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List Price: $13.95 | | Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Salesrank: 249475
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| Our Price: $34.93 |
| Used Price: $4.88 |
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| Media: Paperback |
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Editorial Review:
A teen idol and the highest paid solo performer of the 1970s tells of his experiences in the groupie-stalked role of Keith Partridge, from working with his family to his tempestuous relationships with his co-actors.
C'mon, Get Happy: Fear and Loathing on the Partridge Family Bus Reviews:
Book Availability Update and a Factoid About Jack Cassidy 
2009-07-27 - As a professor of English at a major university, I'm listed in just about every publisher's database -- because we now have publishing conglomerates that devoured dozens of publishers in one gulp! (And all of these conglomerates have a division that publishes college textbooks, especially English literature anthologies and writer's handbooks.) I called the "800" number provided by a previous reviewer and learned that this publisher (and, atypically I couldn't find the publisher anywhere within the Amazon listing) was politely informed that whichever of the dozen publishing companies within the group published the book no longer has the rights to it; it officially is out of print. It would have been great if I were able learn which publisher does have the rights to it, but that information is not available. I notice some comments about Jack Cassidy. I have read in several well-documented and meticulously researched sources that Jack Cassidy was, at the very least, bisexual (lots of gay men have wives and kids) and he was extremely sadistic in his sexual relationship with composer Cole Porter, who was an invalid (a paraplegic) He taunted Porter and made him beg to perform oral sex on him and then crawl from one side of the room to the other in order to do so. Although I am not an expert on American Musical Theatre, my area of expertise is Modern and Contemporary Drama (1879-present) and it's not unusual for us to read about related areas in any case. Nothing I've ever read about Cole Porter, and there has been a lot written about his gayness (including Jack Kerouac's carrying him across a slippery Manhattan street while Kerouac was a Columbia University student), but nothing to indicate he was into the S&M scene. I've taught paraplegic students and I cannot imagine anything crueler. The time frames synch, too. Porter was 36 years Cassidy's senior and Cassidy lied about his age to get a job in the chorus at only 14. I've seen this relationship described as "casting couch" -- but the documented anecdotes clearly place Cassidy as an adult, not as a teen. Now, he never was a major star -- not in the theatre, despite his protestations (and I honestly have the credentials to make this statement without fear of contradiction -- so maybe the "casting couch" was his permanent home. Would I want someone like that as a father? Certainly not. Who would? Ironically, I read a post about Cassidy's having accused David of "selling out" -- but, unless I'm very, very wrong, I don't think he ever had to have sex with anyone he didn't want to in order to land or keep a job...and he was WAY better looking than his Dad in his 20s!
New Book is Better 
2009-03-22 - If you are interested in the constant whining of this guy, who is now a lounge lizard in Vegas and would be selling shoes in Fresno if not for the Partridge Family, try his more recent autobiography, published in England, "COULD IT BE FOREVER." It's more forthcoming and a little less self-serving than this title, and it updates his father's death and his relationship with his half-brothers.
HOT, Steamy, & Sexy--just like David Cassidy! 
2009-01-06 - ASIN:0446395315 C'mon, Get Happy: Fear and Loathing on the Partridge Family Bus]] This book will tell you in David's own words, some of the things he went through in his life. First as a child, unhappy that his father divorced his mother and left them both behind. Then as a teen idol; something he didn't want. If you had an misconception that David Cassidy was the same as the goody-two-shoes Keith Partridge, this book will blow that out of the water!
The wild life of T.V's Keith Partridge 
2007-06-08 - I am a Partridge Family fan, so when I heard that David Cassidy wrote a book about his experiences being Keith Partridge I wanted to read about it.
David Cassidy is very candid about his life. he starts off talking about his childhood as the son of Jack Cassidy and Evelyn Ward. Then for the majority of the book he goes into the teen/adult years of his life spend having sex with MANY woman and doing alot of drugs. I was not happy because by the title I thought he would spend more time talking about the Partridge Family, but hwe did not. It was an interesting book though, and if you want to know more about David Cassidy this book is for you
Go back in a time-warp and wander around a bit in a strange land that used to be the USA
2007-05-21 - Skimmed over a few chapters of this book while I was re-selling it from a garage sale pick up and it was yet another pretty interesting reminder of how things used to be and how much they've changed and regressed for the worse rather than better, not to mention a somewhat unintentional complete laugh riot in spots.
Despite his teeny-bopper image and music, Cassidy had pretensions to being a real `artist' (hey, at least he put in an effort!) and wants you to know very early on in the book that though the 'coolness' never transferred to his music, he's really the guy-man-dude ultimate hipster of the 60s & 70s, really even more like Hunter S. Thompson in real life than the ten-times-more-talented drug-casualty similarly-shag-haircutted Gram Parsons, going as far back as when he was 17 (Davy-boy's drug-use from the time he was in junior-high is introduced very early on in the book in a very straightforward style, as a way of establishing his `street-credentials' to interest a wider audience that would respond to the marketing device of using the instant drug-connected cultural-pavlov-symbol of the phrase "Fear & Loathing" which he borrowed from Thompson who made it famous but who had himself borrowed it from Kierkergaard). Just to mention one of the more hilariously unabashed boasts of the book. According to Davy boy (nicknamed "the Donk" for his similarity to a Donkey in a certain part of his anatomy), he used to last about 2 minutes with most of the girls he met. Girls who would actually just walk up to him and say "Hi, want to f --- ?" This was BEFORE he made it big on the Partridge family during the now legendary 'summer of love' love-ins. According to him, this had nothing to do with his pretty boy looks and it was not at all unusual. The times were different. Magic was in the air. Well, after the 2-minute boy-wonder soaked up some Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds, and granted he was having a good trip and not a bum one, he was able to go for 4 to 5 hours. The girl begged him to stop at 2 in the morning and then had to limp home! When he called her later, she thanked him for the most unusual night and said she had a hard time walking. Way to go, Davy boy! The machoest of real rock stars will have a tough time topping that one!
Cassidy went from making 8 million dollars in the 70s, from having more people in his fan club than Elvis to less than a 1000 dollars in his bank account and crashing in the extra room of friends in the mid '80s. Where were all his loyal fans? Did they all move on to Duran Duran and Flock of Seagulls? According to him, the studio made over 500 million dollars from merchandising his image alone. Everyone wrote him off and forgot about him. Even his old friend that big hole Don Johnson snubbed him when he was riding high on Miami Vice. When a guy goes from such a total success to such a complete crash, you can't help but KNOW he was blacklisted from the industry for some dark and mysterious reason.
Maybe there will be clues to the mystery in the other bio book he wrote. Good fun read, this one, much more than you would expect from an ex TV star.
