Babylon's Burning: From Punk to Grunge [Hardcover]

Clinton Heylin (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 21, 2007

Destined to become a classic on the subject alongside Legs McNeil’s Please Kill Me, Babylon’s Burning is a groundbreaking, definitive account of punk rock, one of the most influential and lasting music movements in history—a movement that ironically was built on self-annihilation. Acclaimed critic Clinton Heylin seamlessly weaves together the lives of disparate artists who had in common not the music (there was no distribution) but the pictures, words, and fashions depicted in magazines like Creem and NME. It was a sound that eschewed conventional lyrics, promoted a gutteral musicality but yet contained a keen pop sensibility. Whether exploring the work of early progenitors like Suicide, The New York Dolls, and Patti Smith or charting the progress of the bands who legitimately took up the mantle in the eighties and nineties, Clinton Heylin brings to life the strands of a global artform. From the Sex Pistols’s clarion call of a record, “Never Mind the Bollocks,” to Kurt Cobain’s songs of an alienated youth, Babylon’s Burning is the brilliant, exhaustively researched story that once and for all defines what Punk is and is not.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

When it comes to the heyday of punk rock in the mid to late 1970s, Heylin has put together a solid history, drawing upon interviews with many of the key players from the era. The focus on London bands like the Sex Pistols and the Clash is unsurprising, but New York combos like the Ramones and Television also get their due, and even groups whose influence is less generally recognized, like Cleveland's Pere Ubu or Australia's Radio Birdman, receive well-rounded treatment. Heylin (From the Velvets to the Voidoids) is opinionated, but only rarely do his undisguised preferences disrupt the story. (One notable exception comes when he calls the death of Sid Vicious's girlfriend, Nancy, "justifiable homicide.") If he'd simply closed out his account with the suicide of Joy Division's Ian Curtis in 1980, Heylin would have perfectly captured the punk era. Instead, he spends another hundred pages building up to the death of Kurt Cobain, branded as a poser and a sellout. That the story so quickly works its way to Nirvana after such an in-depth exploration of the '70s underscores the tacked-on feeling of these final chapters. It's a shame, because the core material is strong enough that it didn't need to grasp at such ersatz "relevance." (Jan.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 672 pages
• Publisher: Canongate U.S. (February 21, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1841958794
• ISBN-13: 978-1841958798
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6 x 2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 2.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,482,285 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars substandard hack job, July 10, 2007

By 

E. A. Hunter (vermont) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Babylon's Burning: From Punk to Grunge (Hardcover)

I'd read other books by the same author and was ready for a well-researched, eloquently-penned work on a par with From The Velvets To The Voidoids. This was a huge disappointment. I can't even recommend this book for those who know next to nothing about punk rock. If this weren't such a boring read, it might be useful as a reference for those who think punk rock began and ended with the Sex Pistols. The major problems here aren't so much inaccuracies (which are all over the place) or the fact that many important bands are not mentioned, but the misconceptions that the writer asserts as fact. He knows next to nothing about the hardcore scene in terms of first-hand knowlege and misses entire aspects of the underground which may have helped in terms of nuance. The writer pits band against band in some sort of non-existent competition and ignores nearly all humorous elements. The odd thing is that Heylin appears to have done a lot of research and even conducted his own interviews for some sections. If one can term a book that stretches for hundreds of pagesa "rush job," surely Babylon's Burning qualifies.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Breadth of Punkrock, April 18, 2007

By 

David E. Hintz (Washington DC) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Babylon's Burning: From Punk to Grunge (Hardcover)

Clinton Heylin extends "From the Velvets to the Voidoids" both by covering further scenes and covering more recent post-punk trends. There is only one chapter on grunge among the 625 pages of text, so the earlier scenes are far better covered. I loved reading both the breadth and depth of coverage of the early scenes. The Australian coverage was quite nice and not often enough explored or appreciated in punk rock history. I would almost drop a star from my rating as I saw at least five or six mistakes made as he hit the 1980s. But that did not detract from the history presented here. Read this along with "Please Kill Me" and "England's Dreaming" and you will get fantastic history of a great era of musical history.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Good Read, April 29, 2009

By 

Steven Stewart (Liverpool) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Babylon's Burning: From Punk to Grunge (Hardcover)

This book is as unique a history book as you're likely to get; not just in the way it's written, but also in the way it seeks to present to the reader the most important aspects of Punk history. I've not read any of Heylins other books, nor have I read anything about the history of punk, but a friend of mine recommended this to me and I'm glad he did. So the book itself is aptly named "Babylon's Burning" with the subtitle "from Punk to Grunge." The main title is a song by punk band, The Ruts and of course the subtitle tells us that this book will take us on a journey through the most turbulent genre in Music.

It starts off in 1971 and the quintessential birth of Punk music and individuality in New York, right to what some would say the day the music died in the early 90s. This book settles it. The argument to end all arguments, and although many would hate to admit it, the notion of Punk started in America. Television started it all in New York City with their individuality and their outsider attitude. They didn't seek to make the type of music that surrounded the scene at that time. Television didn't want to be another Beatles and nor did they care if people rejected them for not fitting that mould. This ideology became the Punk mantra for the next 20 years and is an ideology that was already instilled in the UK's most well known Punk, John Lydon.

The out of this world "I don't give a F@#$" attitude can be widely attributed to Iggy & The Stooges, but thankfully this is all explained within the book. Heylin has a very unique way of writing which may be off putting to some, but to me it made this book more interesting to read. The book isn't really Heylins take on things as he likes to fill it with quotes from those important figures that were there as it happened. This brings you more into the atmosphere and gives you a better understanding of the motives of those involved.

I have read a bit about certain flaws in the book and because I didn't know that much about Punk to begin with and have not read any other books on it, I didn't pick up on them. Apparently there are a few spelling mistakes and is criticised for this considering that he corrects many misperceptions about certain events or important gigs. What I found dislikeable about the way it was written is that Heylin took it upon himself to make gramma[tical] corrections to the story's [told] by those who were there. Grammatically correct or not, I would have preferred the quote in its original form rather than have Heylin essentially go against everything Punk stood for and that's not caring. If you're going to use quotes in a book, then you leave them in their original form and don't insult the reader by altering them.

Towards the end, the book does take quite an obviously justified gloomy tone when talking about what many would say is the death of Punk, when Kurt took his own life. The book expresses an obvious fondness for the individual and the music created with Nirvana, while at the same time remaining objective by pointing out Kurts flaws with his contradictions. Contradiction is a theme that is apparent throughout the book. How some bands decided to end it before they became too famous so as to not backtrack on the notion of it all being about the music, while other bands contradicted certain punk ideals by seeking massive fame through signing to the big labels. These contradictions created many punk casualties, and this is spoken about sensitively whilst remaining objective.

The book certainly is enjoyable to read and Heylin has the knack for describing the atmosphere of an early Pistols gig or the early gigs of the many prominent Punk bands. It accurately presents the frustration many "real" punk bands felt towards the more popular music of the day. He also goes about trying to explain or in a sense justify the more volatile behaviour of the more vicious bands and their followers. It's a good read for those who have always been quite interested in the notion of the Punk, and the history of the genre.