What do you think?
Rate this book
It Was All Just Rock 'n' Roll
The memoir of legendary radio man/concert promoter Pat O'Day, one of the key figures in the development of rock music and Top 40 radio in the Northwest.
O'Day's memoir provides scores of fascinating stories about the radio and music business, featuring such figures as Jimi Hendrix, Jerry Lee Lewis, Paul McCartney and Frank Sinatra and such groups as the Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, Three Dog Night, the Beach Boys and Bachman-Turner Overdrive.
400 pages, Hardcover
First published October 18, 2002
10 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
July 21, 2013
This memoir brought back a lot of memories of my life, starting with childhood. I lived it, so it is very special to me. Another enjoyable ride behind the scenes of the often messy world of music. Be aware that there are LOTS of errors which the second edition fixed. This edition is now out of print due to the countless errors, so I am selling it for $150 after I get the author to sign it in August.
August 17, 2017
Three things hold this book back: one, it is riddled with typos. Grammar, spelling, punctuation, even for a vanity press affair, which it is, it's obvious that it never went to a proofreader.
Two, the anecdotes about Pat O'Day's personal relationships, away from the show business world, are dumb and banal.
Three, for a guy who has made a second career out of declaring to the world what a drunk he was, shilling for Schick Shadel, there are zero confessionals about lost weekends. The number one reason for my buying this book (I spent 20 bucks on it used) was the prospect of reading about O'Day as an accomplice destroying rooms at the Edgewater or Olympic alongside John Paul Jones or Paul Revere and The Raiders. That there are no such tales in light of O'Day's work as a pitchman for a rehab center leads a reasonable person to believe that the narrative has been scrubbed.
That being said, Pat O'Day has led a remarkable life in show business, and given Seattle's key position in rock history, this memoir is an essential piece of local history. Beyond that, O'Day devotes lots of space to acts that are noteworthy for their spot in musical history but not significant enough to warrant a book of their own - Three Dog Night, the Wailers, the Ventures, Bread, etc. And of course there is Jimi Hendrix material, leading off the book. Plenty of great pictures included, too.
Two, the anecdotes about Pat O'Day's personal relationships, away from the show business world, are dumb and banal.
Three, for a guy who has made a second career out of declaring to the world what a drunk he was, shilling for Schick Shadel, there are zero confessionals about lost weekends. The number one reason for my buying this book (I spent 20 bucks on it used) was the prospect of reading about O'Day as an accomplice destroying rooms at the Edgewater or Olympic alongside John Paul Jones or Paul Revere and The Raiders. That there are no such tales in light of O'Day's work as a pitchman for a rehab center leads a reasonable person to believe that the narrative has been scrubbed.
That being said, Pat O'Day has led a remarkable life in show business, and given Seattle's key position in rock history, this memoir is an essential piece of local history. Beyond that, O'Day devotes lots of space to acts that are noteworthy for their spot in musical history but not significant enough to warrant a book of their own - Three Dog Night, the Wailers, the Ventures, Bread, etc. And of course there is Jimi Hendrix material, leading off the book. Plenty of great pictures included, too.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews