Bob Larson (1)

Bob Larson asserts in Rock: Practical Help for Those who Listen to the Words and don't Like what They Hear that Satan created rock 'n' roll music and wrote its shadier lyrics, using rock stars as his mouthpiece, in order to exploit the innocence of unsuspecting youths, and lead them toward those sex-and-drug-dead-ends down literal "highways to Hell". Larson earnestly warns his readers that if they think they're one of the lucky ones who've listened to rock music for years and have show more successfully evaded its evil influence, then they better think again! For if that raunchy rock music isn't glorifying God, goes Larson's inflexible rationale, freed as it is of those pesky complications that can arise with more nuanced hues of meaning not strictly demarcated by black or white, then exactly who is it glorifying? Uh huh, nobody else but that tireless tempter, Satan. And those who listen to rock music might as well be Satan's supper. Burp.

Larson, with all the misguided sensationalistic melodrama his puny and puerile reasoning can muster, unmasks (or so he presumes) the purported demonic disguises of more than just the usual backward-masking-suspects like Black Sabbath or Led Zeppelin, who are typically attacked in vindictive tripe-tirades like Larson's, and takes maladroit aim at bands whose alleged subversive lyrics combined are about as benign as Mister Rogers, these proverbial wolves in sheep's spandex: Journey, REO Speedwagon, Styx.

Styx!

Larson ain't kidding. He's not kidding because can't anybody else besides him see how brazenly Styx christened themselves after the very name of the mythological river that flows through the fiery bowels of Hell! Shouldn't the band's name alone prove once and for all the satanic source of their music's inspiration?

That Bob Larson, itinerant evangelist, possessed enough faith in his ability to deliver that promised "practical help" for supposed victims of rock music, speaks more to his own astounding irrelevancy believing such a book as his was ever necessary in the first place. So, Bob, "those who listen don't like what they hear" do they? then stop listening to the music, Morons! end of story! no lame or condescending book by Bob Larson with its dumb, clunky, unedited, non-creative title needed! -- than it does to his imagined powers of mighty spiritual warrior persuasion. Larson spewed nonstop 200 pages of laughable illogic and called it "practical help" when in fact it's just another of his conspiracy-fueled delusions. Consider too how dated, how embarrassingly out of touch with rock's contemporary zeitgeist the book was by the time of its regrettable publication. Could Larson have honestly expected that his teenage audience, religious or not, any sixth-grader with half a brain, would consider the book's absurd premise and ridiculous paranoia anything but the hack work of the pompous propagandist that it is? That they would consider its borderline libeling of rock icons too numerous to list with anything other than profound incredulity and profounder disdain? show less

I guess if I was to rate it on what I expected, it would have received 3 or 4 stars, but I have to be honest. This book is terrible. Although it does state some facts, most are taken out of context. Like for example, a caller who says he's a Satanist and wants to sacrifice things because he loves listening to Slayer. Well Bob makes Slayer out to be evil and bad guys because they aren't willing to write a letter to this kid to tell him to stop worshiping Satan. They did say that his parents show more and family should talk to him and get more involved in their kid's life, but they are not going to try to take the place of good parenting. More than half of the book is either proven lies or statements taken out of context. I love how he says that Dungeons and Dragons has been proven to be linked to 123 murders and suicides. I'm sure anything could be linked to murders and suicides; Twinkies, Prozac, The Bible? He is a huckster, which I already knew, but I wanted to read this book just the same. show less

At her wits' end, Jenny Owens doesn't know where to turn. Her twenty-two-year-old daughter, Allison, has moved back home with a two-year-old daughter of her own. Jenny, who loves her daughter and granddaughter deeply, does her best to support, encourage, and help Allison in any way possible, but the situation is rapidly getting out of hand. Allison is acting more like a rebellious teenager than a responsible mom.

After numerous attempts to reach her daughter, Jenny makes one last desperate show more move to connect with her wayward daughter; she calls The Billy McBride Show - tabloid TV at its worst - hoping to reconnect with Allison somehow. The topic: "Families Out of Control". Billy McBride is a no-nonsense, no-holds-barred TV host - more interested in television ratings than counseling - however, Jenny believes that Billy can help her get through to Allison.

Billy McBride's engaging smile and easygoing manner masks a deep pain which he has carried since childhood - his father's abandonment of him. This pain has left him open and vulnerable to Allison's own harsh life experiences. Billy knows the basic routine of shock television: tease the topic, badger the guests, shock the viewing audience.

When Allison suddenly attempts suicide during the broadcast, Billy's ratings skyrocket. However, Allison's desperate act brings Billy no excitement for the ratings bump, only a deep sense of sadness for both Jenny and Allison. Despite himself, Billy finds that this desperate young woman and her mother's shared plight has touched something deep within his heart and he hopes that he will be able to help them somehow. However, nothing could have prepared Billy McBride for the evil that he would encounter.

I have to say that while this book started out rather well, it turned out not to be all that frightening to me. I found that the situations that the characters were placed in were perhaps not totally unbelievable, but certainly entirely improbable, in my opinion. I like many horror books that deal with possession and spiritual warfare, and have absolutely no problem with reading books that feature strong Christian themes. However, Bob Larson - who happens to be a well-known exorcist himself, apparently - might be able to write about the supernatural competently. However, in my opinion, the author doesn't integrate reality with the supernatural very successfully.

I give this book an B+! I have one other book by Bob Larson on my bookshelf called Dead Air which I would certainly like to read at some point. I am more than willing to give Bob Larson another try, so I am hopeful that Dead Air will capture my attention better than Shock Talk: The Exorcist Files did. show less

Entertaining and/or even useful (depending on your perspective), though the author's bias is palpable.