I don’t believe in ghosts, but I love ghost stories. I also love rock and roll. In “Haunted Rock & Roll” by Matt Swayne, I get both.
According to the book, music has literally saved the souls of many of rock’s legends. It digs deep to tell stories about the immortals of the genre whose larger-than-life personas refused to burn out or fade away. Their spirits instead hover around park benches, linger in haunted studios, or float in the minds of passionate fans. Swayne goes beyond just rehashing old Elvis sightings. He spans the eras—from Robert Johnson to Kurt Cobain to Amy Winehouse—with the eyewitness accounts and rumors that keep these souls posthumously rocking and rolling.
As a child of the 90s, I was particularly interested in the chapter about Kurt Cobain. Before he committed suicide in April of 1994, the at times morose rock star said, “If you die, you’re completely happy and your soul somewhere lives on.” Well, Cobain’s happy place seems to be a park bench not far from his old home in Seattle. The bench became a memorial shortly after his death, and according to “Haunted Rock & Roll,” it has since garnered reports of lonesome, ghostly figures and abnormal lights. Could it be Kurt?
Like I said, I don’t believe in ghosts. But like a modern-day folktale, it’s fascinating how these personalities affected people’s lives so much that fans refuse to believe their idols are gone. The same goes for the hallowed grounds of recording studios where these idols honed their craft. There are legends of abductions and curses and haunted concert venues. Rock and roll is tailor-made for this.
In high school, I stayed up late with friends investigating the rumor that Paul McCartney had died in a car accident in 1969 and been replaced by a look-alike. We interpreted odd, out of place lyrics. We played records backward. We stared at album covers. I learned that if it’s late enough and you play a song backward enough times—you will hear just about anything you want to hear.
Swayne takes a similar approach in “Haunted Rock & Roll.” His bibliography is filled with rumored information from reporters looking for more—so believe what you want to believe. But the stories are many, and numerous accounts are quite detailed. They are all driven by the remarkable qualities and boundless charisma that helped these artists touch so many people while they were alive.
Much like their music, the stories are unique. Like true performers, these rock heroes left us all wanting more. The tales and sightings, like an epic encore, keep the concert going for eternity proving that rock and roll—quite literally—can never die.
If you are looking for stories about free floating vaporous apparitions this Halloween season and love rock and roll, this book is a treat. The trick is to suspend your disbelief and enjoy a supernatural performance from some of rock’s greatest voices, musicians, and ghosts.
"Haunted Rock & Roll: Ghostly Tales of Musical Legends" by Matthew L. Swayne is published by Llewellyn Publications. The author, Matthew Swayne, works at Penn State University Park.
Our reviewer, Jonathan McVerry, is a communications manager at Penn State. He is also the guitarist for local band Hops and Vines. They are playing a Halloween night show at Underdogs in Bellwood.
