Never before has such sordid, depraved and inhuman
activity seemed so perfectly natural.
Charting the highs and lows of the author’s own dæmon, Zodiac Mindwarp, Fucked By Rock,
and its pre-Zodiac sister book I Have The Greatest Respect For You, George, offer a myriad of warnings and lessons as they lay bare the inner workings of an absorbent mind subjected to levels
of weird sex, bad drugs, comical violence and heavy decibels which would wither lesser souls.
Zed has stalked the rock world in various states of repair since fi rst encountering his muse during
a lost month on the island of Formentera in the early 1980s, trailing near miss albums, broken
dreams and angry women in his wake ever since. Fucked By Rock is riddled with it’s own take on every
cliché in the rock canon, and presented in Manning’s own unique, subjective manner. Major stars,
hideous atrocities committed in the name of rock and the excesses of stardom are all treated with
nonchalance and bemusement as Zed positions himself perfectly as ringleader cum front line
reporter at some of the most heinous and distasteful incidents ever committed to paper. Certainly
not for the faint hearted. I Have The Greatest Respect For You, George, meanwhile, offers a window
on the youthful Manning as he claws his way out of the 1970s and the North, drawing, writing and rocking with fervor, glimpsing the female form whenever the opportunity presents itself, avoiding
the local Hitler Youth and protecting his womenfolk from the Ripper as best he can.
Hilarious, insightful and brutally frank, no aspiring rocker or self fried could-have-been can afford
to ignore these original and inspiring glimpses backstage at the cathedral of bullshit rock dreams.
