Customer Reviews

Rip It Up and Start Again: Postpunk 1978-1984

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

A definitive history of post-punk has been long in coming. Though this may or may not be that definitive history (one book can't possibly fully address this fertile era), it is well worth a read.

True fans of post-punk should read this book, however they should read the UK version and not this shortened US version. Three chapters have been cut in their entirety and portions of other chapters have been cut or shortened. In total, the US version of the book is nearly 200 pages shorter.

The cover of the UK edition is also much cooler.

Don't make the mistake of buying the US version
Get the whole story and buy the UK version. It contains chapters on US bands on the SST label, 2nd Gen. Industrial bands (Foetus, Test Dept.) a very important part of the post-punk aural landscape.

Ironic (or maybe typical) that a book on the highly political post-punk era is as cut up and censored as the US edition is.

from Simon Reynold's blog:


DIFFERENCES BETWEEN THE UK AND US EDITIONS

* the chapter sequence is different from the UK version

* three chapters are cut for reasons of space: the Devoto/Subway Sect chapter; the Conform to Deform Second Wave of Industrial chapter; and the SST/Blasting Concept chapter

* two chapters compressed into one for reasons of space, the Goth chapter and the Glory Boys/Big Music chapter

* Timeline is absent for reason of space

* in the US edition, the Appendix on MTV and the Second British Invasion is folded into the chapter on New Pop's peak

* no illustrations in the US edition

* the Mutant Disco chapter is written up as proper historical prose in the US edition, as opposed to the oral history in the UK edition

* no bibliography in the US edition


I don't understand this "reason of space" explanation. Wonder if they cut out some words from the dictionary for "reason of space"?
Approximately 200 pages missing from the US edition.

Very Very Lame

Don't waste your money. Get the UK edition and skrew the US publishers.

Let me admit right up front that I am not a fan of 95% of the music chronicled in this book. But several of my friends are, so I thought I'd dip into it to see if it would make a nice gift. With that in mind, I read the one chapter that covers music I really love, the chapter about the rapid rise and fall of the 2-Tone ska movement. Those twenty pages were enough to convince me that Reynolds is best kind of music writer, able to write evocatively about the music itself while providing the social, economic, and political context for its creation. He hits the nail firmly on the head in his analysis of The Specials' songs as "cheerless" -- tying them to social-realist cinema and the bleak post-WWII concrete jungle of their native Coventry. Reynolds also does a nice job of describing the origins of ska, it's development in England, and rather complicated ties to the mod and skinhead subcultures. He's also brimming with details about the major bands and why it all fell apart so quickly. Two quibbles do present themselves. One is that some of the transitions are a bit choppy, and I later learned that the US edition I read is an abridged version of the UK edition (nowhere is this obviously stated on the US edition). Some 300+ pages were cut, which would explain some of the choppiness I found, and I have to say that I'll be buying the more expensive UK version for my friends. The second reservation I have with the book is the total lack of documentation. It's great to quote Dammers, Hall, Staple, and all these other musicians, but it would be nice to know where these quotes came from so that one could do follow-up reading or research -- there's not even a bibliography! These cavaets of abrdigement and referencing aside, this appears to be an excellent, well-written account of an overlooked era of music history and should stand as the definitive work for many years to come.

"Rip It Up" is the rarest kind of rock and roll book: You are a smarter person for having read it. While reading about, say, Liquid Liquid, it became clear that I understand much better not just how popular music evolved but how popular culture itself was warped and evolving during the late seventies and early eighties.

If punk music represented the death of the popular music of the era (disco, easy listening, ELO-style orchestration)what would emerge in its wake? In short, what could possibly follow the "Blank Generation?" Reynolds book shows us the highs and lows of what emerged. In addition, he provides enough information on, for example, Thatcher-era Britain and how their musicians responed to it, to give the book some historical interest as well.

As such, I was surprised that the previous reviewer found Reynold's book to be anything less than definitive; it seems that every story Reynolds tells, from the evolution of Joy Division into New Order to (my favorite) the rise and fall of Postcard Records, is full of the kind of detail you practically would have to be in the studio to know. One hopes that after Reynolds' book certain bands (such as criminally neglected Feelies) will finally come back into print.

That aside, perhaps what I enjoy best is the level of detail within the book. "Rip It Up" (which covers some many bands and genres within this era of music) is the kind of resource you want to have around at all times for its reference material alone. If you are the kind of person that goes into a record shop with a pages-long list of albums to look for this is a must-have book.

Heard about this book in a review in Wire magazine, and my girlfriend kindly ordered the book from amazon.co.uk for me for Christmas. When the book came to the States it had lost about 200 pages and any sections on music that wasn't "as popular" on this side of the ocean. In the day of global information and the lowering of borders, this is just absurd. Buy the full book (a 5 star proposition), it's worth it.

Simon Reynolds' Rip it Up and Start Again is an engaging look at the British side of the collective of genres we call "post-punk": the dub reggae experimenters, the Burundi-beat-plundering New Romantics, the "angular" guitar-wielding do-it-yourselfers.

However, my purpose in writing this review is not to discuss the book. It suffices to say that despite the two-star review, this is really a four-star book, and is highly recommended to anyone with post-punk listening experience who wants to understand the sociopolitical, economic, and musical histories of post-punk. Instead my purpose of this review is to advise you against buying the US edition, since it is an abridged version of the longer (and more comprehensive) UK edition.

What's been cut from the US edition is a little over a hundred pages of material, including three complete chapters. Off the top of my head, there's a chapter on Magazine that got cut, a chapter on industrial music that got cut, and a chapter on the American SST scene that got cut. I'm also told, though I didn't get the chance to do the comparison myself, that there are bits and pieces of the chapters themselves that have been cut out of the US edition.

In short, don't be afraid to spend a couple extra bucks on the UK version for the complete experience.

Wow, a book that actually means something! This has been quite an enjoyable read, picked it up last Monday and was finished by Thursday morning. Reynolds is quickly becoming my fave writer of the last ten years... he truly does his homework and included some fascinating interview snips and historical anecdotes that really makes this era come alive. I feel those years were the best for quality experimental music too and it was a blast getting a chance to experience it firsthand or secondhand, it doesn't really matter... and in my opinion it is simply the best era for music hands down. I have only one nitpick, after my first read I didn't find anything about Shriekback (formed from members of XTC, Gang of Four, etc.). They were the quintessential post-punk band and if there ever was a group that said "post-punk sounding" besides PIL, early Shriekback was that sound. I also felt like the Cure got short shrift in the book, only a paragraph, but we all know they place an important role in the history of this style of music.

Apparently, the US version is ~200 pages less than the UK version (which was the first copy I read). Though it seems rather blasphemous to excise chapters/portions about Einsturzende Neubauten, SST Records, Magazine, and (reducing) The Buzzcocks, I think it could also be argued that it streamlined the narrative (how punk influenced post-punk which was then co-opted into the mainstream), even if reading about those other acts/labels was interesting. The UK version was definitely enjoyable, but I felt it was a little bloated (i.e. following up the formation of PiL with... some guy who has a cult following, even by the standards of others in this book) My only real complaint is that I would've switched the last two chapters around. (Frankie Goes to Hollywood and the Goth/Neo-psychedelia chapters, respectively)

I was a bit annoyed that SST were barely mentioned in the UK version, and excised entirely from the US version, but in retrospect it makes more sense as they didn't really fit into the above narrative (at least in the years covered. "Michael Azerrad's "Our Band Could Be Your Life" covers them, among others, more succinctly). So in all, it's definitely a great book, even if it does leave out otherwise interesting acts.

It's well-researched and well-written - that much we can all agree on - but I think the writing is a bit dry. This book has been sitting next to "Please Kill Me: the uncensored oral history of punk" on my bookshelf for nearly a year, and I can only read a chapter or two at a time. I've tried reading "Rip it Up" several times, but it lacks the energy and compulsive readability of its shelf-mate. I sorely want to read this book, but my mind starts wandering every time I start reading it...it feels kind of like homework. It just lacks the energy of the music it describes.

I had read Reynolds' impressive "Generation Ecstasy" and been awed at the job he did there encapsulating and providing rationale for an entire musical movement. When I heard that he was going to write this book and speak to the incredibly fertile "post punk" years, I was very excited. As should we all be.

And, it's a great book full of insight. Reynolds' level of ambition and capability eclipse any other writer who has taken on rock music or any subgenre within it. Must-read.