Permanent Damage: Memoirs of an Outrageous Girl

by Mercy Fontenot, Lyndsey Parker (With)

“I’m the Mae West of 1968.”Mercy Fontenot was a Zelig who grew up in the San Francisco Haight Ashbury scene, where she crossed paths with Charles Manson, went to the first Acid Test, and was friends with Jimi Hendrix (she was later in his movie Rainbow Bridge). She predicted the Altamont disaster when reading the Rolling Stones’ tarot cards at a party and left San Francisco for the climes of Los Angeles in 1967 when the Haight ‘lost its magic.’Miss Mercy’s work in the GTOs, the Frank Zappa-produced all-female band, launched her into the pages of Rolling Stone in 1969. Her adventures saw her jumping out of a cake at Alice Cooper’s first record release party, while high on PCP, and had her travel to Memphis where she met Al Green and got a job working for the Bar-Kays. Along the way, she married and then divorced Shuggie Otis, before transitioning to punk rock and working with the Rockats and Gears. This is her story as she lived and saw it.Written just prior to her death in 2020, Permanent Damage shows us the world of the 1960s and 1970s music scene through Mercy's eyes, as well as the fallout of that era—experiencing homelessness before sobering up and putting her life back together. Miss Mercy’s journey is a can’t miss for anyone who was there and can’t remember, or just wishes they’d been there.

Genres: Music, Nonfiction, Biography Memoir, Memoir, Biography

210 pages, Kindle Edition

Published June 9, 2021

Reviews

[Still · Rating 5 out of 5]

Note: It Took Me 20 Edits To Get This Review Someway Approximating My Intended Review. That’s Not Even Counting The Attempts To Upload The Desired Images. I Apologize In Advance

Five Stars (5).

In 1969 I was a junior high school student. I had been buying Rolling Stone Magazine for about a year. In those days, Rolling Stone was distributed by A&M Records. This way Rolling Stone was able to make the magazine available not just in specialty stores or hip newstands or headshops - the magazine was going straight to the youth of America by way of record stores.

I bought every issue that came out and loved them all.
Early Rolling Stone was a thing of baroque beauty that usually featured some now-mythic Rock band on the front cover. It was in tabloid format. You could roll your reefers in an issue open to the back cover/actual front-page and have room enough to seed your dope and roll your clean grass into the appropriate sized number you wanted to smoke in that particular hour.

There were many issues with covers and stories and reviews that blew my mind but the one that totally took the top of my head off was issue number 27 -February 23, 1969. It looked a little something like this:

(Fixed: but click on the link below to see image)


< img src=https://ibb.co/nsyY3Nj/>



As you can see from the cover headlines this was Rolling Stone's infamous "Groupie Issue". Hell, groupies had been mainstream/straight media's minor obsession for less than one season.

This particular article covered about what you'd expected, the lurid accounts of having sex with various stars, how they were in bed, who had the biggest pecker (or schlong, pick your preferred term). The lady on the back-front cover, blown up larger than life across both pages of the unfolded tabloid was the photo of a woman whose "look" I would be hung up on for the rest of my youth on into my 30s. Both ladies were soon to be in a short-lived project overseen by Frank Zappa for his new Warner-Reprise affilaited record label, Bizarre Records ...future home of Captain Beefheart, Wild Man Fischer, Alice Cooper.

They were to become members of an all-groupie rock'n'roll band called the GTO's or Girls Together Outrageously or alternately Occasionally. Their name was suggested by Miss Mercy and her friend and group cohort Pamela des Barres.
They released an album and a single was pulled from the album for release: “Mercy's Song”. The only listenable track on the album.

The front cover issue featured GTO, Trixie. Pamela Des Barres was also in the group and easily the most beautiful of all the members.
But…
The one who completely became the Queen of my Dreams was this lady featured in the front page fold-out:

(Fixed: but click on the link to see the magnificent Miss Mercy)

< img src= https://ibb.co/JBJvNsR/>

That's Miss Mercy. Mercy Fontenot - not her real name. An alias when she remade herself into some kind of Gypsy goddess of voluptuousness and unique and special beauty. I was so stricken by her raccoon eyes make-up and wild, flowing, midnight hair that I fell in love with her doppleganger. A Memphis girl who loved rock'n'roll, LSD, marijuana, and sometimes me. She was my first serious love. It went on for a couple of years until she dropped acid with Black Oak Arkansas, gangbanged most of the band members and then got pregnant. I bailed like a bad monkey burned by a hot pan of skillet grease.

This book is Miss Mercy's autobiography or an "as told to" number co-written with journalist Lyndsey Parker who does an absolutely marvelous job getting the then septuagenarian to maintain the chronology of her career as a San Francisco and Los Angeles scenester, party-girl, and most devastatingly a drug addict. Mercy was addicted to drugs from 1968 until she finally got sober for good in 1998 while tending to her best friend Pamela Des Barres' mother, then dying of advanced cancer.

This is a book some will enjoy immensely for the hedonistic lifestyle Miss Mercy embraced. There are many laughs to be had here but if you're wanting the real goods on the Rock Gods of the era you're gonna feel short changed.
Unless of course you find figures like Shuggie Otis to be one of those guitarists to be held in the same esteem as say, Peter Green, or Shuggie’s own father, Johnny Otis. Shuggie was a great - I mean GREAT guitarist- at the age of 16 or 17. He idolized Hendrix who makes a cameo or two in this book. Shuggie would later write the brilliant song "Strawberry Letter #40-something" a minor hit for Shuggie but when covered by The Brothers Johnson became a huge success.

Mostly this is about how much fun it was to obtain and get high on assorted drugs. For Mercy it was amphetamines that really moved her and was responsible for many of her outrageous adventures which mostly involved screwing rock stars who were a big deal for a spell.

She's a wonderful story teller even if almost all her stories have sad elements to them.

She levels with the readers at one point and admits ...it wasn't about the sex. In fact, she says she never really got off on sex with the exception of one guy - a guy not in the music business. No matter the countless tawdry (to you maybe) affairs and sleeping around with music stars, it was always all about the drugs that came with the pretty rock'n'roll boys.

The passages about her time with some monster Black guy who's into punching her unexpectedly, unprovoked are harrowing. The final time he beat her badly they were getting high on crack when he just punched her in the side of her face. The blow was so extreme, so hard, that it shattered all the bones on one side of her face. It would have to be corrected with reconstructive surgery involving metal rods replacing her shattered jaw-bone and eye socket.

She heals. Recovers and promptly gets with another black crack addict because he's always able to cop. Plus he knows other “cool” crack addicts like Sky Saxon of mid-1960s band The Seeds and Arthur Lee of Love.
They wind up homeless, walking the streets pushing a shopping cart, collecting old metal and bottles and aluminum cans they sell to a recycling outfit for crack money. She admits in the book here that she really enjoyed herself, being homeless, just drifting from day to day, living to cop and copping to cope.

She winds up diagnosed with cancer after cleaning up and living with Pamela, tending Pamela's mother. She puts on a brave face throughout her recitations of her up and down and down and out life. She seems to have always craved the spotlight of the stars - and other "proper"celebrities.

I loved this.
It's funny, entertaining, gossipy and a clear view of what it must have been like to have been near those big time, big shots of 1960s-70s music.

It's emotional going near the end and Pamela Des Barres supplies a heartfelt, loving, and heartbreaking postscript to Miss Mercy's tales.

Recommended, ya buncha rock’n’roll weepers!

[Autumn · Rating 5 out of 5]

GTO Miss Mercy was one of a kind, and kind of a mess, but I'm so happy she shared some of her incredible stories in this book before she passed. No one else is going to be honest enough to say "Oh yeah, after I had sex with Chuck Berry, he asked me to shit in a bucket while he watched."

I also love that Mercy believed she survived her countless traumas because of her excellent musical taste. Same girl, same. Also, I think your friend Pam deserves at least 50% of the credit.

[Ville Verkkapuro · Rating 5 out of 5]

Insane stories with a lot of warmth inside. Not a tell-all highlight reel of fuck-ups, but more of a very accurate portrayal of a time long gone and an interesting psychological profile of a person who is impossible to categorise, though many of us will try to. Miss Mercy, a kind heart and a socialite and a confident adventurer... and a groupie, junky, homeless person, telling her life story. A lot of sex and drugs, a lot of abuse and horror, yet a lot of fun and freedom, too.
The names in this book are insane, ranging from Chuck Berry to Jimi Hendrix to Charles Manson. Insane stories from doing the same smack as Janis Joplin did the night she died, from Chuck Berry doing his rapey poop-thing and taking Polaroids and being on the cover of Rolling Stone.
So honest, yet not bitter or revengeful at all. A very clear picture. Oh god, how I would've wanted to experience this. Since I saw Almost Famous and Boogie Nights as a kid I felt something move inside of me. A deep longing for this time and this lifestyle. And that time will never return, the momentum is gone. Now my free spirit and curious mind only mean I am an annoying soft boy art-driven hipster who does psychedelics because they are good for your health, is possibly poly-curious or an advocate of ethical non-monogamy, neo-spiritual, diginomad with a wanderlust and an anti-capitalist ethos in his Instagram stories, having difficulty to identify with a gender and labeling it with gender-fluid or something like that. Not cool at all, but annoying as hell, in a wrong way.
I truly am a hippie living in the wrong time.

[Nigeyb · Rating 2 out of 5]

Full disclosure. I only listened to a couple of chapters. Mercy imagines that drug tale after drug tale interspersed with lots of name dropping makes for a worthwhile book. It’s just boring. The Audible narrator is as uninspiring and annoying as the content. Avoid

[SuperWendy · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the literary equivalent of slowing down on the freeway to gawk at an accident. Of course I kind of expected that going into the book - so basically it delivered what I expected.

The lesson here kids? Don't do drugs and hide your diaries from your jealous husband so he doesn't destroy them. Because of that I felt like Mercy's story, while told in her own words, felt disjointed. I mean, girlfriend did a serious amount of drugs for 50+ years. So this reads more like a series of stories as opposed to a cohesive memoir that takes us from Point A to Point B. A couple of things that stood out - Mercy knew her music and that's about the only thing she romanticized. She loved music. If she had done fewer drugs and reined in some of her excesses - man, what she could of done in A&R.

[Spiros · Rating 4 out of 5]

An amazing book, limning an amazing high-speed (pun very much intentional) car crash of a life. The lady was very much on the scene, whatever the scene was: North Beach Beat, Haight Ashbury, Laurel Canyon, Stax Memphis, L.A. Punk, West Coast Hip-Hop: Mercy was right on time, right in the middle of it. Throughout her travails, we are afforded intimate views of luminaries such as Gram Parsons, Shuggie Otis, Al Green, and Arthur Lee, but obviously the most compelling character is Miss Mercy herself, who managed to spin an amazingly self-destructive lifestyle into a ripe old age. As a side note, I was surprised not to run into Eve Babitz in these pages, but I guess they were different sides of the same coin, and so probably weren’t much aware of each other.

[Michael Bakos · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating story from an ahead-of-her-time scenester who knew everybody and was in the middle of numerous musical and cultural turning points. Definitely some tragic points, but you get the sense that she was a survivor with a huge appetite for life (and drugs).

[Jon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fun, gossipy rock read which quickly turns into a pretty upsetting look at homelessness / drug addiction. Chuck Berry seems like a real hoot.

[Lynda Fryatt · Rating 5 out of 5]

Have Mercy

What a fantastic lady. She had so much get up and go despite terrible things happening to her. She owned up to her mistakes, she was warm-hearted, understanding woman. RIP Miss Mercy

[Andrea · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow did Mercy have good stories or what? This book was great.

[Ashley Osborn - Book Of Salem · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was so insane. Finished it in 2 sittings. There are some WILD stories.

[Janeen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Definitely glad that the late legendary Miss Mercy was able to tell her story with all its ups and downs. I would constantly have to refer to my phone to get a picture of the many people she wrote about. There are accompanying photos but not enough for this woman’s colorful life. A good read glad I came across it because I’ve heard about the GT0’s and read all the Pamela Des Barres books and this shed light on another survivor from that era.

[a]

I hate rating memoirs because how can we quantify a person’s life?Miss Mercy’s life was beyond all that we could comprehend, truly a star and miracle she lived to tell her story. you can tell by the way Miss Mercy expresses herself that she doesn’t like lamenting on tragedies. she lives honestly, choosing to focus on the spectacular. her life was singular and unique, a life that many dream of exploring. Oh how she loved the music and how she loved her friends

[Susen · Rating 4 out of 5]

An absolutely wonderful book. The door is opened to much of the world of Sex, drugs and Rock and Roll from the 'Golden Age' in Los Angeles, California
The author holds back nothing, and some experiences are horrifying; but they are told with honesty and - no pun intended - mercy.
The narrator of this audiobook was wonderful.

[Natalie · Rating 5 out of 5]

An absolutely gorgeous tribute to groupie love for a band and for a fellow fangirl. I cried over Pamela and Mercy’s bond. This book was devoted, dark and devastating. Mercy also has the best sense of humor. Forever in love with the GTOs especially Mercy and Pamela💕

[Jolie Lindley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Full disclosure: I'm friends with Miss Pamela Des Barres, so I know a lot about Mercy. I enjoyed reading this tragic but also enlightening memoir of a one-of-a-kind woman who overcame a lot of violence in her life but kept on going.

[Zach Werbalowsky · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5
The voice of this book is rattled. Someone living a crazy life, but seems so juvenile. Always rolled with the high and lays never seeming to grow up (for better or for worse)

[Jayne Ahrens · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wish there'd been an index but that doesn't seem like a Miss Mercy sort of thing.

[Madeleine Fanto · Rating 3 out of 5]

There’s a lot of drugs in this one. And some occasional coprophilia and podophilia. A very scattered book, lots of cool name drops and stories though.

[C · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’ll read anything any of the GTOs and their compatriots put out, I never get tired of tales from that era of the LA music scene! So few of the people that were there remain.
Michele Overman next!

[Tania-Carmina C. · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

[✨Arielle✨]

“And so, when people ask me what the happiest time of my crazy life was, my answer is always this:
I hope it hasn't even happened yet.”

Long live Miss Mercy!

[Giselle · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wish Miss Mercy had read the audiobook instead of the narrator. Her voice on Pamela’s Pajama Party podcast was so funny and unique.

[Caro · Rating 4 out of 5]

this book was a delight - an unfiltered account of a very interesting person's life - happy, heartbreaking, gossip-y, everything I love. mercy's fervent passion for music colors her entire existence. I see a lot of myself in mercy.

[Angelique Stacy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wish it was longer!

Wish is was longer and had pictures!
Was a fun romp through the 1960's from a muse and Artist.who never failed to inspire folks to follow their bliss. Wish she wasn't so hard on her self worth and size! After reading all of Miss Pamela's books ,it was lovely to read the mysterious Miss Mercy's book. If only her ex hadn't burn't her journals it could be longer! She even adds a "trigger warning" on the hard parts. Honest , not jaded work.