Hollywood Rocks

by Simon Toon, Michael J. Rocchio

The Sunset Strip, home to such legendary venues as The Whiskey, The Roxy, The Viper Room and The Key Club (formerly Gazarri’s), first came to prominence in the early 1980’s when an army of spandex-clad pioneers emerged from the trashy gutters of downtown Hollywood. In an explosion of youthful exhuberance and truly fantastic performances, the Strip became the breeding ground for the now legendary Guns ‘N’ Roses, Motley Crue, Poison, Jane’s Addiction, Quiet Riot and a slew of others. It was a time of celebration, a non-stop party that raged out of the clubs, onto the sidewalks, and though it’s been nearly a decade since the height of its popularity, the legend of the Strip lives on in a new full-color photo album, featuring 200 pages of rare and exclusive photos, flyers and press releases from this pivotal era of metal. Whether you missed out on this spectacular epoch or your alcohol-soaked memories could use a little refreshing, Hollywood Rocks! is the most detailed, expansive photo document ever made on the ‘80s metal scene. See early press photos of Motley Crue or read an early press kit by the then unknown band Warrant; you’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you’ll wonder how anyone ever lived through it all as Hollywood Rocks! depicts the scene in all of its vivid debauchery! Rock on!

Genres: Nonfiction, Music

208 pages, Hardcover

First published September 1, 2003

Reviews

[D'Anne · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is lots of fun. It's like a yearbook for the 80's L.A. hair metal era.

[MR SAM · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very Good.

[Tiny Pants · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've owned the CD boxed set that accompanies this for years, but never owned the book -- it was expensive when it came out, I always figured I'd get it later, then poof! Out of print. So I jumped on it when I saw a used copy on Amazon for $4.99 -- an even better deal when it turned out to be a hardcover (I'd thought I was getting a paperback).

Long story short: Worth the wait. The little paperback that comes with the CDs (which are AMAZING, BTW) has more in terms of information on these different (often obscure) bands, but this is a lush, huge, coffee-table-sized book of metal, metal and more metal. Or more accurately, hair, hair, and more hair. There's even a bit toward the back that has ads for clothing stores and salons from back in the day! Amazing.

Since I really wanted just like, to see everything up close, I would have liked it if more of the pages were laid out simply like with one picture next to the next (they're a bit collage style, some images are cut off, etc). There's also a wtf-is-this-doing-here multi-page Jane's Addiction section in the middle. But really, I can't complain -- there's a wealth of old pictures here, as well as TONS of amazing flyers from gigs you wish you saw. It's really an amazing document, and a must-have for fans of glam, lyrical, LA metal.

[Justin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Whether you call it hair metal, glam metal or by some other name, the Hollywood rock sound in the 1980's was the decade's most vibrant and exciting musical scene. Motley Crue, Great White, Poison, Guns n' Roses and L.A. Guns were just a few of the bands from this scene to dominate the charts, and their history (and that of dozens of lesser-known acts) are documented visually in Hollywood Rocks.

The book is a wonderfully compiled visual history of the bands that put the Sunset Strip hard rock sound on the map. There are tons of publicity photos, flyers, ticket stubs, and other great images on just about every band to play the Strip. I thought I had a pretty good handle on that scene's bands, but there are so many bands in this book that I had never even heard of. It's really a treasure trove of hair metal history.

Hollywood Rocks is a near-perfect visual history of the hair metal era, and one that belongs on the bookshelf (or coffee table) of any die-hard fan of that kind of music. Between this book and the Hollywood Rocks: Audio Companion box set, you'll be reliving the 80's glory days in no time.

[Kitt-e-kat · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not alot of reading. Mainly pictures of all the hair bands from the 80's and early 90's. Also shows old official show flyers that were posted during that time of bands playing all the famous rock clubs on the sunset strip of L.A. Gives a bio of each of the bands popular back then. Loved the book. Takes me back to the good ol rock n roll glam metal days...lot's of memories!!