Here's to My Sweet Satan: How the Occult Haunted Music, Movies and Pop Culture, 1966-1980

by George Case

Overview

A sweeping, interwoven story of how America fell in love with the Occult

Here’s to My Sweet Satan is the first book to fully document the Occult craze of the 1960s and 1970s as a single pop culture phenomenon that continues to influence nearly every aspect of culture today. A masterful cultural history, Here’s to My Sweet Satan tells how the Occult conquered the American imagination, weaving together topics as diverse as the birth of heavy metal, 1970s horror films, the New Age movement, Count Chocula cereal, the serial killer Son of Sam, and more. Cultural critic George Case explores how the Occult craze permanently changed American society, creating the cultural framework for the political power of the religious right, false accusations of Satanic child abuse, and today’s widespread rejection of science and rationality.

An insightful blend of pop culture and social history, Here’s to My Sweet Satan lucidly explains how the most technological society on earth became enthralled by the supernatural.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781610352659
Publisher:	Linden Publishing
Publication date:	03/18/2016
Pages:	210
Sales rank:	706,695
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

George Case is a writer on ideas and popular culture, and an acknowledged authority on the band Led Zeppelin. He is the author of “Jimmy Page: Magus, Musician, Man,” “Out of Our Heads: Rock ‘n’ Roll Before the Drugs Wore Off,” “Led Zeppelin FAQ,” “Calling Dr. Strangelove,” and “Arcadia Borealis: Childhood and Youth in Northern Ontario.” Case has also contributed several articles to the social science journal Skeptic.

Table of Contents

Introduction: The Return of the Repressed

1) Diabolus in Musica

2) Bad Words

3) Sin Cinema

4) Little Devils

5) Stranger Than Science

6 Devil in the Flesh

7) World of Wonders

Interviews

Audience assessment:

Pop culture readers: The primary market for “Here’s to My Sweet Satan” are readers interested in in-depth study of the history of pop culture, fads, and trends in popular music, movies, television, and books.

Nostalgia/Late Baby Boom/Generation X readers: “Here’s to My Sweet Satan” covers music, films, trends, and events that are deeply meaningful to anyone who came of age in the 1960s and 1970s, including the latter half of the Baby Boom generation and all of Generation X.

Rock music history readers: “Here’s to My Sweet Satan” will be of great interest to rock music fans and readers interested in rock history, as it covers key events in the history of 1960s rock and the birth of heavy metal.

Horror movie fans: “Here’s to My Sweet Satan” will also be of interest to horror movie fans, as it offers one of the most comprehensive accounts of supernatural horror films in the 1970s.

Editorial Reviews

If you think belief in the occult and supernatural faded in the late 17th century after the murderous Salem Witch Trials, think again. America went through a second wave of paranormal beliefs in the late 20th century, resulting in disastrous moral panics over Satanic cults and recovered memories of sexual abuse. Beliefs have consequences and George Case has documented this period in exquisite detail and compelling prose, the best book I've read all year. —Michael Shermer, Publisher of Skeptic magazine, monthly columnist for Scientific American, author of Why People Believe Weird Things and The Moral Arc

"George Case has assembled, contextualized and made clear more disparate occult references and examples across multiple disciplines than has been proposed in any other book on the subject thus far. What's more, he brings back to the modern world the press reactions of the day, making for a lively read that takes us right back to the '60s and '70s. Case leaves no stone unturned, beginning with the Beatles and the Stones, but including less discussed examples of occultism and shock in rock from the likes of Graham Bond, Alice Cooper and the Blue Oyster Cult. All told, Here's to My Sweet Satan is a swift-moving read that re-conjures dozens — if not hundreds — of key story lines linking pop culture to the Satanic that you thought you knew, but now realize you never knew this richly." —Martin Popoff, author of Who Invented Heavy Metal and The Big Book of Hair Metal

"Horns in the air! Case takes us to a veritable witches' sabbat of obsession with satanic themes in late twentieth century culture. His well-researched work encompasses everything from the growth of modern nihilistic philosophy to the 'horror gimmicks' of 1970s toys. Get ready to break out your Black Sabbath album, rewatch Rosemary's Baby and see contemporary culture in its darkest hues. You're in for a hell of a ride." —W. Scott Poole, historian and author of Satan in America and Vampira: Dark Goddess of Horror

From the Publisher