[[quoteright:331:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/51funbr1z4l_sx329_bo1204203200.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:331:]]

->Well I'm here to make things right,\\
To fight the last good fight,
->And they're playing the armageddon rag, oh!
->Playin' the armageddon rag!
-->-- "Armageddon/Resurrection Rag"

Back in the 60s, the fictional rock band Nazgûl was at the top of their game, and a rallying cry for the burgeoning hippie movement. However this all ended September 20, 1971, when their lead singer, Patrick Henry Hobbins, was murdered on stage in New Mexico. The band broke up and the world moved on.

At least, until the band's old manager, Jamie Lynch, is found dead. Alternative movement 'zine ''The Hedgehog'' calls its old editor Sandy Blair to write a feature piece about the murder, seeing as how he covered the band in the ''Hog'''s past. Along the way to interviewing the surviving members of the band and hopefully solve the murder, Blair reconnects with his own troupe of flower-power hippie revolutionaries he used to pal around with in the 60s.

His leads go nowhere and the story evaporates, but a mysterious man named Edan Morse offers - or should we say plots - to reunite the band with a new lead singer. Sandy is called in to be Nazgûl's PR man for the upcoming tour. Despite his misgivings, he accepts. However what seems like a typical reunion tour turns to the surreal and macabre as Sandy uncovers the sinister motivations behind the reunion.

The book was published in 1983 by Creator/GeorgeRRMartin well over a decade before Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire was a twinkle in his eye. As a meditation on 60s rock music and the flower-power movement, it's most famous for being a colossal commercial failure, so much so that it almost killed Martin's career and causing him to retreat into film and TV Writing for a few years. Despite this, the novel remains in print.

----
!!The novel ''The Armageddon Rag'' provides examples of:

* AbusiveParents: Sandy's buddy Slum, whose father is a stereotypical American macho-man who writes trashy, but successful, thriller novels. He has Slum declared mentally invalid and cuts him off from the world, and rules all his kids through fear and intimidation.

* AssholeVictim: Nobody is particularly choked up that Jamie Lynch is dead. The band members acknowledge he's the reason they found such success in the past, but he locked them into one of the all-time shittiest lifetime contracts possible.

* AuthorAppeal: Creator/GeorgeRRMartin must really love 60s rock music.

* BilledAboveTheTitle: Now that George is a #1 times bestseller for Series/ASongOfIceAndFire, his name is much larger than the title on reprints.

* AudienceParticipationSong: The song Ragin', which the guitarist Maggio sings lead on.
--> "I'm just so mad!" - Maggio
--> "How mad are you?" - Crowd
--> "I'M RAGIN!" - Maggio


* BedmateReveal: Sandy wakes up not remembering anything from the night before. Then he sees Ananda. It's revealed they actually did NOT have sex that night, but do many, many times after.

* BodyHorror: What happens to Edan Morse as the [[spoiler:black magic]] takes its course.

* TheBodyPartsThatMustNotBeNamed: Very much averted when it comes to females. Vagina is written multiple times, and nearly every woman's breasts are described, sometimes multiple times. Male genitals are only referred to by euphemisms though.

* BodySnatcher: Through black magic, the dead Hobbins literally possesses Larry during the concerts, but only when they play the old songs.

* CloneByConversion: A new singer is found for the band, a kid who looks almost exactly like the late Patrick Hobbins. The kid, Larry Richmond, undergoes facial surgery to look even more like Hobbins.

* CoolCar: Sandy Drives a Mazda RX-7, which he names Daydream. He uses it on more than one occasion to get laid. It works.

* DeadpanSnarker: This is basically Sandy Blair's entire character. He's immensely proud of it.

* DealWithTheDevil: Edan Morse made some kind of ritual sacrifice. As the band keeps playing gigs, he keeps bleeding more and more profusely.

* DreamingOfThingsToCome: Sandy keeps having prophetic dreams, and a recurring one features a woman being sacrificed on-stage. He later realized it's about a groupie who hangs around Maggio, based on her scream in real life matching the one heard in his dream.

* DoubleStandard: When Sandy returns home from investigating Lynch's murder to find his girlfriend in bed with another man, he's furious. This despite the fact he hooked up with two women on the road since they both agreed to an open relationship.

* TheDragon: Gort, to Edan Morse. He's a hulk of a man and obeys orders without question.

* DreadfulMusician: The reunited Nazgûl. Sandy can tell at the first rehearsal they don't have the magic anymore. The biggest offender is Larry Richmond who, despite being a near identical clone, just isn't the same as their old singer.

* EpicRocking: Nazgûl is famous for their extended jams, Music/GratefulDead style.

* FreudianTrio: The three surviving members of the Nazgul; the sleazy drug-addicted paedophile Rick Maggio is the Id, the intellectual, morally-attuned and slightly pompous Peter Faxon is the Superego, and Gopher John is the Ego.

* FunctionalAddict: Maggio the guitarist. He loves being a junkie and continues taking speed pills throughout their reunion tour, before and after going onstage. It doesn't seem to impair his performance, but he is very unpleasant in person. Lynch, the old promoter, once gave him drugs as a Christmas present. He was thrilled.

* HappyEnding: The [[spoiler:dark magic]] crisis is averted, Sandy has written a hit novel based on his experiences, and the Nazgûl are back with a better singer and about to cut a new album.

* HeavyMithril: What the band plays. Kind of obvious considering they are called Nazgûl.

* HeelFaceTurn: Edan Morse realizes what they are doing is wrong, but far, far too late to stop it.

* HistoryRepeats: The reunion tour of Nazgûl is eerily similar to their 1971 tour that ended with the death of their singer. This is all on purpose as part of a [[spoiler:black magic ritual]].

* HowTheMightyHaveFallen: The surviving members of Nazgûl. Gopher John the drummer is running a hole-in-the-wall club, Maggio the guitarist is playing gigs with a bunch of scrubs to get in a girl's pants. Faxon the bass player is also the primary songwriter so he's doing fine with royalty checks coming in, but secretly yearns to be back on top. All three are eventually convinced to reunite, one way or another.

* GoneHorriblyWrong: Edan Morse's plot is to [[spoiler: incite a riot that causes mass anarchy]], in order to rebuild a better world. He realizes it won't progress past all the [[spoiler:death and destruction]] and tries to call it off but unfortunately, [[spoiler:Ananda]] sees it more as a case of UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans.

* KickTheDog: Slit the dog's throat to be exact.

* TheLancer: Ananda Caine, who is Edan Morse's right-hand woman, and is fiercely competent. [[spoiler:in the end, she kills Edan and becomes the main antagonist]].

* LongestSongGoesLast: Side B of Nazgûl's last album is entirely taken up by the 23 minute Armageddon/Resurrection Rag.

* NewAgeRetroHippie: Sandy and his comrades from the 60s were all this. Some still are, some fell out of it. Part of the reason Sandy took the assignment in the first place was to reconnect with them.

* MostWritersAreWriters: The main character, Sandy Blair, is a novelist who got his start editing a 60s revolutionary 'zine.

* OnlySaneMan: Once Sandy finds out what is going on behind the scenes, he's the only one who questions it and tries to stop it.
** in the band, Peter Faxon, the bass player and principal songwriter. The drummer is an alcoholic who wants nothing to do with the Nazgûl anymore, the guitarist is a junkie, pedophile psychotic, and the singer is, well, dead. Since all the publishing rights go to him, he has the least need to reunite. He just does it for the music.

* TheReveal: The one who kicked off the plot by killing Lynch in the first place was [[spoiler:Ananda]].

* SelfHarm: Edan Morse, the Nazgûl's new benefactor, has scars all over his left hand from cutting himself. [[spoiler:Sandy finds out later it's part of a blood sacrifice]]. He gets much, much worse later on.

* SexDrugsAndRockAndRoll: One of the defining examples in the fictional universe of the book. The guitarist, Maggio, is a legendary junkie and pedophile.

* ShoutOut: Lots and lots to 60s rock music in general, and the flower-power movement as a whole. Each chapter beings with a quote from a famous song, which roughly mirrors the chapter's plot, and other lyrics are sprinkled throughout the text.

* TechnicianVsPerformer: Patrick Hobbins oozed charisma from every pore. Larry puts on a respectable impression and is actually better at guitar, but he just can't rile up the crowd in the same way.

* TitleDrop: Many times. The Armageddon Rag is the name of the band's extended jam from side B of their most famous album, so it gets talked about a fair bit. Technically it's The Armageddon/Resurrection Rag, but it's usually just referred to as Armageddon Rag.

* TwinThreesomeFantasy:Rick Maggio gets to live this fantasy. Then it turns out the twins were underage, and he finds himself being blackmailed with photos of the event.

* AWorldHalfFull: Half of the novel is Sandy having philosophical conversations with his friends and acquaintances about the way the world is, versus how they envisioned it in their idyllic youths.

* WritersBlock: Sandy takes the assignment because he's stuck on page 37 of his novel. He never finishes it and ends up throwing the pages out a taxi window.