Punk: The Definitive Record of a Revolution [Paperback]

Stephen Colegrave (Author), Chris Sullivan (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 10, 2001

Re-creating the complete story of the Punk phenomenon—including where it came from and what it turned into—Punk is a massive and visually stunning record of five years that changed the world: 1975-1979. Collecting the testimony of more than 260 artists, record producers, designers, and journalists—including John Cale, Debbie Harry, Joe Strummer, Maureen Tucker, Gerard Malanga, Lou Reed, Johnny Rotten, Danny Fields, Legs McNeil, Bob Gruen, David Byrne, Iggy Pop, Tommy Ramone, William S. Burroughs, Terry Southern, Cherry Vanilla, and Malcolm McLaren, former manager and ringleader of the Sex Pistols—most published here for the first time, Punk brings to life the profound effect Punk music had on global popular culture. With reverberations in style, fashion, attitude, and philosophy, the birth of Punk music released the greatest shockwaves in the popular culture since The Beatles. Punk tells the story through the words of the people who were closely tied to the mania and through hundreds of contemporaneous color and black-and-white photographs. As Andy Warhol said, "We all knew something was happening. We just felt it." "In 1976 we were the most hated people on the planet – we thought that was great."—Siouxsie

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Colegrave and Sullivan (The Beatles Anthology) deliver a brash and brilliant photo-essay of the most brash and obnoxious chapter in the history of music and culture long before the advent of crowd surfing. Framing its history between 1975 and 1979 (but covering the years before and after), this volume is a historiography of the music, attitude and dress as typified by Malcolm MacLaren and his manufactured Sex Pistols, uncomfortable commercial shifts in the music when anarchy became "a badge of conformity rather than an alternative way of living" and finally the latter days, which saw the dissolution of the Pistols. The authors trace punk rock from its earliest roots in the avant-garde and Warhol's Factory, and discuss every figure and legend from Iggy Pop and the MC5 to Siouxsie Sue and Johnny Rotten. This volume is smartly designed, featuring hundreds of glossy black-and-white photographs and thousands of appraisals from the likes of Leee Childers, Nils Stevenson, as well as quotes from the film Please Kill Me and Leggs McNeil, whose Punk Magazine gave the wave its name. This is a gorgeous, hefty book and readers may be inspired to break their coffee tables with it. (Mar.)Forecast: While punk revelers won't be as nostalgic as Beatles fans, expect many closet sentimentals to clear the book shelves though reissued and repackaged, punk is not yet dead.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Now a confused and disenchanted 26, punk is ripe for a retrospective but reluctant to be pinned down. Cocreators of the best-selling Beatles Anthology, Colegrave and Sullivan deserve credit for acknowledging both New York City's and London's contributions to the movement and beginning at the beginning with Andy Warhol and his Factory groupies. Yet they still miss the point in this oral history, first published in the U.K.: that punk, like any late 20th-century art form, sprang from a frenzied exchange of ideas. Although they interviewed an impressive range of luminaries from both sides of the pond, they fail to re-create those white-hot intercontinental transmissions. Poor editing and pacing aside, the book's failure has a lot to do with the huge amount of space dedicated to the Sex Pistols and their hangers-on. As crucial as that quartet was to the English scene, bands like the Clash and the Ramones better embody punk's true spirit and show how two groups could constructively rub off on each other. In addition, aside from a few stellar shoe-box shots that have finally come to light, this does not come close to forming a "definitive" coffee-table portrait. Missing are the truly world-stopping photographs of Pennie Smith and Mick Rock, to name a few. Unfortunately, this, too, is only being published in North America as an 111/2" x 121/4" paperback with flaps, so it will easily wear and tear. Legs McNeil and Gillian McCain's Please Kill Me: The Uncensored Oral History of Punk (Penguin, 1997) is heavier on American voices and contains a fraction of the photos, but it's a more concise and raucous read. For comprehensive popular music collections only. Heather McCormack, "Library Journal"
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 360 pages
• Publisher: Da Capo Press (October 10, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 156025369X
• ISBN-13: 978-1560253693
• Product Dimensions: 12.1 x 11.4 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (21 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,987,141 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #65 in Books > Arts & Photography > Music > Theory, Composition & Performance > Sheet Music & Scores > Composers > Sullivan

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12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Pistol-heavy "Punk", March 13, 2004

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E. A Solinas "ea_solinas" (MD USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Punk: The Definitive Record of a Revolution (Paperback)

"Punk" clothes and "punk pop" are the most visible remnants of the 1970s punk movement. Ironically, they could easily have been from a different planet from the grungy, rebellious punks profiled in "Punk: The Definitive Record of a Revolution." It's not definitive, and it's top-heavy with Sex Pistols stuff. But it's worth a look to get the feel of the punk life.

It starts off, oddly enough, with Andy Warhol and the collection of rich/artistic/beautiful freaks he collected in his Factory. One thing he did was sponsor the now-legendary Velvet Underground, which was the dark side of the rest of the music world. From the legacy of the Velvets came other bands who bent the rules, musically and stylistically (Iggy Pop and the Stooges, and the New York Dolls among them).

With Max's Kansas City and CBGB's as a sort of ground zero, punk bands of all kinds began to blossom. There's Blondie, Television, the Sex Pistols, Siouxie and the Banshees, the Clash, the Dead Boys, the Sex Pistols, the Ramones, Patti Smith, and did I mention the Sex Pistols? Additionally, they take a hard look at the roots of punk, the different kinds of bands there were, the magazines that covered it, the drugs that were done, what effect the music had and what the punks did.

"Punk: The Definitive Record of a Revolution" is a big, fat, clumsy, thick, aggressive-looking book that is almost impossible to read standing up. But if you can manage to keep the dang thing open, then you'll have a pretty good time watching as the punk revolution unfolds. It's basically a collection of quotes and interviews from all sorts of people who were around there at the time.

One thing that "Punk" stresses is that punk itself was not merely a kind of music or dressing. Merely having safety pins or funky hair does not make you . It was a mindset, a way of life and the way you acted towards the universe in general. And this is backed up -- quite a few of the photographs don't feature people in outrageous clothes, but their attitude is evident in their faces. Some are taking the whole idea seriously, some aren't.

What it lacks is enough stuff about the less rowdy aspects of punk -- what were they rebelling against? That's never quite clear. The outside world seems to be a haze for Colgrave and Sullivan. But they do give it their best. There are plenty of photographs that are worth checking out, many of them clear black-and-white candids (like the strangely pretty picture of Johnny Rotten and his "chalice").

There's definitely a leaning towards the Sex Pistols, even though they were by no means the only, most lasting or most important punk band. But there's lots of information about just about every band, from the mysterious German Nico and the dark Velvet Underground to the rowdy and raucous later bands, and finally to the remnants of it today. (Gisele wearing a Sid Vicious T-shirt?)

"Punk: The Definitive Record of a Revolution" is a nice read about a now nearly-dead subculture. Die-hard fans of the Sex Pistols will run to read it, and fans of classic punk bands may want to give it a sniff, but a definitive history of punk it is not.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars No future, September 18, 2005

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calmly - See all my reviews

This review is from: Punk: The Definitive Record of a Revolution (Paperback)

Mostly photos and quotations, many of the quotations apparently from interviews the authors conducted with insiders. Seems okay being such a large book given that the alternative would have been several volumes and with smaller photos.

A Sex-Pistols-centric, British view of Punk, but with a good opening on Warhol, the Velvet Undergound, the New York Dolls, Ramones and other U.S. influences. By stopping with 1979, however, such American bands as the Plasmatics, the Circle Jerks and Black Flag aren't covered.

Finding out what happened to Sid Vicious's remains may be the best value from this book for me.

What ever happened to rock n' roll, punk or otherwise? One of the best things about this book is that it can bring you to that time. It's sad that Coldplay passes as good music nowadays. However remarkable the fashion and the events, 70's Punk was basically lots of great music. Who knew what a vacuum would follow it?

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars For a Pistols Fan, a Priceless Work of Art, March 29, 2002

By 

Andrea (Roseburg, OR USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Punk: The Definitive Record of a Revolution (Paperback)

This book does come across as more of a Sex Pistols book, as opposed to the punk book it promises to be. Granted, there are moments in which artists such as The Ramones, The Clash, Blondie, and Siouxie and the Banshees [the horror!] are mentioned. However, such moments are few and far between, and for a fan of all-around punk, these rare moments fade dismally into the background, blatantly overshadowed by the massive amount of Sex Pistols content.

If the reader is a huge fan of the Sex Pistols, this book is a rare and priceless addition to one's collection. There are countless photos of the Pistols which have never before been
seen by the general public, and each of these photos is of superb quality and possesses great artistry. One such photo is the one of Johnny Rotten smoking some 'chalice' in Jamaica. His head is bent downwards, smoke wafting out of his nostrils and surrounding his head; the photo is oddly hypnotic, beautiful, and serene. There are soem early shots of Sid Vicious in which his hair is short, clean, and he looks scarily innocent and well-groomed[!], and also some photos of various early punks such as 'Catwoman' and quite a few shots of Malcolm McLaren that should have been in a different volume entitled "Punk - The Definitive Record of Money-Hungry Mongers."

Overall, the photos of the Sex Pistols make this a must-have for any hardcore Sex Pistols fans.

The text of the book, however, is a different story. Most of the text consists of quotes from photographers and punk clothing entrepreneurs. It would have been nice to read more GOOD quotes by punk artists; many times their quotes were random and easily discarded as unimportant. There are, however, quite a few good quotes by Sid Vicious and Andy Warhol that make up for this. It also would have been an added bonus to have quotes by punk fans,
but oh well.

One page of quotes is about how Sid was accused of murdering Nancy Spungen. Every one of the quotes is a statement of why Sid had to have been innocent; not one of them says he was guilty. I personally believe he was innocent, but the authors should have made the quotes more well-rounded so the reader didn't feel as though a differing opinion was wrong.

To sum the review up, the text of the book is probably a 3/5 stars, leaving some to be desired, though overall it is okay. The photos are exquisite, though most of them are of the Pistols. If you are a hardcore Pistols fan like me who can shell out the dough, this book is more than worth its impossibly heavy weight in gold. However, if you're looking for a more well-rounded history of punk, you should look elsewhere.