Big Rock Beat

by Greg Kihn

Overview

It's 1967, the summer of love, ten years after legendary B movie director Landis Woodley's cult horror classic Cadaver. Now Woodley is shooting a rock-and-roll movie, complete with beach bunnies, hot rods, monsters, and rock bands. And as usual, money is tight.
Producer Sol Kravitz introduces Woodley to Tijuana financier Hector Diablo, who invests a huge amount of money in the movie with the proviso that James Dean's death car, which he has rebuilt and named The Impresser, has a starring role.
But something else is attached to this movie. Something that's not in the script. Sol is the first to die. Then others. And payback's a bitch.
At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781466841772
Publisher:	Tom Doherty Associates
Publication date:	05/21/2025
Series:	Special Warfare Series , #3
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	396
File size:	773 KB

About the Author

Greg Kihn is the author of Horror Show and Shade of Pale. He is the drive time disc jockey at KUFX in San Jose, California.

In the 1990s, Greg turned his attention to writing fiction. He published four novels and a handful of short stories in various anthologies, and edited a compilation of original fiction by famous musicians.  Horror Show was nominated for the Bram Stoker Award for Best First Novel.

What People are Saying About This

Paul F. Wilson

Greg Kihn can write and tell a damn good story, too. . . . I had a great time with this book.

Editorial Reviews

A wholly engrossing and original work by the man who once wrote, 'They don't write 'em like that anymore.' Kihngratulations are in order.

Chronicle San Francisco

Kihn fondly caricatures Hollywood schlockmeisters such as Roger Corman, William Castle, and, especially, Ed Wood . . . . Sure to appeal to devotees of midnight movies and drive-in double bills. Kihn has a knack for establishing characters, no matter how zany, in a few sure strokes. . . . A fun-filled homage to monster movies in the days before huge budgets, this novel recalls the refrain of Kihn's hit The Breakup Song: 'They don't write 'em like that anymore.

Daily Variety

It's 1967 and the world teeters between the old and the new. Rock'n'roll is no longer just a teenage pastime but a force to shape the world. With Big Rock Beat, author Greg Kihn gets it all just right and he spins a thrills'n'chills story with a beat you can dance to. Kihn, an ex-rock god himself, has all the moves. He knows the music, the culture, and the shady entertainment world he's set his novel in. Now, with two previous novels (Horror Show and Shade of Pale) under his belt, he's got the licks to convey his talent for storytelling with sureness. In his first novel, Horror Show, the author introduced B-movie schlockmeister Landis Woodley and his odd crew. In Big Rock Beat it's ten year's after that book's plot-pivot movie, Cadaver, and its shocking consequences. Kihn reintroduces the motley lot (including horror icon The Great Luboff who everyone, including the author, thought died in the earlier book) and we all take off. This time out Woodley is making a teen music movie. His young cousin, Beau, a long-haired San Francisco musician, gets involved, as does sweetheart of a starlet Gayle, bombshell star Yvette Love, perennial teen Tad, and a host of others. The plot boils down to: Can the Power of Rock'n'Roll and the Pure of Heart overcome the forces of Evil-PULL QUOTE, L.A. and a sinister hot rod that clai ms life after life? As hokey as it sounds, you'll find yourself humming along an d tapping your foot to a backbeat you can't lose.
— horroronline

horroronline

The sequel to Kihn's 1996 debut novel, Horror Show, a satirical romp based on the film Ed Wood, which was followed by his Banshee novel Shade of Pale (1997). The hero of Horror Show was schlockmeister Landis Woodley (Ed Wood), the world's worst filmmaker, who brought in his masterpiece, Cadaver, in three days and under budget, using real corpses from the Los Angeles Morgue as standup zombies. Now, ten years have passed since Cadaver, with Landis pining away in his crumbling Hollywood mansion. It's 1967, the summer of love, and Landis's old producer buddy Sol Kravitz shows up to lure him into directing a rock-bottom schlock musical on an atomically small budget. Kravitz has fallen in with Ernie Shackleford, president of Shang-a-Lang records, who wants to feature his talentless rock bands in the movie. The film's star is aging Yvette Love, whose z-cup bra outbusts Jayne Mansfield, Mamie Van Doren, and Marilyn Monroe combined. Second leads go to Gayle Mimi (formerly Gayle Ann Perko), making her film debut, and overaged teenager Tad Kingston, 31, whose hair does most of his acting. No sooner does Landis sign on than Hiroshi Watanabe (a name taken from Kurosawa's Ikiru) offers him a much grander salary for doing a monster movie for Toyo films in Japan. Meanwhile, fresh from San Francisco is Landis's cousin, very long-haired Beau Young, whose Stone Savages rehearse on San Francisco's Haight Ashbury. Thus Beau and the Stone Savages join the fun and frenzy. Beau courts Gayle but is seduced by Yvette. The money falls through, and Sol winds up dead in the flame-painted Porsche Spyder that James Dean also died in and which is to be featured in the film. Landis must take off for Japan. Lovers ofrock music will find this almost as much fun as the prequel—-though less fantastically over the top—-or fresh.

Kirkus Reviews