I'm with the Band: Confessions of a Groupie

by Pamela Des Barres

Other authorsDave Navarro (Foreword)

Paperback, 2005

Status

Available

Call number

ML429.D86 A3

Genres

Publication

Chicago Review Press (2005), Edition: Updated edition, 352 pages

Description

The stylish, exuberant, and remarkably sweet confession of one of the most famous groupies of the 1960s and 70s is back in print in this new edition that includes an afterword on the author's last 15 years of adventures. As soon as she graduated from high school, Pamela Des Barres headed for the Sunset Strip, where she knocked on rock stars' backstage doors and immersed herself in the drugs, danger, and ecstasy of the freewheeling 1960s. Over the next 10 years, she had affairs with Mick Jagger, Jimmy Page, Keith Moon, Waylon Jennings, Chris Hillman, Noel Redding, and Jim Morrison, among others. She traveled with Led Zeppelin; lived in sin with Don Johnson; turned down a date with Elvis Presley; and was close friends with Robert Plant, Gram Parsons, Ray Davies, and Frank Zappa. As a member of the GTO's, a girl group masterminded by Frank Zappa, she was in the thick of the most revolutionary renaissance in the history of modern popular music. Warm, witty, and sexy, this kiss-and-tell all stands out as the perfect chronicle of one of rock 'n' roll's most thrilling eras.… (more)

User reviews

LibraryThing member CindyBytes

If you enjoy plenty of sex, drugs and rock & roll, then possibly it would be to your liking. I consider this book one of those "guilty pleasure" reads. Total brain candy - filling, but with no lasting nutrient value, yet pleasing all the same. You'll either hate it or love it - probably not much in

between. I sometimes like gossipy books about celebrities and rock stars and this has both of each. I read it a long time ago (when I was very young and impressionable), but from what I remember there is a lot about Mick Jagger, Keith Moon and even more of Jimmy Page of the late 60's and early 70's. You know free sex and love with a lot of backstage high jinks. Des Barres is a saucy piece of baggage who not only reveals, but "brags" of her sexual conquests...*GRINS*. From what I understand she is one of the most famous groupies of all time, but that might be because of her revealing bestselling book. I never heard of her before I read her racy memoirs.

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LibraryThing member jillianmarie

Love the book and love Pam. She made me want to run away with the band, made me love music again, she made me text 'When you're in a band, can I be your number 1 groupie?' She made me move to London and enjoy my life again.

Plus it's a great gossipy mesh of 60's music stars and music.

LibraryThing member blackberry_jam

I picked it up because I'm a Jimmy Page freak, but I kept reading because of the laugh-out-loud funny bits. The author has a charming writing style, though some may not like the coarse subject matter. Besides the sex tell-all aspect, this book is a fascinating look at the L.A. music scene in the

60's/70's and many influential people that the author got to meet.

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LibraryThing member talltrickster

I grew up in the 70's, about a decade behind Ms. Des Barres, and found her book to not only be a sincere look at her emotional journey, but a fascinating perspective on the music scene during a time when I was still pretty much in elementary school.

Miss Pamela's writing style kept me interested and

entertained, while her journal notes added insights into the workings of her mind and heart during this long and winding odyssey. A fun read, but with more depth than I expected.

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LibraryThing member TheScrappyCat

Okay, I admit it. I've read this book multiple times. I have it in hardback as well as paperback and will probably wear them all out. Des Barres's memories are fascinating; it's so much fun to read about her dalliances with Jimmy Page (especially, since I'm a huge Page fan), Jim Morrison, Don

Johnson, et al. She makes it all sound like so much fun, you wish you'd been there with her. Love it.

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LibraryThing member sanga71

wow this book was a good read. Im not sure why Pamela feels so good about the way she lived in the 60's and 70's. She called it free love I call it being used. Thats my feelings anyway! It was great to read about all the famous people and their habits.

LibraryThing member flaggdust

Not too good to me. You might like it if you want to know how good musicians or Don Johnson are in bed.

LibraryThing member rudegirl

Pamela DesBarres somehow managed to live out every rock'n'roll fangirls'(and some fanboys') dream in the sixties and seventies. She kisses and more and tells all in an engaging gossipy way, and I mean gossipy in the best possible sense--scandalously fun. Oh that I were born earlier and carefree

enough to live for the moment, and the rock stars of the moment, as DesBarres did...

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LibraryThing member Tinamonster

This light, happy and charming. This is a good antidote to Marianne Faithfull's depressing autobiography.

LibraryThing member redrhondahonda

At first I thought this book sounded really exciting but once I started to get down to the meat and potatos I was a little dissapointed. I've only gotten through a 3rd of the book and I don't even feel like finishing it. I wanted to get to know the character and not so much about who she is

screwing or hanging out with thats "hip". Maybe I'm just dissaponted because I thought hippies were cooler than that.

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LibraryThing member AHS-Wolfy

A kiss and tell memoir from the foremost groupie ever to grace the music scene. Miss P. gives an account of her life from her teenage years and on through the sixties and seventies and lets you in on her thoughts via journal entries written at the time as she hangs out with some of the biggest

names in rock. Mick Jagger, Jimmy Page, Gram Parsons, Keith Moon, the list is almost endless though she did turn down a date with Elvis. It's not all about the sex and drugs (though there's a lot of that) as we get to follow Pamela as she grows up right there on the page. From fist love and loss, through the hippie years, her dreams of becoming a star in her own right (forming a girl group under the auspices of Frank Zappa and a fledgling acting career) to finally meeting Mr. Right.

This is an enjoyable, uncomplicated look at the life and times of the real-life person that both Kate Hudson and Goldie Hawn used as major inspiration for their roles in Almost Famous and The Banger Sisters (loved the former but not seen the latter). Told with charm and wit it's no surprise to learn that the narrator went on to become a journalist. Despite the salacious nature of the book there is still an innocence of spirit that manages to shine through. It wasn't written to titillate but provide an insight of her life and the momentous times in which she lived. My copy includes an update to her life seventeen years after the book was written and plenty of pictures to accompany her experiences and has a cover that I probably couldn't take out in polite company.

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LibraryThing member Equestrienne

Oh, Miss Pamela, thank you so much for daring to share your life with the rest of us. Some people criticize her, but I think she did the things she really felt like doing and good for her. At the end of the day she seems to have very few regrets about her wild youth.

One thing I have to say for her,

she understood the importance of looking fabulous. Even though she maneuvered through the sixties, she rejected the hippie style of no makeup, ugly hair, ugly clothes, bra-less saggy boobs and reeking of patchouli and body odor. Thank you, Miss P, for making a case for lipstick & couture clothing way before the 80's came along.

I enjoyed this funny, sex-driven romp and the style in which Ms des Barres related it to us. Although I will never quite understand her fascination with celebrity, I will be the first to admit that on the subject of human male beauty, Jimmy Page in 1973 was indeed a god.

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LibraryThing member 44Henry

"I'm With the Band: Confessions of a Groupie" by Pamela Des Barres unfortunately set off the explosion of "groupie book" memoirs by dubious women that publishers wouldn't have touched if "I'm With the Band" hadn't created a mild sensation. I read this one in the 1980s shortly after it came out and

was flabbergasted that someone would gleefully boast about being passed around by men, rock stars or not. By the way, Jimmy Page did not wear his dragon suit until 1975, Pam, long after he dumped you.

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LibraryThing member mjspear

Histrionic and emotionally breathless tales of a rock'n'roll groupie. She "likes" Gram Parsons, Jimmie Page, Jim Morrison and Mick Jagger. She doesn't like Paul McCartney (altho he was an idol from her pre-teen days. She's over-sexed and an emotional basketcase most of the time. Still, a useful,

unique look at the 60s and 70s from a woman's point of view.

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LibraryThing member AmeKole

I could not make it through this book. It is an actual account of her life in the rock and roll scene. The details are excruciating, and I just ended up not caring about anyone, as they were all so transient. Maybe if I were part of that scene, all the name dropping would be enough to entice me

through it, but as I was not, I found it tedious.

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LibraryThing member vampyredhead

This is a must read if you are a groupie or would like the inside scoop. Having been a groupie, I love this book.

LibraryThing member datrappert

The prose style, especially the old diary entries, get a little hard to take after a while, but nevertheless, I couldn't stop reading. I love it that in this book Chris Hillman is on the same level as a target for her lust as was Jimmy Page or MIck Jagger or Don Johnson. We do get some very nice

vignettes of the personalities and offstage sides of Mick Jagger, Keith Moon, and many others. IN some cases, they are complementary--such as Jagger--and in others, sad, as in the doomed Mr. Moon. This is a story worth reading, and I'm glad I read it. It does take you back to a different time and place.

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