Hey, Check Out This Mistake I Made In My Own Book

The photos of the Misfits on the cover of This Music Leaves Stains that are also reproduced about mid-way through the book were taken by Kevin Salk in January of 1983 at a show in Goleta, California. For some reason these photos are captioned in the book as having been taken in Santa Monica. When I say “for some reason” I mean “because I mistakenly wrote ‘Santa Monica’ down on the final form during a cosmic brain fart at three in the morning after x hours of work that told me Goleta was part of Santa Monica when it is in fact its own incorporated city next to Santa Barbara.”

Needless to say I’m beating myself pretty hard up over this since A) the Kevin Salk photos were the only ones I was working with (so how I could get any info pertaining to them wrong?) and B) photos are usually the first thing people look at when they pick up a book. The people I’m hoping most to please with This Music Leaves Stains have at least passing knowledge of the Salk shots and will probably wonder what else I floundered after seeing those incorrect captions. Nothing, I hope. Alas, even though I spent what seemed like a tireless two years researching and writing this book I accept that this and maybe some other mistakes may have slipped through the cracks. I apologize. Obviously I will try to correct any/all boners before the softcover.

I take a little solace in the fact Glenn Danzig misspelled bass player Jerry Caiafa’s name on the back of the first Misfits single, “Cough/Cool,” in 1977 (an incident that helped birth the latter’s famed stage moniker; when he noticed the misspelling, an agitated Caiafa instructed Danzig to credit him on the next release as “only Jerry, Jerry only,” which Danzig turned around as “Jerry Only”). Even the greats mess up here and there. Still, this photo fuck up of mine is in hardcover, in the so-called “library” edition. The version of the book people will get from libraries, which are centers of assumedly correct and right knowledge.

On the other hand, I checked out Burt Ward’s book from the library once, the one where he claimed to have had sex with basically everything on the planet. That did not enrich my mind at all. At least I’m trying over here. I tried to write the most factually accurate book I could about the Misfits. I didn’t write anything about how tons of wet squishing made my testicles grow to the size of grapefruits. Really, Burt. You gross.