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Wonderland Avenue: Tales of Glamour and Excess
This is the autobiography of Danny Sugerman, Jim Morrison's protege and one-time manager of The Doors and then Iggy Pop. It is also an account of heroin addiction and the madness of life in the LA rock 'n' roll scene.
Paperback, 462 pages
Published
August 1st 1993
by Little, Brown Book Group
(first published 1989)
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Andy
rated it
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review of another edition
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review of another edition
Recommends it for:
70s glam rock fans
Shelves:
rock-sleaze
Danny Sugerman’s book will probably attract Jim Morrison fans for its juicy gossip on the legendary singer, and they won’t be disappointed. Sugerman worked at The Doors business office when the band was at the peak of their career.
Personally I enjoyed the book more when a drugged-out Sugerman managed an even more drugged-out Iggy Pop (if such a task was possible!) during the glitter-era early Seventies. His accounts of the Sunset Strip scene back then are absolutely truthful. I was...more
Personally I enjoyed the book more when a drugged-out Sugerman managed an even more drugged-out Iggy Pop (if such a task was possible!) during the glitter-era early Seventies. His accounts of the Sunset Strip scene back then are absolutely truthful. I was...more
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I owe this book some fanmail. It is a wonderland of uncut emotion. Did it make me want to take drugs? Maybe. Right up until the point where it didn't. It made me want to stick to my guns. It made me want to live for something bigger than me. There is nothing abstract about this book. There is no compromise. And that's who Danny is. We get to know and love him through his singleminded pursuit of his rock 'n' roll dream. For him, there just never was another option. How cool is that? How vintage i...more
Take Trainspotting and set it in Beverley Hills and you have the descent of a young rich kid into oblivion with a soundtrack by the Doors. It was difficult to feel sympathy for the author. He had it all, and increasingly it all seemed to land in his lap while, for reasons that are still difficult to understand after five hundred pages, he snorted, injected and swallowed his way to the bottom. How low can you go when on drugs? The book paints a pretty horrific picture of how it looks, feels and l...more
This is my favorite book. Danny Sugerman's autobiography focusing on his childhood, teen and young adult years in LA. The first part of the book describes his abusive life at home. He meets The Doors through his baseball coach and becomes obsessed with Jim Morrison. They give him a job at the studio sorting fan mail. He is only a pre-teen and he is exposed to alot of drugs and crazy groupies. The second part of the book is about his early adult life. He becomes Iggy Pop's manager. Everyo...more
Having been obsessed with Jim Morrison in my high school years, this was a must-read. And even though Morrison is only seldom seen in this memoir, it doesn't matter. The main character is heroin and the journey it takes Mr. Sugerman on. So damn good. Have probably read this 6 times. And have searched the Laurel Canyon area for the specific house on Wonderland Avenue that he writes about.
Just brilliant.
Just brilliant.
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It's written from the hip, talky, autobiography, edgy (for the early 90's), and if you've just read Scar Tissue, then you gotta read this.
In a way its very cliche. Another book about being a junkie in the rock biz. At times, I had to shake my head in disgust at its excess. But it's par for the course when you're dealing with the excesses of the 1970's. I had read Daniel Sugarmen's biography of Jim Morrrison in No One Here Gets Out Alive, when I was 17 and into that, so I had alwa...more
In a way its very cliche. Another book about being a junkie in the rock biz. At times, I had to shake my head in disgust at its excess. But it's par for the course when you're dealing with the excesses of the 1970's. I had read Daniel Sugarmen's biography of Jim Morrrison in No One Here Gets Out Alive, when I was 17 and into that, so I had alwa...more
I'm giving this book five stars, not because I bonded with the narrator, but because he made me think about drug addiction in a very intense, real way. In truth, I didn't care much for Danny Sugarman, himself--he was wildly self-destructive and selfish--but it was still fascinating to read about his travails, and it was also interesting to learn about the crazy music scene that existed in L.A. in the sixties and seventies. Also, the book has some laugh-out-loud funny moments, and is filled with ...more
The writing style of Sugerman's WONDERLAND AVENUE is dramatically different, and dramatically better, than his co-production NO ONE HERE GETS OUT ALIVE. Clearly, OUT ALIVE contains little of Danny's writing. WONDERLAND AVENUE is where we learn about Jim Morrison the mentor. He may not have been a very good mentor, due to his fascination with death and testing the boundaries; but when he takes charge and gently, understandingly guides Danny through a bad acid trip, we see that Danny had good reas...more
Danny Sugarman quite simply wrote one of the best books ever about drug addiction. He had a friendship with Jim Morrison in his formative years (and claims to have later had sex with Morrison's widow-which, kind of freaky that.) He also managed the career of Iggy Pop during some of his worst excesses and was friends with people ranging from Ray Manzarek to Mackenzie Phillips. You'll have more sympathy for Mackenzie and her troubles of late, if you don't already, when you read the story of Sugarm...more
Danny Sugerman was your typical precocious twelve year old filled with the enthusiasms and natural extremes of exuberance that comes with youth. His first was wrestling, the second was reptiles, which grew in greater proportions from his bedroom to the backyard; and when there was a flood his menagerie became a neighborhood collection with turtles and snakes being captured blocks away. Then came his parent’s divorce and life took a turn for the worse in the form of his step-father, Clarence, a m...more
In high school, I used to do two things that I simply do not do anymore; listen to the Doors, and drop acid. I dropped acid in high school (during class) a great number of times. I was obsessed. I wanted to soak up every single piece of cheap, 60's counterculture that I could get my hands on that seemed to represent what acid apparently signified to my adolescent, intellectual development. It didn't mean much. Drugs, to this day merely alter what I consider a rather consistent mental state,...more
Although he is a big part of the Doors' story, it's Sugerman's side of the story that I find more interesting. He started working for the Doors when he was a teenager and ended up as a manager of sorts.
What you get through his eyes is the music and the music business via his eyes. He sucked in the drugs as one sucks in air before they go underwater. Which means he got into drugs way too much, but nevertheless he has one thing that helps - he could write really well. Some parts I ...more
What you get through his eyes is the music and the music business via his eyes. He sucked in the drugs as one sucks in air before they go underwater. Which means he got into drugs way too much, but nevertheless he has one thing that helps - he could write really well. Some parts I ...more
It totally changed my life. I wrote down all the memorable quotes from the book as they related to my life and it opened me up to so many things like the readings of famous poets and I felt I could really connect with someone else's beliefs. I started listening to the words of songs more and trying to understand their meanings and how they related to me.
What a touching story!
What a touching story!
Dear Group,
Mr. Sugerman is very lucky to still be alive. As you may have heard, "No One Here Gets Out Alive." He pulled no punches when writing this memoir, not even to make himself look better. That's the type of memoir I do so adore.
Ah, life with "The Doors"!! What a world!! What a world. Try it, you may really like it.
TaTa for now,
Susan
Mr. Sugerman is very lucky to still be alive. As you may have heard, "No One Here Gets Out Alive." He pulled no punches when writing this memoir, not even to make himself look better. That's the type of memoir I do so adore.
Ah, life with "The Doors"!! What a world!! What a world. Try it, you may really like it.
TaTa for now,
Susan
Absolutely horrific & amazing all at the same time.
It reminded me of Train Spotting. I felt I wanted to go & find the local drug dealer immediately. Fortunately it shows the grisly results and how your life is totally taken over, ruined forever. What an awful pit to end up in. Though I can see how easily one could get drawn into it.
It reminded me of Train Spotting. I felt I wanted to go & find the local drug dealer immediately. Fortunately it shows the grisly results and how your life is totally taken over, ruined forever. What an awful pit to end up in. Though I can see how easily one could get drawn into it.
I don't know if I buy that Danny Sugarman became The Doors' inside man at 17 after hitting a home run in the bottom of the ninth with two outs, but - hey - that's how I got my job as Jay-Z's on site horticulturalist, so you never know. I've got a Rocawear apron for my clippers and everything. But that's beside the point. 'Wonderland Avenue' does everything a good rock and roll autobiography ought to do and then some by scaring the reader away from extreme behavior with one hand and beckoning...more
Jason
rated it
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review of another edition
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review of another edition
Recommends it for:
Rock and roll fans everywhere!
Shelves:
desert-island-titles
Couldn't help myself...I read the intro on the toitey after retrieving from a friend and was 100 pages in before I even noticed! This is quite simply the best rock and roll related book in history. Sugarman became de facto publicist for The Doors at age 14, was the band's manager, as well as Iggy Pop's tour manager by 20, and a junkie less than a week from death at 21. A harrowing story of the dark side of rock and roll...what it does to stars, and how it can adversely affect those on its fri...more
Classic story of sex, drugs, and rock and roll. I read this during my "young and rebelious" days and loved it. Don't know if I would enjoy it as much today.....but I like to think I would.
So, so much fun. Reading about the consequences of this guy's sexdrugsrocknroll lifestyle does wonders to your gratitude -- you're in the comfort of your own home, not flirting with death.
This was the perfect book to read on my first visit to LA almost twenty years ago. It certainly influenced the more youthfully decadent moments of that six-month stint in the seediest bars and motel rooms of the West Coast of America. Sugarman's stories about attempting to organise for his clients Iggy Pop and The Doors to team up after the death of Morrison, and Iggy living in Ray Manzarak's mansion coked, boozed, and hammered off his chops is rock mythology gold, or at least it was to a youn...more
This is certainly a fast-paced memoir. After a while I was getting tired of reading about how doped up the author was and just wanted him to break down and get some help. I felt like the memoir was big on the lead in and light on the aftermath. I understand that not taking junk is probably less interesting to write or read about than taking it was, but it sort of makes the book read more like a glamorization of drugs, even though he vehemently writes about how terrible they are.
Well, drugs are bad, but the times were good. LOL........Danny Sugerman really did live the life. And on Wonderland Ave.........OMG what a place. I am sure you know the stories......From John Holmes to all the movie stars. WOW! Now, to have met and partied with Jim Morrison and Iggy Pop, now that is something.........But the drugs, and the chaos........Could you have done the same?.........I will never forget when Danny is fiending so bad for some heroin that he actually has the dealer, (Lola,(I...more
Prob one of my favourite books. You must like tales of drug addled rockstars and dig life in the 60s and 70's.
Absolutely brilliant and loved by everyone I have lent it to.
Tasha Roa-yaremkowycz
added it
One of the funniest books I've ever read, a laugh out loud!
I could read this book over and over again.
Probably the best book I've ever read
I found the writer's bouts of self-aggrandisement in this book irritating, and found myself wondering what the rock stars that he liked to associate himself with honestly thought of him. To summarise, kid gets into drugs, meets rock stars, takes more drugs, goes downhill, meets more rock stars, takes more drugs, nearly dies, cleans up his act, finds a sympathetic publisher. I did enjoy the sections that documented the excesses of Iggy Pop in the 70s though (hence the three stars).
WOW!!! If you enjoy reading about the lives of drug addicts and everything that encompasses the seedy underbelly of society, then you'll enjoy this true story. I was glued to Sugarman's life story.
Also, if you are a fan of the Doors, you will find Sugarman's perspective into the band's pysche interesting, amusing and horrifying.
When I read these types of non-fiction books, I am floored to know people can live through these types of experiences.
Also, if you are a fan of the Doors, you will find Sugarman's perspective into the band's pysche interesting, amusing and horrifying.
When I read these types of non-fiction books, I am floored to know people can live through these types of experiences.
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Daniel Stephen Sugerman (aka Danny) was the second manager of the Los Angeles based rock band The Doors, and wrote several books about Jim Morrison and The Doors.
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