Shock Rock, Volume I by Jeff Gelb

Shock Rock, Volume I Reviews

• 
  Craig

  This is a fun old anthology celebrating sex'n'drugs'nrock'n'roll with a horror bent, from back in the days of when music was on MTV and there existed radio stations with a rock format without the word classic being involved. Many of the contents are nice, short, one-punch numbers, but I particularly enjoyed Graham Masterton's Hendrix story, Nancy A. Collins' werewolf story, a haunted guitar tale from Bill Mumy and Pater David, a weird story by Ray Garton, and a gonzo piece by John Shirley. My favorite was You Know They Got a Hell of a Band by Stephen King. Read it with your headphones on.
• 
  Wendy

  This is an anthology of short horror stories that all involve rock and roll music or rock and roll legends. Like all anthologies it has good stories and not so good stories. For the most part the stories were good with only a couple that were a waste of time.
  
  My favorites were --
  
  You Know They Got a Hell of a Band by Stephen King
  Blood Suede Shoes by Ronald Kelly
  Voodoo Child by Graham Masterton
  Weird Gig by Ray Garton
  Hide in Plain Sight by John L. Byrne
  
  There are other stories that are good as well and overall a good book of short horror stories!
• 
  Charles

  I'll give it a 4 for concept and a 3 for content. The stories are good, but there wasn't a lot that really stood out. There's an interesting foreword by Alice Cooper.
  
  The idea of horror stories all centered around Rock and roll was a good one, though.
• 
  Jenn

  Since I live horror and rock n roll/heavy metal, I thought this would be a great read. Unfortunately, I found a lot if the stories lacking that special something. I'd still like to read volume ii. I'm thinking that maybe some of the stories were just too old, or else i've become more desensitized as I've become older and read more horror/thrillers.
• 
  Mike Kazmierczak

  This was a pretty good collection of stories. All of them are based in one way or another on rock and roll music. It a cool concept and it was carried off fairly well here. The majority of the stories are short and all of them are fast reading. I don't know if this makes them better or worse, but they are still there and they are still enjoyable. And since I happened to recognize almost every author and like their respective styles, picking out favorites became difficult. But here they are.
  
  "Bob Dylan, Troy Johnson, and The Speed Queen" by F. Paul Wilson - A nobody decides to time travel to become a somebody
  
  "Requiem" by Brian Hodge - A band with pure motives comes back to find a fan of the same type
  
  "Bunky" by Rex Miller - A convict is trained to be an assassin by reading a radio jock
  
  "Weird Gig" by Ray Garton - A band gets together to refind that missing spark
  
  "Hide In Plain Sight" by John L. Byrne - A classic monster story but with a new monster
• 
  Coral

  This is pretty much on par with how I feel about anthologies in general. A couple really great stories. A few good stories. But a whole lot of just alright stories.
  
  I think my favorites would be:
  
  Bob Dylan, Troy Jonson, and the Speed Queen by F Paul Wilson
  Requiem by Brian Hodge
  Groupies by Richard Matheson
• 
  Jamie

  3.5/5 stars
• 
  Jeff

  1st Read: July 2, 1992 - July 8, 1992 (*** Rating)
  Interesting reading material. Some of the stories were very good, some were alright, and others that left me thinking, "What if?", particularly, the Stephen King short story.
  
  2nd/Final Read: February 16, 2017 - February 21, 2017 (** Rating)
  I) FORWARD - ALICE COOPER (February 16, 2017)
  Cool!
  
  II) INTRODUCTION - JEFF GELB (February 16, 2017)
  Nostalgic summary of rock/metal and horror mashups.
  
  III) "YOU KNOW THEY GOT A HELL OF A BAND" - STEPHEN KING - (February 16 - February 17, 2017) (**** Rating)
  To stumble into the small town of Rock 'n' Roll Heaven, Oregon would definitely be shocking for anyone who knows music. This is still not a half bad short story. I'd watched the short movie on You Tube a couple years ago and it was as good as the story in the book.
  
  IV) "BOB DYLAN, TROY JONSON, AND THE SPEED QUEEN" - F. PAUL WILSON (February 17, 2017) (**** Rating)
  This one left me wanting more, as the story seemed to just be getting started. It was alright.
  V) "ODEED" - DAVID J. SCHOW (February 17, 2017) (* Rating)
  Too short and too much chaos in the writing of it. Too much going on in too short of a story.
  
  VI) "VARGR RULE" - NANCY A. COLLINS (February 17, 2017) (*** Rating)
  Once again, another short story that left me wanting more. It sort of reminded of Whitley Strieber's, "The Wolfen".
  
  VII) "BLOOD SUEDE SHOES" - RONALD KELLY (February 18, 2017) (**** Rating)
  Interesting concept! Didn't mind this one.
  
  VIII) "THE DEAD BEAT SOCIETY" - DON D'AMMASSA (February 19, 2017) (* Rating)
  Nothing special here. Didn't care for it.
  
  IX) "VOODOO CHILD" - GRAHAM MASTERTON (February 19, 2017) (** Rating)
  Wasn't too bad. I like to believe that this is an original idea for a story.
  
  X) "RITES OF SPRING" - PAUL DALE ANDERSON (February 19, 2017) (* Rating)
  Too short for my liking.
  
  XI) "DEDICATED TO THE ONE I LOATHE" - MICHAEL GARRETT (February 19, 2017) (*** Rating)
  I'd rate it a three out of five. Would make a decent work of fiction if the author developed the story another three hundred pages or so.
  
  XII) "REQUIEM" - BRIAN HODGE (February 20, 2017) (* Rating)
  This one didn't do anything for me. The writing was okay.
  
  XIII) "HEAVY METAL" - R. PATRICK GATES (February 20, 2017) (* Rating)
  It started out interesting and then interest failed for me.
  
  XIV) "BUNKY" - REX MILLER (February 20, 2017) (* Rating)
  Starts off like concert banter from Ted Nugent ad becomes so much worse than it does better. Too much, "Ya dig?" and other nonsense in the writing style. Not for me,
  
  XV) "THE BLACK '59" - BILL MUMY & PETER DAVID (February 20, 2017) (*** Rating)
  Held my interest enough to enjoy it. It reminded me of the movie, "Trick or Treat" for the most part.
  
  XVI) "GROUPIES" - RICHARD CHRISTIAN MATHESON (February 20, 2017) (* Rating)
  What the fuck did I just read?
  
  XVII) "REUNION" -MICHAEL NEWTON (February 20, 2017) (* Rating)
  A lot of action but no chub!
  
  XVIII) "BOOTLEG" - MARK VERHEIDEN (February 20, 2017) (** Rating)
  It was okay. Had a couple good moments.
  
  XIX) "WEIRD GIG" - RAY GARTON (February 20, 2017) (**** Rating)
  Something straight out of "Tales From The Crypt"! Not bad at all.
  
  XX) "HIDE IN PLAIN SIGHT" - JOHN L. BYRNE (February 20, 2017) (**** Rating)
  Another one which fits well with "Tales From The Crypt". Decent.
  
  XXI) "ADDICTED TO LOVE" - THOMAS TESSIER (February 20, 2017) (*** Rating)
  Potential for something good....but was just okay.
  
  XXII) "FLAMING TELEPATHS" - JOHN SHIRLEY (February 21, 2017) (*** Rating)
  This one too, would make an awesome mini-movie for "Tales From The Crypt"!
  
  XXIII) CONTRIBUTING BIOGRAPHIES (February 21, 2017)
  Backstory of authors.
• 
  Yael

  What happens when rock-&-roll mates with horror? The result is Shock Rock, 19 tales of shock fiction and horror about the universe of metalheads and moralists, punkers and preachers, the living dead and the barely alive. Rock-&-roll, with its hot licks and raw glitter, has a dark side, where the party stops and terror begins. Here, musical superlegends return from the dead to terrorize the living, where radio stations sponsor hideous giveaways no sane living soul could want, where other-earthly pirates bootleg human souls -- and where rock-&-roll is used successfully to exorcise the most vicious of demons. Here, people are strange, and the devil rocks all night -- and rock-&-roll is the door to redemption.
• 
  GD

  A pretty decent collection of mostly brainless horror stories. There was nothing really bad, but nothing extremely spectacular, though David Schow and John Shirley were almost there. Then again, those two guys deliver 10 times out of 10, just like Shaft. The Stephen King story was pretty funny, and the scene in Nancy Collins' story where a bunch of werewolves gang-rape a female dog in an alley behind a punk club kicked mucho asso. It only cost me about 90 cents at a book fair, and was well worth it.
• 
  Frank

  The only thing I remember about this book outside of King's story was that I purchased it dirt cheap at the bookstore in the World Trade Center after the first bombing. They were selling off their entire stock as smoke damaged. This was one of many I took advantage of.
• 
  Brian Sammons

  Horror and rock n' roll (specifically heavy metal) goes together like peanut butter and jelly. This book celebrates that with a bunch of fine stories.
• 
  Ian

  great short stories,I always want to make short films out of these.... +10 for Flaming Telepaths and the music as religion theme.
• 
  Jeanette Greaves

  So, I'm vacillating between three stars and four and then I remembered that this is about the fifth time I've read this collection. So I must like it.
  
  OK, it's not literature. And the lack of female writers is one of the most shocking things about it (was it really usual for a horror anthology to be so male author heavy as recently as the early 1990s?) but I found myself really enjoying the stories again.
  
  I'd conflated a couple of the stories together in my mind ...
• 
  Michael

  I love Rock music, so I was excited about a Rock-themed horror anthology. I wasn't impressed with the quality of writing, though.
  
  My favorite story was "Weird Gig" by Ray Garton, in which a strange man offers a band $2 million dollars for a show. The band accepts, only to find a horror waiting for them.
• 
  Brett Grossmann

  Jeff seems to always get the best collection of writers together
• 
  Suvi

  Not exactly the kind of horror stories I enjoy. I'm glad I didn't pay much for this.
• 
  Natalie

  "By Alice Cooper"? Please. He wrote the forward.
  
  This was a collection of horror stories with a "rock and roll" theme to them. I can barely recall a single plot to a single one. Truly awful.
• 
  Yvensong

  This short story anthology are all horror stories with rock and roll as a major theme.
  As with many short story anthologies, I enjoyed some of the stories and some of them were meh
• 
  Morgue Anne

  Book 84/150