Diary of A Rock 'n' Roll Star by Ian Hunter (1974). Ian Hunter -- lead singer with the perpetually underrated 70s rock band, Mott The Hoople -- maintained this tour diary during Mott's November 20 to December 24 dash through the States in 1972 (between the albums All The Young Dudes and Mott). Originally published in 1974 as Diary of A Rock 'n' Roll Star -- though my copy is actually a 1976 edition by Flash Books, retitled Reflections Of A Rock Star and using cover art from Hunter's All-American Alien Boy solo album. Riding along with Mr. Clean's Dead Milkmen tour diaries, I decided to pull this off the shelf for a look at an even earlier era. It's a very interesting trip, from the days when record companies would routinely throw bands onto jets and send them zig-zagging around the country like pinballs. The tour routing is amazingly inefficient -- what madness. Hunter's chatty narrative is very friendly and characterful. There are passages that are hilariously non-PC by today's standards, though probably no big deal at the time. He deserves great credit for being tremendously open about... pretty much everything. He seems to hide few secrets from us (and seems to enjoy revealing his most doofus moments), making for a well filled-in picture of a period of rock culture that is far, far gone today. That said, don't expect wild tales of excess. Mott weren't into hard drugs or the groupie scene (the groupies apparently being more of a pestering than a pleasure, by this point in their career). This is more of a working-class rock experience (if you can imagine hanging out with Ziggy-era Bowie as the ol' work routine). A cool ride.
Posted by M.Ace at 03:42 PM, April 19, 2004.Oh man, I've wanted to read this book since I first read about it in Creem back in high school, but it was impossible to find. I'll have to look for it when I'm in London.
Posted by MrBaliHai at 05:55 PM, April 19, 2004.At the moment there are four "used/new" copies available via a ubiquitous retailer I don't plug here. Just recently they also had new copies available direct. So it may be in print, or fading out of print... again. Well worth the effort of finding it, though.