Castles in the Sand: Sordid Tales from the Rock ’n’ Roll Dumpster
by Alternative Reel Staff
"CASTLES MADE OF SAND FALL IN THE SEA EVENTUALLY." --Jimi Hendrix
- After a concert at the Dinner Key Auditorium in Miami, Jim Morrison was arrested for "lewd and lascivious behavior in public by exposing his private parts and by simulating masturbation and oral copulation."
- "I’ve only been in love with a beer bottle and a mirror." --Sid Vicious
- In the last moments of Elvis’ life, he had been sitting on the toilet in his Graceland home reading The Scientific Search for the Face of Jesus.
- "They shoulda called me Little Cocaine, I was sniffing so much of the stuff! My nose got big enough to back a diesel truck in, unload it and drive it right out again." --Little Richard
- Frank Sinatra on rock ’n’ roll: "The most brutal, ugly, desperate, vicious form of expression it has been my misfortune to hear."
- Pete Townshend on the drowning death of Brian Jones, 1969: "It’s an ordinary day for Brian. Like, he died every day, you know."
- 1996 - The greatest hits collection, "Time Flies . . . The Best of Huey Lewis & The News," peaks out at No. 185 on the U.S. charts.
- "Nobody stopped thinking about those psychedelic experiences. Once you’ve been to some of those places, you think, ‘How can I get back there again but make it a little easier on myself?’" --Jerry Garcia
- Jim Morrison’s grave in Pere Lachaise cemetery is monitored by video cameras in an futile attempt to deter graffiti artists and stoned groupies.
- "A lot of pop music is about stealing pocket money from children." --Ian Anderson
- Keith Moon of The Who died on September 7, 1978, after ingesting 32 tablets of the sedative Heminevrin. He was 32 years old. His close buddies insisted he died of "natural causes."
- "If it’s too loud, you’re too old." --Ted Nugent
- In 1992, Jackson Browne allegedly assaulted then-girlfriend, actress Daryl Hannah.
- "Undermine their pompous authority. Reject their moral standards. Make anarchy and disorder your trademarks. Cause as much chaos and disruption as possible . . . But don’t let them take you alive!" --Sid Vicious
- Dennis Wilson was the only member of The Beach Boys who actually knew how to surf.
- On a tape-recorded tour at the Nixon Library, Nixon says, "I have often thought that if there had been a good rap group around in those days, I might have chosen a career in music instead of politics."
- David Lee Roth was arrested in Central Park in 1993 for purchasing a $10 bag of pot.
- "Jerry died broke. We only had a few hundred thousand dollars in the bank." --Jerry Garcia’s widow, Deborah Koons Garcia
- In 1993, Guns N’ Roses released The Spaghetti Incident, which included a song penned by none other than Charles Manson.
- "Courtney Love’s the best fuck in the world." --Kurt Cobain, TV interview, 1991
- David Crosby allegedly slept through most of his 1983 trial for cocaine possession. He was sentenced to five years in the Texas State Penitentiary.
- "There are two kinds of artists left: those who endorse Pepsi and those who simply won’t." --Annie Lennox, 1990
- Tom Waits, who was born in the back of a moving taxi on Pearl Harbor Day, 1949, once claimed, "the only good thing about an Eagles LP is that it keeps the dust off your turntable."
- "Music is like dope, you use it, you get tired of it and you stop . . . you don’t mess it up." --Miles Davis
- During a concert rehearsal in 1988, Alice Cooper nearly hanged himself but was saved by a quick-thinking roadie.
- "I think, between us, Bill Clinton and I have settled any lingering myths about the brilliance of Rhodes Scholars." --Kris Kristofferson, 1992
- Wendy O. Williams, lead singer of the punk band the Plasmatics, committed suicide in 1998. "You would never have thought she’d be the type of person to turn a gun on herself," according to Joey Ramone.
- In 1980, Don Henley of The Eagles was arrested after a naked 16-year-old girl suffered a drug overdose in his Los Angeles home.
- "Elvis Presley - bloated, over the hill, adolescent entertainer - had nothing to do with excellence, just myth." —Marlon Brando, 1979 [Editor’s Note: Have you looked in the mirror lately, Marlon?]
- 1988 - Neil Young’s video "This Note’s for You" was initially banned by MTV for its attack on mindless commercialism.
- Courtney Love, lead singer of Hole, once told an audience, "I’m going to abuse you, because you fucking deserve it, you shits!"
- "We tell ourselves we are a counterculture. And yet are we really so different from the culture against which we rebel?" --Jon Landau, Rolling Stone, 1971
- A rumor spread that shock rocker Marilyn Manson would commit suicide during a 1996 concert in Asbury Park. Unfortunately, the rumor proved unfounded.
- The Who set off an explosion during its appearance on "The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour" in 1967, damaging Pete Townshend’s ears and injuring Keith Moon’s leg. Fellow guests Bette Davis and Mickey Rooney witnessed the anarchy and were appalled to say the least.
- In 1995, Ringo Starr appeared in a Japanese ad for Takara apple drink.
- "I’ve rocked my roll. It’s a boring dead end. There will be no more rock ‘n’ roll records or tours from me. The last thing I want to be is some useless fucking rock singer." --David Bowie, 1975
- Beat writer and heroin addict William S. Burroughs appears in the collage on The Beatles’ Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band album cover.
- "They’re comin’ to get you . . . Say something not straight down the middle of the line and they’re gonna get you. We can’t allow this to happen. There is no such thing as free speech in America. Free speech is a concept, the Constitution is a concept." --Ice-T
- In 1973, Ron "Pigpen" McKernan of The Grateful Dead died of alcohol poisoning in the yard of an apartment in California.
- When River Phoenix collapsed outside The Viper Room, Flea of Red Hot Chili Peppers rode with him in the ambulance to the hospital.
- "Now, I was 36 years old, bloated, overweight, smoking too much, eating too little, consuming a fifth of whiskey and a couple of grams of coke a day. More or less sleeping in a car, waking up outside lawyer’s offices and honky-tonks. Wearing polyester so the wrinkles wouldn’t show." --Jerry Jeff Walker, Gypsy Songman
- George Michael was arrested for committing a "lewd act" in the men’s room at Will Rogers Park in Beverly Hills.
- 1982 - Haircut 100 releases "Love Plus One," which reaches No. 37 on the U.S. charts.
- In the "documentary" Kurt and Courtney, the lead singer of Hole’s father commented on the death of Cobain: "I don’t think he killed himself. I think somebody killed him. I’m not saying Courtney did it. I don’t really know, but the evidence is so strong."
- The group Steely Dan was named for a steam-powered dildo mentioned in Naked Lunch by William S. Burroughs.
- Billy Idol appeared as himself in The Wedding Singer, a 1999 film starring Adam Sandler.
- 1999 - R.E.M. sings "Shiny Happy People" on Sesame Street.
- Sid Vicious stabbed his girlfriend, Nancy Spungen, to death while in a drug-induced stupor at the Chelsea Hotel on October 12, 1978. Vicious himself died soon after of a heroin overdose.
- In 1989, Chuck Berry’s former cook filed a civil suit against him that claimed the singer secretly installed video recording equipment in the women’s restroom at the restaurant he owned, Southern Air.
- Foreigner took the stage at the first American Association for Nude Recreation’s "Musicfest ’95" in Union City, MI.
- Kurt Cobain’s suicide note quoted from Neil Young’s song "My My, Hey Hey" - "It’s better to burn out than fade away."
“I wish to be given a title or an appointed position. I can and will do more good if I were made a Federal Agent at Large, and I will help best by doing it my way through my communication with people of all ages. First and foremost I am an entertainer but all I need is the Federal Credentials.” —Elvis Presley, letter to President Nixon, December 19, 1970
SOURCES FOR FURTHER INFORMATION:
- The Rolling Stone Album Guide : Completely New Reviews : Every Essential Album, Every Essential Artist , 1992
- VH1 Music First Rock Stars Encyclopedia, 1999.
