Customer Reviews

Diary of a Punk

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I had been avid reader of Mike Hudson's writings in the Niagara Reporter for years when Diary of a Punk was published. I wasn't really sure if I wanted to read it because I hadn't been a part of that scene in my youth. Also, I wasn't sure I wanted to know that much about Mike Hudson. I was a little afraid it might make me not like him. Eventually, curiosity got the better of me.

Diary is an unsentimental, brutally honest portrayal of a life lived outside society's boundaries. Yet I never got the sense Mr. Hudson was bragging or proud of his many excesses. He was simply telling the tale of how his life and the Pagan's story unfolded. I found it fascinating, although it was a life I found hard to imagine or comprehend. The sincerity in the way he wrote of his life, and the losses he dealt with along the way, was very compelling.

As interesting as Mike Hudson's life story was, I couldn't have enjoyed it as much if I didn't like his writing style. His prose is sparing, yet it can be beautiful. He conveys a lot in a few well chosen words. I just want to share an excerpt from one of my favorite paragraphs. "The city shimmered in the midsummer sunset as you drove west along the Shoreway downtown,........It was ours and it would always be ours and we were in love with it in the way that only the young can be in love."

I have always been a fan of the time travel genre and this book was a time machine for me, as a Clevelander I was a fan of the underground music scene from 1973 and on, I saw punk rock on a local level before I saw it on a national level, before the words "punk rock' was announced to an uncaring world,in Cleveland we already had bands like Pere Ubu, The Dead Boys,and Electric eels to name a few. Ubu and the Eels had the art damage thing down,The Dead Boys had dark menacing thing going on, But the Pagans were pure blue collar swagger, these were the cats that beat you up and took your cigarettes, my friends and I didn't wanna be the Beatles or Pink Floyd, we wanted to be the Pagans. this book was a trip back in time and explored to my memory a perfect reflection a dying city, What I never was aware of as just a guy in the crowd was the politics of music and how Cleveland radio and media fought to silence the birth of something thrilling dangerous and fun. Hudson provides us with an inside look at how the powers of the media did everything they could to crush the birth of something new in music. The irony is not lost. Ever since Alan Freed uttered the words "Rock and Roll" Cleveland media proud proclaims "Cleveland,The birthplace of Rock and Roll", yet here they were trying to silence a new brand of rock and roll. Mike Hudson's style of writing is much like the Pagans played, urban swagger,no regrets, no apology's. You can feel his anger and pain,and like a fan at a pagans show,you want to put your fist in the air unite with him as he gives the verbal finger to the unjustified media cretins that would seek to hold back a band with so much to offer. Hudson offers up many indignities the band endured, but the reader is not allowed to feel sympathetic, cuz the fire plainly still burns in Mike Hudson"s "F**k you non-believers stance." I recommend this book to anyone who is interested in finding out about the true struggles of a band screaming to be heard in a world of corporate commercial crap. In this "Rocky-esque" tale there is no knockout punch or happy ending. It's more subtle than that, because the Pagans did win in the end, for history has vindicated and validated the Pagans. Respect doesn't pay the bills, but in my mind it counts for more than anything else.

This has more to do with Kerouac's On The Road than it does with what has become your cliche rock bio. The sense of fear, abandonment and rejection that surrounded many of us in those days is here. The corresponding punk reaction of righteous rebellion and sometimes self-loathing gushes through the books' pores. Hudson's trick is that he doesn't hit you over the head with it or for that matter even say it. Like a good writer in the tradition of the masters it's all in how Hudson tells his tale.
He's the only one I have read on this subject who relays the fundamental belief we all held at the time: the world was going to change when the Ramones' Sheena is a Punk Rocker cracked the Hot 100. We so naively believed we would take over the world -- that arena rock acts, commercial radio and all the establishment trappings that held us down in Cleveland would come tumbling down vindicating our bands once and for all. And the turns to self-destruction and bad behavior that accompany watching no one care are described in a style that's ironically more Beat Gen than rock or Blank Gen.
If you buy one book on the subject, this is the one to buy
If you want to know about the Cleveland music scene in the 70's this is the one to buy.
If you want to know what a thousand punk bands that weren't the Ramones felt like this is the one to buy.

If you like the Pagans at all, you'll love this. Lent to me while on tour in Europe, this was a short but extremely entertaining read. Lost it somewhere over there, so bought a replacement.

This was a "can't put it down" book about one of the greatest 70's Punk bands to come out of Cleveland!! A trip down memory lane for my age-group who remembers when, and a fresh look at the past for the newer fan-base of my 20-year-old daughters' generation! A name-dropping book of other music greats, and a rare, inside, and often sad peek of the behind-the-scenes lives of Mike and the gang.

This book truly prooves the range of artistic talent that Mike Hudson possesses - musician, show-man, and journalist! I will definately buy Mike's other books now!!

Please keep writing Mike! Oh, and think about another musical performance (here in Cleveland). The Pagans is why the phrase "Cleveland Rocks" came into concept!!

My wife bought me this book for a special occasion and I'm still grateful because it's of the coolest presents I've ever received. I highly recommend this book, especially to fans of 1977 punk rock. Approx 150 pages and several cool photos.

I relate somewhat with the other reviewer concerning Hudson's beat/stream-of-consciousness style, but I really dug it. 'Diary of a Punk' is one of those prizey books which demand to be read within 24 hours - like Breakfast of Champions, Naked Lunch, Carburetor Dung, Fear and Loathing, or The Road. You can't put it down! It is a series of harrowing tales from life on the edge, but Hudson's many personal insights made me want to laugh and cry at times. The author makes no apologizes and lays it on the line in journalistic fashion. It is one of those rare books where life make just a little bit more sense after it has been read.

Loved the Pagans back in the day and was interesting in their story told by their lead singer. It's a short blast of a trip which is appropriate of a band that had less than a handful of legendary singles. Stories were decent although the book is kind of stream of consciousness which makes sense but is sometimes distracting. I had to laugh at rather than with the moaning about the "business" when the band clearly was a bunch of delinquents who didn't care a lick about business. Wish I had a dollar for every time I heard that in punk rock. Here's my favorite quote: "Life's short, and not too much of it should be wasted thinking about how you're going to live. That's another thing we learned the hard way." What nonsense. You learned that the easy way. That is how and why you lived out the juvenile rock star/anti-rock star existence you did. Any thought at all and things would have been a lot different. Better?