Rock Bottom

A book by Pamela Des Barres about the downfall of various rock stars (how they died, went crazy, or got sent to prison, mostly). Several of them she knew personally; those accounts are particularly interesting. Includes two multiple-artist chapters, plus complete chapters on:

• Syd Barrett (of Pink Floyd)
• Jan Berry (of Jan and Dean)
• Marc Bolan (of T-Rex)
• John Bonham (of Led Zeppelin)
• Kurt Cobain (of Nirvana)
• Eddie Cochran
• Freddie Mercury (of Queen)
• Sam Cooke
• Marvin Gaye
• Jimi Hendrix
• Rick James
• Brian Jones (of the Rolling Stones)
• Janis Joplin
• Keith Moon (of the Who)
• Jim Morrison (of The Doors)
• Rick Nelson
• Gram Parsons (of The Byrds and the Flying Burrito Brothers)
• Johnny Thunders (of the New York Dolls)
• Stevie Ray Vaughan
• Sid Vicious (of the Sex Pistols)
• Dennis Wilson (of the Beach Boys)

The Rock Bottom is The Rock's finishing move. The technical name for the move would be front uranage, but I dare you to try and find Jim Ross ever calling it that.

Basically, The Rock stands facing his opponent and places his arm across the other wrestler's chest, grabbing his far shoulder. He then places his opponent's near arm onto The Rock's near shoulder (as the other wrestler actually has to propel himself off the ground for the move to look realistic, this gives him the leverage to do it). Finally, he heroically lifts his opponent off the ground and slams him back-first onto the canvas. This is obviously so painful and stunning that his opponent can often remain motionless for hours at a time.

Booker T of World Championship Wrestling has been known to use this move from time to time--most often the announcers won't say anything while he does it to avoid referencing the WWF.

Vernacular term for the state of being hopeless, disenfranchised, washed-up, impoverished, forgotten, depressed, unloved, etc…

May be characterized by sitting around in one's soiled drawls spraying aerosol cheese onto crackers and swallowing them whole in the midst of an apartment containing only:

- A dirty mattress on the floor and a bottle of Cutty Sark
- Assorted low quality porn
- A half consumed can of Huntz Beanie-Weinie and a moldy fork
- An empty blue plastic champagne flute
- A broken television with a faded sticker across the top reading "Great things happen in my pants"

The likely origin of this expression has to do with geology. Western cultures typically associate being "high" or "up" with affluence and success (e.g., things are looking up, profits are rising), and "low" and "down" with poverty and unhappiness (e.g., I'm feeling down today, I can't sink any lower). Now, imagine that you're as far down as you can get. You're lying on the ground. But if things get even worse, you will go under the ground. Now you're in the dirt. Now, in addition to everything being as bad as it can be, I run off with your sheep and you start guzzling woolite™ for solace. Now you seriously can't get any lower; you're beneath the dirt and on the bedrock. Even if you took a shovel and tried to dig yourself deeper in, you couldn't get past that. You have hit the rock bottom.