Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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27 of 30 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
SODOM AND GOMORRAH, December 7, 2007
An indispensible read for any fledgling garage band looking for a crash course in punk legend, "Please Kill Me" could as easily serve as a dire warning (for mothers wishing to discourage their kin from being in a fledgling garage band). A pretty picture it is not. Nobody discussed within escapes unscathed.
Compiled from countless interviews and told in short acerbic quotes from
bandmembers, managers and hangers-on the book reads like a documentary. Shifting back and forth between scenesters, the focus is mainly on the New York birth of the genre. It doesn't lack any of the rockstar cliches of boys (and girls) behaving badly. The lurid horse's mouth treatment provides all the sex, drugs and violence you would expect. It's without a doubt a compelling read made all the more disturbing because it lacks the music and visuals of say "The Decline Of Western Civilization" or "American Hardcore". As a result, one comes away feeling that the entire punk movement was a tawdry, useless excercise in self-indulgent juvenilia. That's unfortunate because the music that was borne of all this desperation remains unquestionably vibrant, alive and extremely influential. Quite frankly, it saved my life.
Still and all, "Please Kill Me" is an important reminder that the brilliant flame generated by this musical inferno was, as Pete Townshend once said, "being kept alive by bodies".
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Not just for fans of Punk, March 1, 2007
I am not a punk music enthusiast. However, I found this book interesting and entertaining. Do not ignore that it says that it is an Oral History, truly it is written as a serious of anecdotes and stories told by those involved. Once you get used to it, you will marvel at how well they were able to chronologically tell this story around the origins and glory days of punk music. Honest interesting stories.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Simply put, a classic, April 10, 2009
I just picked up my third copy of this book today. The first I got rid of during a brief 'Jesus freak' phase I went through, the second I lost after moving - hopefully, this one I will be able to keep.
While it is true that this book is limited to proto-punk (Stooges, VU, MC5) and the New York Punk scene (Patti Smith, New York Dolls, Ramones), that's what's so genius about it. A book devoted entirely to encompassing an "oral history of punk" all over the world, from the earliest origins of the "punk spirit," through to the 60s garage bands like The Sonics, the Brit punk scene, the LA Hardcore scene, modern punk, etc. would probably require several volumes.
Instead, Legs McNeil and Gillian McCain stick to a rather limited scope, but one certainly cannot say that this book suffers because of that. True, if you picked up this book to read about the Buzzcocks or the Dead Kennedys or NOFX, you're going to be disappointed. But if it is CBGB/Max's Kansas City you want, this is the book for you.
I love the "oral history" format, and Legs & Gillian do it right, with quotes and excerpts from interviews building a story, from the Velvets to the death of Johnny Thunders - and there is not a wasted quote in the bunch. Stories of drug excess and sexual exploits compete with gossip and bad-mouthing to make a fascinating book, not about the music, but about the people who MADE the music.
I must confess that I have a fascination with mid to late 70s New York decadence, so the tales make me smile, although your reaction may be that of revulsion or horror - but who cares? It's making you react and making you think, and you'll never be able to put on a Ramones or a Heartbreakers album and listen to it in the same way you did before you read this. Highly recommended.
The only complaint I have is that Legs has said he's only used 10% of the interviews he conducted in this book. I'd love to see a sequel!
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