Punk's chaotic energy and revolutionary spirit come through vividly
in this mesmerizing account of American punk. For instance, Kathy
Asheton notes, "I remember the day of his [Iggy Pop's] wedding
because that was the day Iggy and I started our romantic
relationship." Legions of groupies and other American punk scene
denizens are similarly heard from here, as are central figures,
including Iggy, Richard Hell, Malcolm McLaren, and members of the
Velvet Underground, the Patti Smith Group, et al. During the heyday
of hippiedom, the Velvets, the Stooges, and the MC5 distinguished
themselves by their refusal to have any part of the peace-and-love
agenda. Their unromanticized visions of boredom, violence, drug
use, and weird sex had little commercial appeal. But the Velvets'
Lou Reed and especially the Stooges' drug-crazed Iggy Pop became
icons for a generation of disaffected kids who identified with the
impulse to roll around shirtless in broken glass while howling "I
Wanna Be Your Dog." In the early '70s the New York Dolls continued
the tradition, combining goofy glamour and short, fast songs; the
overdose death of the Dolls' first drummer cemented narcotics abuse
as a central feature of the punk life. Authors McNeil, one of Punk
magazine's founders, and McCain, a former promoter of downtown New
York poetry readings, definitively assert punk's all-American
origins; British impresario Malcolm McLaren tells here how he
molded the Sex Pistols after patterns set by the Dolls and Richard
Hell. Despite the astonishing prevalence of drug addiction, the New
York bands and scene-makers of the mid-'70s, led by the Ramones,
had splendid instincts for music and style, and most subsequent pop
culture is to some degree indebted to them. An essential
accompaniment to the first, still-thrilling punk records, this
preposterously entertaining document just reeks with all the
brilliance and filth of the Blank Generation. (Kirkus Reviews)
What Britain refined, America defined. Assembled by two key figures
at the heart of the movement and told through the voices o
musicians, artists, iconoclastic reporters and entrepreneurial
groupies, PLEASE KILL ME is the full decadent story of the American
punk scene, through the early years of Andy Warhol's Factory to the
New York underground of Max's Kansas City and later, its heyday at
CBGB's, spiritual home to the Ramones, Talking Heads, Television
and Blondie. PLEASE KILL ME goes backstage and behind apartment
doors to chronicle the sex, drugs and power struggles that were the
very fabric of the American punk community, to the time before
piercing and tattoos became commonplace and when every concert, new
band and fashion statement marked an absolute first. From Iggy Pop
and Lou Reed to the Clash and the Sex Pistols (the first time
around), McNeil and McCain document a time of glorious
self-destruction and perverse innocence - possibly the last time so
many will so much fun in the pursuit of excess.
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