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Larson's Book of Rock
Larson describes the rock-music scene and offers practical advice on how to deal with rock music from a Christian perspective.
192 pages, Paperback
Published November 17, 1987
14 people want to read
About the author
Bob Larson
54 books36 followersBob Larson is an American radio and television evangelist, and a pastor of Spiritual Freedom Church in Phoenix, Arizona. Larson has authored numerous books critical of rock music and Satanism.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
November 20, 2020
This book is fucking awesome.
Written by an opinionated bigot who was deeply concerned about the moral turpitude of the then current generation, this book had an interesting impact on my life back when I read it in high school. I too was horrified by the sex, drugs, satanism, violence, and false religions that were being promoted by these rock artists. But part of me was fascinated as well, and in the long run, as I broke out of the confining shell of Christianity, the memory of this book became a guidemap of sorts in my explorations of the multi-faceted word of music. The tone of this book is a tiny bit less vitriolic than I remembered, but it's just as dumb, and just as preachy. And therein lies its awesomeness.
Larson focuses on the worst excesses of various rock artists, conveniently ignoring the possibility that people in general have been behaving in such ways since as long as there have been people attaining the wealth and notoriety to gain access to their desires, for better or worse. Just take a look at history. But that would detract from his anti-rock narrative, so fuck that bit of expanded view, and on with the horror show. Larson vilifies Cyndi Lauper for daring to sing about women in a sexually aware and positive way, and encouraging women (and *gasp* girls) to be individuals, to shuck off authority. Larson vilifies Annie Lennox for her gender-bending appearance, which doesn't fit traditional gender roles, but also for later taking on a more sensual image. Larson hates sex, unless it is within the narrow confines of his religion, relegated only to marriage. Larson calls homosexuality a perversion, not just once but multiple times, and he is extremely horrified by these bands trying to normalize that 'behavior' attacking everyone from Culture Club to David Bowie to The Kinks to the Velvet Underground.
I grew up in a household and a church in which these attitudes were taken as deadly serious. There was a culture war going with the imaginary gay troops attempting to coerce children into being gay. I was terrified. After going to college, escaping the chains of religion, and meeting actual gay people, especially after becoming part of the goth community, I learned that the wide spectrum of genders and sexuality are not only non-scary and normal, they enrich the world. They are just people. Not demons. Someone won this culture war, and is wasn't Larson and his ilk.
Speaking of demons, of course Larson believes in the literal presence of demons, and the reality of possession and exorcism. I also believed all that as a kid, and participated in exorcism at my parents church (not the Catholic style), and in hindsight I understand that it is all fucking bullshit. Exorcisms are dull, tepid affairs and they are at their core essentially collaborative ritual delusion that always become more fantastic over time. I'll leave it at that. Of course this belief helps explain why Larson gets so frothed up over the occult in rock. He sincerely thinks that all other religions besides his own are false, but that they are interacting and driven by real demonic forces in opposition to his god. I think that all religions are bullshit wrapped around a core of truth, a core that can be arrived at and discerned without resorting to the bullshit. I find the occult influences in rock to be fascinating, because I approach them as elaborate mythology, and one of the backfire effects of this book was that as I slipped away from Christianity, I deliberately sought out and listened to numerous bands that I remembered from this book - Blue Oyster Cult, Deep Purple, Led Zeppelin, Stevie Nicks, Tangerine Dream, and many others. Thanks Bob Larson.
Now for a point of agreement. Sort of. Larson decries the sexual excesses of dozens of artists from Wasp and Ratt to Bruce Springsteen and Elvis Presley, but where he is completely focused on the evils of sex, I would say that the largely misogynistic behavior of some of those artists is the deeper concern, especially with a lot of the metal bands who essentially treat women as disposable fuck toys. But then that is not a consequence of rock, rather it is more tied to wealth and fame and the power it brings - again look at the history of behavior in people of extreme wealth and fame. This is a human problem, not a problem with music.
To wrap up this excessive ramble of a review, I will mention the final chapter in which Larson has a stupid little sermon, with all typical narrative structures, the type of thing I heard a hundred and more times at my parents' church. Larson wants a house, his parents say "god says no" he frets and whines and doesn't get the house. Years later he gets a bigger house across the street. Sledgehammer proof that children should obey their parents when the parents say no because that is the same as god saying no. The story is everything.
Thanks Bob Larson, for a laugh-fest of ignorance and self-righteousness, and I wonder, do you still believe that Boyd Rice is the devil?
Addendum:
For those who might want a bit of extra fun, I created a list of every song explicitly mentioned by Larson in this book, excluding the ones he approves of:
https://www.listchallenges.com/bob-la...
Written by an opinionated bigot who was deeply concerned about the moral turpitude of the then current generation, this book had an interesting impact on my life back when I read it in high school. I too was horrified by the sex, drugs, satanism, violence, and false religions that were being promoted by these rock artists. But part of me was fascinated as well, and in the long run, as I broke out of the confining shell of Christianity, the memory of this book became a guidemap of sorts in my explorations of the multi-faceted word of music. The tone of this book is a tiny bit less vitriolic than I remembered, but it's just as dumb, and just as preachy. And therein lies its awesomeness.
Larson focuses on the worst excesses of various rock artists, conveniently ignoring the possibility that people in general have been behaving in such ways since as long as there have been people attaining the wealth and notoriety to gain access to their desires, for better or worse. Just take a look at history. But that would detract from his anti-rock narrative, so fuck that bit of expanded view, and on with the horror show. Larson vilifies Cyndi Lauper for daring to sing about women in a sexually aware and positive way, and encouraging women (and *gasp* girls) to be individuals, to shuck off authority. Larson vilifies Annie Lennox for her gender-bending appearance, which doesn't fit traditional gender roles, but also for later taking on a more sensual image. Larson hates sex, unless it is within the narrow confines of his religion, relegated only to marriage. Larson calls homosexuality a perversion, not just once but multiple times, and he is extremely horrified by these bands trying to normalize that 'behavior' attacking everyone from Culture Club to David Bowie to The Kinks to the Velvet Underground.
No mater how well well you've trained your child to disdain sexual perversion, the incessant onslaught takes it toll. Your child may know homosexuality is wrong, but how long can he fend off his rock idol's insistence that gay is good?
Parents, wake up! The storm troopers for gay liberation have attacked with guitars in hand.
I grew up in a household and a church in which these attitudes were taken as deadly serious. There was a culture war going with the imaginary gay troops attempting to coerce children into being gay. I was terrified. After going to college, escaping the chains of religion, and meeting actual gay people, especially after becoming part of the goth community, I learned that the wide spectrum of genders and sexuality are not only non-scary and normal, they enrich the world. They are just people. Not demons. Someone won this culture war, and is wasn't Larson and his ilk.
Speaking of demons, of course Larson believes in the literal presence of demons, and the reality of possession and exorcism. I also believed all that as a kid, and participated in exorcism at my parents church (not the Catholic style), and in hindsight I understand that it is all fucking bullshit. Exorcisms are dull, tepid affairs and they are at their core essentially collaborative ritual delusion that always become more fantastic over time. I'll leave it at that. Of course this belief helps explain why Larson gets so frothed up over the occult in rock. He sincerely thinks that all other religions besides his own are false, but that they are interacting and driven by real demonic forces in opposition to his god. I think that all religions are bullshit wrapped around a core of truth, a core that can be arrived at and discerned without resorting to the bullshit. I find the occult influences in rock to be fascinating, because I approach them as elaborate mythology, and one of the backfire effects of this book was that as I slipped away from Christianity, I deliberately sought out and listened to numerous bands that I remembered from this book - Blue Oyster Cult, Deep Purple, Led Zeppelin, Stevie Nicks, Tangerine Dream, and many others. Thanks Bob Larson.
Now for a point of agreement. Sort of. Larson decries the sexual excesses of dozens of artists from Wasp and Ratt to Bruce Springsteen and Elvis Presley, but where he is completely focused on the evils of sex, I would say that the largely misogynistic behavior of some of those artists is the deeper concern, especially with a lot of the metal bands who essentially treat women as disposable fuck toys. But then that is not a consequence of rock, rather it is more tied to wealth and fame and the power it brings - again look at the history of behavior in people of extreme wealth and fame. This is a human problem, not a problem with music.
To wrap up this excessive ramble of a review, I will mention the final chapter in which Larson has a stupid little sermon, with all typical narrative structures, the type of thing I heard a hundred and more times at my parents' church. Larson wants a house, his parents say "god says no" he frets and whines and doesn't get the house. Years later he gets a bigger house across the street. Sledgehammer proof that children should obey their parents when the parents say no because that is the same as god saying no. The story is everything.
Thanks Bob Larson, for a laugh-fest of ignorance and self-righteousness, and I wonder, do you still believe that Boyd Rice is the devil?
Addendum:
For those who might want a bit of extra fun, I created a list of every song explicitly mentioned by Larson in this book, excluding the ones he approves of:
https://www.listchallenges.com/bob-la...
January 31, 2008
Instead of a review, I just want to point out that Larson claims Daryl Hall's grandfather was a warlock.
Here's a sample:
"The Christian teenager who nostalgically bounces to 'Surfin' U.S.A.' should remember that the Beach Boys' fame prepared the way for the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi's introduction of TM and occult mysticism into America's mainstream."
His list of the rockers with the most negative moral impact on youth includes such demons from hell as The Beach Boys, The Beatles, Hall and Oates, John Cougar Mellencamp, Cyndi Lauper, and Rod Stewart.
Here's a sample:
"The Christian teenager who nostalgically bounces to 'Surfin' U.S.A.' should remember that the Beach Boys' fame prepared the way for the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi's introduction of TM and occult mysticism into America's mainstream."
His list of the rockers with the most negative moral impact on youth includes such demons from hell as The Beach Boys, The Beatles, Hall and Oates, John Cougar Mellencamp, Cyndi Lauper, and Rod Stewart.
July 30, 2018
a stupid book for stupid people. utter shit
May 12, 2024
When I was a tween/early teen I was really interested in rock-and-roll, especially early stuff from the 1950s and 1960s (still a huge Beatles fan) and read everything I could get my hands on about rock history and trivia. Somehow my dad came across this book and thought I would enjoy it because, well, it's about Rock! Neither of us realized then that it was written by a fundamentalist evangelist who specialized (and is still going strong, apparently!) in exorcisms. The author was troubled by the rampant debauchery and satanism of contemporary (ie, 1980s) rock-and-roll and detailed its horrors in this book. Twelve-year-old me was righteously outraged that someone would be so critical of music that I happened to love. I remember marking it all up with indignant margin notes, intending to write Larson a letter giving him a piece of my mind (I don't think I ever quite got around to the letter part of my crusade).
So it was with much nostalgia and great interest that I revisited this book, 38 years later. There's a handy chapter for each of rock-n-roll's many ills: Drugs! Sex! Gayness! Eastern religions! Satanism! Pop-culture critiques from the evangelical Christian perspective are just so cringey - it's not that they are always wrong (there is plenty about Motley Crue's lifestyle and song lyrics that you wouldn't want your children to emulate, for example), it's that they are so absurdly ham-handed as to be unintentionally hilarious. To pick a couple of lines almost at random (these are verbatim, I swear): "Is the stereo in your child's room an altar to darkness that dispenses the devil's liturgy?" and "With their libidinous attitude, Bon Jovi gives the caring love spoken of in [Corinthians] a very bad name." Who talks like this? I mean, it's excruciating. John Lithgow's pastor character in Footloose was more persuasive.
So it was with much nostalgia and great interest that I revisited this book, 38 years later. There's a handy chapter for each of rock-n-roll's many ills: Drugs! Sex! Gayness! Eastern religions! Satanism! Pop-culture critiques from the evangelical Christian perspective are just so cringey - it's not that they are always wrong (there is plenty about Motley Crue's lifestyle and song lyrics that you wouldn't want your children to emulate, for example), it's that they are so absurdly ham-handed as to be unintentionally hilarious. To pick a couple of lines almost at random (these are verbatim, I swear): "Is the stereo in your child's room an altar to darkness that dispenses the devil's liturgy?" and "With their libidinous attitude, Bon Jovi gives the caring love spoken of in [Corinthians] a very bad name." Who talks like this? I mean, it's excruciating. John Lithgow's pastor character in Footloose was more persuasive.
July 22, 2021
A book, for music lovers, music have its boundaries unseen not to be crossed.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews