Elvis Died for Somebody?s Sins but Not Mine : A Lifetime's Collected Writing

That he has survived so long may well be a miracle. Mick Farren has spent more than four decades in the thick of the culture wars as a commentator, activist, essayist, poet, performer, and rebel with multiple causes. Being a founding figure in the 1960s underground press, who was forced to defend his work at The Old Bailey, might well be sufficient laurels on which to rest, but, instead, he careered on through the London birth pangs of punk, the intoxicated madness of Lower Manhattan under Ronald Reagan, earthquakes and urban insurrection in Los Angeles. He has written for IT, Oz, NME, The Village Voice, The Los Angeles Times, and countless other publications great and small. And as if that wasn't enough, Farren has also taken time out to publish some two dozen sci-fi/psychedelic/Gothic novels and create an entire catalogue of rock'n'roll songs, not only for his own band The Deviants but also for Hawkwind, The Pink Fairies, Motorhead, and Metallica. Back home in England, part of his time has been spent assembling this sample volume of his provocative and at times quite alarming body of work.

"Within these pages you'll meet the likes of Frank Zappa, Johnny Cash, Chuck Berry and Gore Vidal, and steam open correspondence between the author and Pete Townshend. And, much more importantly, you're about to go one-on-one with a world-class raconteur... Sounds like a good time to me. If this kind of mess-around seems like your cup of meat, then prepare your relaxant of choice, kick back and dig in. The greasy 'oodlums are at your door." Charles Shaar Murray, from his Foreword.

"And how is that nice friend of yours? The one with the robots?"
Felix Dennis, from his Preface

Mick Farren divides his time between music and literature, with digressions into psychedelic agitprop. His life as a recording artist began by fronting the anarchic pre-punk The Deviants and has continued with his lyrics being recorded by Metallica, Motorhead, Hawkwind and Wayne Kramer. He learned his trade as a writer in the heady days of the underground press. At the NME in 1970s, he helped explain the dawn of punk to a worried world. He has published twenty-two novels and more than a dozen non-fiction works, including the bestselling Elvis And The Colonel.