I Killed Pink Floyd's Pig: Inside Stories of Sex, Drugs, and Rock & Roll by Beau PhillipsMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
I’ve always wondered what radio promoters do. It seemed like quite a life, hanging out with creative musicians, hustling the details of deals, seeing where the money goes. And this book shows that it’s what I was thinking, and more. There are plenty of stories of the author’s time working promotions and other jobs at a rock station in Seattle and later at VH-1. From the stories, I’m not sure if the national spotlight would be considered the big league – it seems the local radio stories are just as cool and interesting, if not better. Lots of band name-dropping and stories about the ones you know. Most show the wild side of rock. The best, in my estimation, were the ones that showed the humanity in rock, the stories about Eric Clapton and the Make-a-Wish story with Paul McCartney. Another favorite – the everyone-gets-a-tux Tom Petty concert. From a business perspective, this gives some great ideas for promoting products, or in this case stations. And it gives examples of failures as well – always check that you’ve got the right album name before printing thousands of buttons. But it’s best for the stories about the big rock acts over the past 30 years. The author mixes stories about things he did with stories about things he’s seen, and that’s a great combination here.
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