
I didn't know KISS were still around until they took off their makeup. I remembered when they first got big when I was a kid, but by the time I was listening to music, they weren't on my radar, so taking off their makeup kind of put them back on my radar. I had Double Platinum and a few of their '80s albums, and have seen them twice - once without makeup and then once again with. I had Aerosmith's entire back catalogue at one point, up to Pump, although I think that was more of me being a completist than actually being a huge Aerosmith fan. I have read bios and auto-bios of KISS and Aerosmith before.
I'm not really sure why this book caught my eye - maybe it just seemed that it would be interesting. There's an overview of the careers of each of the bands, although I noticed at one point that less time was spent on Aerosmith than the other four. There's a lot of random stories, some interesting, some less-so. The connections between the band seem very forced at times - "Gene Simmons' gardener once sat next to Brad Whitford in a barber shop" kind of thing. Not that incidental, but some of the connections were pretty close.
At one point (pg. 183), Brod, in talking about these four band, says: "... all of them were just a bit ... different. So were a few other American bands at the time. Alice Cooper, the Tubes and Sparks, to name three, all trafficked in theatrics and humor. But with the exception of Cooper's, their music was too brainy and their appearance to outre to garner any lasting mass success." This sounds like a bit of a suspect statement, considering that Starz also failed to garner any lasting mass success. So are the forgotten Starz more relevant than the forgotten Sparks and Tubes? I actually remember hearing a Tubes song, "She's a Beauty" on rotation on the radio, which is more than I can say for Starz.
The argument that these four bands remade rock & roll is a little suspect - Brod seems to base it on the fact that a lot of members of bands that came later were fans of these bands. Besides naming later bands that cited these bands as influences, he never really delves any farther into trying to prove that these four groups rewrote the rules. Presumably, these later bands had other influences, or other members who Brod doesn't quote brought different musical inspirations along. His whole argument to justify this book seems more like artifice to connect a bunch of random band stories than anything with any solid grounding in fact.
Some chapters - a chapter on rock journalism, a chapter on booking agents - seem just randomly thrown in and a little boring. The book does seemed padded at times, and there are parts that seem to be just there so Brod could include a story - I'd read certain paragraphs and think "why?"
If this is your era, you'll probably get more out of it than I did. There's some decent stuff here, but nothing compelling or life-changing. Definitely more of a supplementary material type of book than a must-read. -
I really enjoyed reading about Cheap Trick and Starz, whom I had not heard of until this book, and whom I will now check out as a result of the book. KISS and Aerosmith I had already read about. As a whole, I would take out the subtitle about remaking 70s rock. It seems pretentious.
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Three of my favorite bands and Kiss. What’s not to like?
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I received this arc from Hatchet books from an honest review.
I found this book to be very interesting about these bands in their place in rock. Whether they changed the face of rock and roll is debatable. I grew up in the era when these groups were starting to become popular. Though I was already into Sabbath, Zeppelin, Queen. I really never got into Kiss, but I did like a few of their songs. I Aerosmith music so that part was good.
What I liked about this book was from the beginning you got a back story about the different members of the bands and how they got together and then what made them. Kiss came up with the make-up part which added to them and set them apart. I also liked who the author was able to talk to roadies and how the Kiss roadies would fight with the Aerosmith roadies, that really set the beginning book apart from others that I have read. The cheap trick was a group I remembered from the ’80s but the author said they formed in the ’70s. Starz the least famous of the groups talked about was a group from New Jersey and have a few hits. Their lead singer was also the singer of the band Looking Glass, which had a few pop hits one being “Brandy” they would go on to influence Bon Jovi, Motley Crue to name a few. Overall a good book if you’re into music groups, then it is worth the read. I received this book from Netgalley.com I gave it 4 stars. Follow us at
www.1rad-readerreviews.com
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When I first got wind of Doug Brod’s new book, I pre-ordered it immediately. For me and others of my generation, the late 70s was a truly singular time in rock: Rock, which had grown a bit turgid, druggy, and even dull, suddenly became fun and colorful, while still being dangerous. It was irresistible.
Brod’s book looks at this era through the perspective of four bands...KISS, Aerosmith, Cheap Trick, and Starz. Why Starz? Their history shows that good songs, connections, a cool logo, and great costumes didn’t necessarily equal huge success in that era. The speculation as to why is pretty fascinating.
Brod’s book is filled with detail, and covers lots of ground not only concerning music, but the business of rock. And that business was big business indeed in the late 70s.
There are plenty of witty asides and stories too; this is quite the entertaining read.
Yes, that era was more than 40 years ago. But, as Brod says, all four of these bands have toured in the past few years. That says something about both the quality of this music and the lasting impact these bands have had on their fans’ lives. Brod gets that, and that’s what makes this a book not just worth reading, but rereading. -
I was super excited about starting this book because it included two of my all-time favorite groups - Aerosmith and Kiss - along with a band I've long respected - Cheap Trick - and one that I've never heard of - Starz.
Having completed it, my review can be summed up with a ... "meh."
I didn't dislike Brod's book and would say that I thoroughly enjoyed the first half, when all four bands were struggling. The second half was rather dry and ... dare I say, boring. With some of the most memorable characters in rock history, this book had very little personality.
Fans of Kiss and Aerosmith won't learn anything new here (not that there's really much to uncover), however, I will say that Brod made me revisit Cheap Trick's catalogue. Most 70s rock fans know their hits, but Brod brought life to what I'd have to say is one of the hardest working bands in rock.
Starz, a good band that just didn't get the breaks of the other three, also received a deep dive, after which, it's pretty obvious as to why Starz didn't make it big.
They Just Seem a Little Bit Weird is not a must-read by any stretch, but for those looking for an academic analysis of 70s rock, it's a good option. -
As a life-long music lover who remembers being devastated when her older sister (who didn't even like the band!) received a puzzle of the KISS Destroyer album, there was no way that I could pass up a book featuring not only KISS, but also beloved bands Cheap Trick and Aerosmith (my first concert!). I had never heard of Starz, but I figured that if they were being mentioned on the same breathe as those bands, they had to be good also. I'm very happy to state that this book did not disappoint! Although it took me awhile to get through, that was mainly due to constantly going down rabbit holes, looking up people, events, and all kinds of things that were talked about...thank goodness for Google! There is honestly so much history within this book that I never had any clue about. The connections between the bands and their music- including management and producers- was fascinating to discover. It was also interesting to read of how those bands influenced so much of the music and artists that came later, especially in the 80s. which has also been my favorite era (hello, hair metal!).
There were some parts of the book that were dry and kinda dragged along (hence the 4 star rating), but overall, it was a well-researched and written exploration of music that has managed to survive and thrive over the course of four decades. -
This is easily on the border of 3 and 4 stars for me.
The pros:
- Well-written and well-organized
- Explained a lot about the "money" side of the rock music industry that I didn't know
- Had a really great but all-too-brief chapter (Chapter 20, if I recall) about the foundations of Classic Rock Radio and why basically every "classic rock" station sounds exactly the same
The cons:
- Doesn't do a whole lot to further the argument made about why Starz "failed" - honestly, after reading the book, it seems to me they pretty much got what they deserved.
- Outside of a few key interactions (perhaps a few shared shows, etc) the bands' stories don't really overlap *that much.* Therefore, this mostly becomes a book about 4 very separate, albeit well-known, bands. Sometimes this dilutes the message. -
This book was like candy. Or caramel corn, which really is candy, isn’t it? The four bands it documents - Aerosmith, Cheap Trick, Kiss and Starz (alphabetically, or course) all rocked the 70s and in three of those cases continued to rock in various different ways since then. The inclusion of Starz in the list is brilliant. Everyone knows of the first three, but Starz? Most have never heard of them, and that’s a shame, because they burned brightly really quickly before fizzling out just as fast. The way Brod connects the four of them and their various members is genius. You will marvel how they crossed paths for five decades, intricately weaving in and out of each other’s careers and lives. Thoroughly researched by a veteran of Spin and the Trouser Press Record Guide. Who could ask for anything more?
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In a recent interview one of the guys in Cheap Trick said he tried to read this and his conclusion: This writer wanted to write a book about his favorite bands and forced the comparisons and connections. While I'm mildly interested in the history of these bands, the kind of pompous, bloated rock they represent does not make me think they contributed much of anything to rock and roll except dumbing it down and reinforcing sexist cliches (I'll give Cheap Trick a pass). There was not enough here to keep me interested to the end.
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I’m a big fan of Cheap Trick, the others not so much. But still interesting to read about their exploits. Unfortunately, the author also spent WAY too many pages on minor characters and bands and how they all knew each other. Just tedious. By the end I was skimming pages. The Cheap Trick stuff was enjoyable, though.
