Snakes! Guillotines! Electric Chairs! My Adventures in the Alice Cooper Group

Playing bass for the Alice Cooper Group from the group's origins as a high school talent show joke band to stadium-packing success, Dunaway amassed more than a lifetime's worth of road memories. With help from Rolling Stone staff writer Hodenfield, those reflections become an informative, entertaining, and surprisingly cheerful work. The pacing is fast, the chronology is tight, and the balance of personal, professional, and cultural details is spot-on. A few clunky phrases and run-on sentences are easily forgiven; especially memorable passages involving the band's farmhouse headquarters and their 100 percent pure Motor City roadie, Leo, will have readers laughing out loud, while the drink- and drug-fueled decline of guitarist Glen Buxton is poignant without being schmaltzy. A refreshing sense of graciousness even extends to issues surrounding the band's 1975 breakup.