Customer Reviews

Free Press: Underground and Alternative Publications, 1965-1975

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

The edition has been updated since originally published in English. But still, the book itself was not intended as a historical document, and approaching it that way will only lead to frustration. In the copy I have, the reproductions were excellent, not blurred or faint. The original pages were on newspaper from forty years ago and so it is not the highest quality paper or print. Still, the power and exhilaration of the time does leap off the page. I think this is the perfect format for putting together an artistic rendering of the underground press. It is a celebration of the images. The stories are told elsewhere.

As one who was there in the halcyon days of the "underground" press, this book is a wonderful random walk through the newspapers that were published on both sides of the pond. The book was originally published in France so there is an understandable emphasis on their publications, which I found quite interesting.

I expected more than what appears to be a random selection of pages from underground newspapers; perhaps some commentary or background on the original sources. However, this is a great "coffee table" book to browse through, and I wish more of the original sources were available. Seeing a headline isn't that fun when you wish you could read the article that goes with it.

I agree with James Danky. Don't know what the hell the first person who posted saw in this book. Poor, out of focus reproductions of some of the ugliest examples of what was truly a flowering of beautiful art at that time. Is that person telling us that he was happy spending $45 for almost no text offering much-needed historical context for the artwork. Bizot also does not credit any of the artists because, I presume, the "author" couldn't be bothered to actually do some research. This is truly a pathetic book. Barry Miles should be ashamed putting his name on this, as the foreword writer. Disappointing isn't the half of it. It gives the wrong impression entirely of a time when people thought they could change the world. Also, the time frame is so lazily subjective, seemingly just representing whatever the author had in a few boxes in his basement. The title suggests the timeframe as 1965-1975, but the punk images are from as late as from 1981. Good God. DOesn't Universe, the publisher, have in-house editors? Did anyone do ANY oversight of this? Lazy, shoddy, overpriced. Ripoff, to borrow a word from back in the day. Ripoff.

What a disappointing book! From the poor quality reproductions, often from poor quality originals, Bizot has provided a scanty scrapbook of the visual feast that was the underground press. Based on the papers he received at the offices of Actuel in Paris, Bizot has gather a motley assortment of covers, some interiors, to share with readers who may remember their own copies or never have seen any issues. What is needed is a high quality volume that gives the alternative press its visual due along with some meaningful text that puts it in context, something the abreviated contributions in this volume do not accomplish.