The Secret History of Rock ’n’ Roll

Sex. Drugs. Loud music. Wild costumes. Pyrotechnics. These words all describe a rock concert or a hot dance club on a Saturday night, but they’re also equally appropriate descriptors for the ancient spiritual phenomenon known as the “mystery religions.” These ancient occult rites used many of the same trappings as rock 'n' roll — heavy drinks and drugs, loud, percussive music, outrageous ritual garb, and lots and lots of sex — to bring the initiate out of his or her mundane life and into the transcendent realm of the gods. In this book, author Christopher Knowles shows how, 2,000 years later, the mystery religions got a secular makeover when the new musical form called rock 'n' roll burst on the scene. The Secret History of Rock 'n' Roll traces the history of the mysteries — their rise, their fall, and their eventual metamorphosis into rock music and other myriad offshoots. In the process, he reveals how readers’ favorite rock bands fit into the same archetypal roles as the ancient gods.