radwanhassan

I started listening to and playing punk pretty early (around 1985, Black Flag, Dead Kennedys, Minor Threat etc...) and it was interesting to watch the scene change over the years, but it wasn't until I read a review of the New York Dolls that I got really interested in everything that was going on before I showed up. This book pretty much covers it all. Being (originally) from Detroit it was cool to hear that we made our huge contributions to punk music in the form of Iggy and the MC5. To hear about Bowie starting out and the whole Andy Warhol gang was also really cool. This is a no punches pulled book. Massive amounts of drugs, lots of sex and probably the saddest part, nearly half the characters die in the end (and many in the middle). There’s a quote about all musicians being a$$holes and after reading the book it sounds about right. Not all the time of course but more than mean spirited divas many of them just seem pitiful. I guess continuous ingestion of copious amounts of drugs and alcohol can do that to a person. If you enjoy VH1's Behind the Band type stuff you'll probably like this. It doesn't focus in on any one band but a couple of the major players take up large sections of the book (Ramones, Sex Pistols, Patty Smith, Velvet Underground etc..)

2022-11-14 14:07