Get in the Van: On the Road With Black Flag (2nd Edition) [Paperback]

Henry Rollins (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 18, 2004

As a member of the seminal punk band Black Flag, Henry Rollins kept detailed tour diaries that form the basis of Get in the Van . Rollins's observations range from the wry to the raucous in this blistering account of a six-year career with the band - a time marked by crazed fans, vicious cops, near-starvation, substance abuse, and mind numbing all-night drives. Rollins decided to revise this edition by adding a wealth of new photographs, a new foreword, and an afterword to include some "where-are-they-now" information on the people featured in the book. This new edition includes 40 previously unpublished black-and-white photographs from Rollins's private collection and show flyers by artist Raymond Pettibon. Called "a soul-frying experience not to be undertaken by lightweights" by Wired magazine, Get in the Van perfectly embodies what one critic called the "secular gospel" of one of punk and post-punk's most respected and controversial figures.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

A day-by-day journal from the journals of the ever-volatile Henry Rollins on tour from 1981 to 1986 that captures the irrationality and violence of punk specifically, and the stresses of being on the road in a rock band generally. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: 2.13.61; 2nd edition (November 18, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1880985764
• ISBN-13: 978-1880985762
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 0.8 x 11 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (62 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #725,538 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

25 of 27 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars How to become famous the hard way March 8, 2000

By H. Powell

Format:Paperback

Imagine living your life for nothing other than the chance to express yourself honestly in music night after night. Now, imagine you are puting your heart and soul into every song you thrash out, even though there is little chance of you ever becoming a main stream success...even though you barely have enough money to eat, you ride in a rickety van for hundreds of miles between gigs, and club owners, promoters, cops and skinheads are always screwing you over or beating you up. But you don't care: you live for the music and you do not compromise. This is exactly how Black Flag, one of the heaviest American rock bands ever, lived for six years while Henry Garfield/Rollins was at the mic. And Rollins' "Get In the Van" is his mesmerizing testimony of that magical time in the eighties that we aging punks remember so fondly...maybe a little too fondly, because many of us at the time thought the punks on stage lived the glamorous lives of their heavy metal brothers...such was not the case, as HR lucidly recollects in his trademark style. I mourn the passing of the energy and heart of the American punk scene. All of the supposedly "heavy" music of today is depressingly lame by comparison. Above all, I miss Black Flag. Fantastic book by a fascinating man.

20 of 24 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars I'm leaving a star because April 6, 2005

By Carrie W. VINE™ VOICE

Format:Paperback

this book is so great, I'm sure I'll read another Rollins book later on which I'll want to lay that fifth star. This is the first one of his I've read, but it definitely won't be the last.

I met Rollins once, at a gig the 'pigs,' as he refers to 'em, shut down. This was in 1985, 86, I was in high school, and I remember how cool Rollins was to everybody that night.

Now I realize he was in basically utter torment at the time, which makes his demeanor all the more amazing.

Sure, I like the records. I like the stand up stuff. I lived in D.C. for years. But let me tell you this - if you're ever suffered from serious depression, this book is gonna give you nightmares. It's basically the best accounting I've ever read of what living day to day with that is like. It's like...everything can be objectively going great, in this case if you're the leader of a popular band, and you can still wake up every day and think about snuffing yourself.

It's ironic that Rollins is best known for his recorded material, when this book is so good. It almost makes you want to call him up and get him to come over, just so you can give him a hug. I'll tell you what, it must take a lot of guts to put your name on something like this and send it out into the world, for schlubs like me to review on Amazon.com.

8 of 10 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars On the Road, Rollins-style August 23, 2005

By Robert P. Beveridge HALL OF FAMEVINE™ VOICE

Format:Paperback

Henry Rollins, Get in the Van (2.13.61, 1994)

Get in the Van is Rollins' tour journal from his five years as the lead vocalist of Black Flag. That it is a compendium of journal entries should tell you a good deal of what you need to know to figure out if you're going to like this book or not; there's a good deal of repetition. It's the nature of the beast. If that's not your bag, you'll want to pass here.

That said, Get in the Van is interesting for all manner of reasons, especially for those of us who actually grew up listening to Black Flag. If you're in a more fringe area of the music industry, a lot of this will probably sound familiar to you, if on a larger scale (most underground musicians probably don't embark on extensive tours outside their home country, though as Henry points out, people are pretty much the same everywhere). If you don't, you'll get a lot of insight into what it is to be a "rock star"-- people ripping you off, mishaps on the road, jerks everywhere you look. It ain't easy being at the top (and Black Flag may have ruled the roost where hardcore punk was concerned, but in the greater scheme of things, to call the members of Black Flag rock stars-- putting them on the same level of success as bands who sold out arenas-- the very idea is something of a joke, as Rollins sourly points out a number of times).

The best thing about the book, though, is watching Henry's psyche and contrasting it with what we see on the page. Henry Rollins was a mass of contradictions during the turbulent Black Flag years. He often complains here that he feels detached from those around him, including the other members of the band, and that he feels less and less human. The truly sad bit is how human it all is.

Those not yet familiar with Rollins' writings would likely be better off starting with one of his other books (I've always been very partial to Bang!, myself) or, even better, one of the spoken word cassettes from 2.13.61. But once you've found yourself a convert to Rollins' particular brand of dark, heavy humor, Get in the Van is a fine chronicle. *** ˝