Pamela Des Barres

I read and didn't mind Pamela Des Barres's first book, I'm With The Band, enough that I figured I'm move on to her follow-up.

I should have stopped at the first one.

As I made my way through this audiobook (narrated by the author), the only part that didn't seem to irritate me was the heartbreaking story of her father's passing. Pamela cries and chokes up as she narrates it, and you'd have to be a monster to not hear the pain of her loss, all these years later.

But.

The problem is, there's the show more entire rest of the book. While Des Barres is somewhat entertaining in a flighty, dopey kind of way, I found the biggest reveal about this book was that...unfortunately...the woman is just not that bright.

Yes, she went off script and did what she wanted with her life, which is admirable, and she managed to get into music (with her GTOs), acting, and now an author, she's done most of that with very little talent, and more off her notoriety than anything.

And then there's the majority of this book's story, her ridiculous marriage to Michael Des Barres who she constantly props up as an incredibly talented, amazing artist, but all I saw was a guy that could only step in last minute when the real talent walked away from a project. Probably his two highest-profile moments were playing the lead singer of the fictional band Scum of the Earth on WKRP in Cincinnati, and the fill-in touring vocalist for Power Station, the Duran Duran side project that Robert Palmer walked away from. Michael Des Barres was basically a spoiled child with a royal title and five dollars in his pocket.

Can he sing? Sure. But he's such an @ssh0le through most of this book, I just didn't care.

And then there's the incredible mismanagement of how both of them parented their only child. All I could do is cringe as Miss Pamela relayed the story of one horrible therapist or school placement after another.

Overall, this is just a cringey, awful book of two people who have a little more luck than they deserve, a lot less intelligence than they really required, very little talent, and how they muddled through for fifteen-odd years.

It's just a slow motion rock 'n' roll trainwreck. show less

"I'm With the Band: Confessions of a Groupie" by Pamela Des Barres unfortunately set off the explosion of "groupie book" memoirs by dubious women that publishers wouldn't have touched if "I'm With the Band" hadn't created a mild sensation. I read this one in the 1980s shortly after it came out and was flabbergasted that someone would gleefully boast about being passed around by men, rock stars or not. By the way, Jimmy Page did not wear his dragon suit until 1975, Pam, long after he dumped you.

"Let's Spend the Night Together" by Pamela Des Barres is a foul collection of tales. At one time it was respectable to NOT kiss and tell. Imagine gaining your 15 minutes of infamy for having been a receptacle to a rock star. Some of the women in this book have made a career and a bankroll from telling and retelling their dubious claims. Got their photo taken with a musician at a public event, the photo that goes viral is cropped to remove others in the background, other photos from the same show more event with the musician posing with different fans aren’t publicized, and presto a myth is born! A little internet research on some of these women show their stories change over time or are simply untrue. But the public wishes to believe the scandal because it is much more titillating. show less

The prose style, especially the old diary entries, get a little hard to take after a while, but nevertheless, I couldn't stop reading. I love it that in this book Chris Hillman is on the same level as a target for her lust as was Jimmy Page or Mick Jagger or Don Johnson. We do get some very nice vignettes of the personalities and offstage sides of Mick Jagger, Keith Moon, and many others. IN some cases, they are complementary--such as Jagger--and in others, sad, as in the doomed Mr. Moon. show more This is a story worth reading, and I'm glad I read it. It does take you back to a different time and place. show less