Many people today see rock 'n' roll as the marriage between new technology, African roots music and European folk. But, as comics legend and pop culture expert Chris Knowles shows in an eye-opening argument, its spirit is much more ancient than that. Sex, drugs, loud music, wild costumes, pyrotechniques - these were all characteristics of the so-called 'mystery religions' of the ancient world. Chris Knowles here traces their history, their rise and fall and eventual metamorphosis into what is known today as rock 'n' roll culture.