Long, Christopher : A Shot Of Poison (Book)

Over the years there have been plenty of rock tomes detailing the sordid tales of rock 'n roll's overindulgence's. Led Zeppelin had Hammer of The Gods, Aerosmith came out with Walk This Way, both books penned by Stephen Davis, and of course who can forget Motley Crue's filth laden opus the appropriately titled The Dirt. These are just a few examples of some of the more noteworthy entrants in the lucrative 'tell all' books we've all come to either love or hate. With a few exceptions (The Dirt being one of them) more often than not the majority of these are unauthorized biographies so they definitely need to be taken with more than a grain of salt as there's always a question of how much truth there is to the actual story in question. Author Christopher Long's book A Shot Of Poison which details his experiences working for the notorious glam / hard rock band, is one of those exceptions.

Largely culled from Long's experiences working as a personal assistant to bassist Bobby Dall on tours from 2006-2009, he aims if nothing else to provide an honest and thorough account of what it was like to work for a band that has certainly seen its popularity wane considerably from their days of being a multi-platinum selling machine in the late 80's and early 90's.

Over the course of this easy to read in one sitting book which comes in at just under two hundred and fifty pages, Long doesn't come off as just another person with an axe to grind, which is somewhat surprising considering some of the hellish things he was forced to endure. He is more than willing to dish the dirt on what went down behind the scenes in the studio, on the bus and backstage at venues all over America. Without divulging too much information, because I certainly don't want to give too much away, let's just say the band, and Dall in particular, aren't always painted in a manner that could be considered flattering. But hey who said the truth is pretty right? He goes in depth to reveal the insecurities and often eccentric behavior of each member, and so the reader is quick to ascertain that this is a band that has always had longstanding issues, infighting and constant ego clashes from day one, which in all reality probably doesn't make them that much different from any other band out there slogging it out on the road year after year trying to carve out a living in the high stakes, crash 'n burn world of rock 'n roll.

A Shot Of Poison is an entertaining read from beginning to end and an interesting account of one man's dream job working for a band he admired from almost day one. I think if there's a moral to this story though it would definitely be that tried and true adage that when you dream you should be careful what you wish for, not to mention it's not always a good idea to meet your heroes because it will probably be one hell of a come down when you find out that they're just real people like you and me.

Added: March 27th 2010
Reviewer: Ryan Sparks
Score:
Related Link: Collecter's Guide Publishing
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Language: english

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