Former Blondie Bass Player Gary “Valentine” Lachman’s Book on Crowley

Yes, former Blondie bassist Gary Lachman’ Aleister Crowley: Magick, Rock and Roll, and the Wickedest Man in the World was published in paperback back on May 15, 2014…but I didn’t see reviews anywhere at that time or since, or even any mentions on FB feeds where stuff gets mentioned.

Amazon touts this as: “This definitive work on the occult’s “great beast” traces the arc of his controversial life and influence on rock-and-roll giants, from the Rolling Stones to Led Zeppelin to Black Sabbath.”

Further, the book’s focus is described there as: “When Aleister Crowley died in 1947, he was not an obvious contender for the most enduring pop-culture figure of the next century. But twenty years later, Crowley’s name and image were everywhere. The Beatles put him on the cover of  Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. The Rolling Stones were briefly serious devotees. Today, his visage hangs in goth clubs, occult temples, and college dorm rooms, and his methods of ceremonial magick animate the passions of myriad occultists and spiritual seekers.”

You can read a book excerpt here: http://www.dailygrail.com/blogs/Gary-Lachman/2014/5/Read-Excerpt-Aleister-Crowley-Magick-Rock-and-Roll-and-The-Wickedest-Man-t

and you can read an interview here: http://www.patheos.com/blogs/panmankey/2014/05/20-questions-with-gary-lachman/

Honestly, I found Lachman’s first book in this field Turn Off Your Mind to be poorly written, under-researched and making a lot of unsubstantiated statements regarding the connection between the occult and rock and roll culture and the nature of that impact. But you can check out the book excerpt and inteview and judge for yourself.

Lachman book

Frater Lux Ad Mundi

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *