From the Velvets to the Voidoids: The Birth of American Punk Rock [Paperback]

Clinton Heylin (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 1, 2005

Exhaustively researched and packed with unique insights, this history journeys from the punk scene's roots in the mid-1960s to the arrival of "new wave" in the early 1980s. With a cast that includes Patti Smith, Pere Ubu, Television, Blondie, the Ramones, the MC5, the Stooges, Talking Heads, and the Dead Boys, this account is the definitive story of early American punk rock. Extraordinarily balanced, it tells the story of the music's development largely through the artists' own words, while thoroughly analyzing and evaluating the music in a lucid and cogent manner. First published in 1993, this was the first book to tell the stories of these then-little-known bands; now, this edition has been updated with a new discography, including imports and bootlegs, and an afterword detailing the post-1970s history of these bands. Filled with insights from interviews with artists such as Lou Reed, Debbie Harry, David Byrne, Patti Smith, and Richard Hell, this book has long been considered one of the essential reads on rock rebellion.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"One of the most detailed histories of New York's artsy punk scene."  —Library Journal

"No other book...I've encountered succeeded so well in accurately bringing the period to life...lifted me back in time." —Richard Hell, Television and Richard Hell and the Voidoids

"To [answer] the question of...exactly what kind of music punk rock was, you have to resort to...[this book]." —Robert Christgau, The New York Times

"This engaging & informative history tells you all you'll ever need to know about the birth of American Punk Rock." —Trakmarx.com

"[Heylin] sorts the conflicts and conflagrations with a critic's eye and a fan's heart." —Lenny Kaye, guitarist and collaborator, Patti Smith Group

About the Author

Clinton Heylin is the author of, among others, Bob Dylan: Behind the Shades Revisited, Bootleg: The Secret History of the Other Recording Industry, Can You Feel the Silence? Van Morrison: A New Biography, The Da Capo Book of Rock & Roll Writing, and Despite the System: Orson Welles Versus the Hollywood Studios.

Product Details

• Paperback: 432 pages
• Publisher: Chicago Review Press (May 1, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1556525753
• ISBN-13: 978-1556525759
• Product Dimensions: 8.7 x 5.5 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #573,682 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent detailed history of American Punk, October 5, 2005

By 

Wild Bill (Texas) - See all my reviews

This review is from: From the Velvets to the Voidoids: The Birth of American Punk Rock (Paperback)

From the Velvets to the Voidoids is an insightful and very detailed history of the birth of American punk rock...Heylin starts right where he should, with the seminal influences on the first wave of punk rockers... the Velvets, Stooges, Dolls, Suicide, etc.. and the often forgotten Cleveland scene... Then it's a fantastic ride through the history of Televsion, Patti Smith, Blondie, the Ramones, Richard Hell, Pere Ubu, Heartbreakers and even the No Wave....Included with quotes from all the players is an excellent discography, bibliography, and even a CBGB's chronology... While you may not agree with all his opinions,, anyone who loves any of the aforementioned bands should thoroughly enjoy this book....

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Another Great Early History Of Punk, September 17, 2006

By 

David Alston (Chapel Hill, NC, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: From the Velvets to the Voidoids: The Birth of American Punk Rock (Paperback)

Clinton Heylin's FROM THE VELVETS TO THE VOIDOIDS is another of the essential oral histories of punk. Unlike Legs McNeil's PLEASE KILL ME, this work is a bit more scholarly and opinionated. It doesn't offer the vicarious lurid glitter of PKM, but it does fill in a number of the blanks in the story, and the two works together present an authoritative portrait of the birthplaces - New York, Cleveland and Detroit - of punk.

The primary value here is the extensive digging into the otherwise skipped-over Cleveland scene - home to key groups like the Electric Eels, Mirrors and Rocket From The Tombs - an amalgamation of musicians some of whom later morphed into The Dead Boys and the incomparable Pere Ubu. The Detroit sections are similarly valuable.

Highly recommended.

-David Alston

11 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars A bit of a bummer, July 26, 2006

By 

Richard S. Wilson (Chicago, IL) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: From the Velvets to the Voidoids: The Birth of American Punk Rock (Paperback)

I enjoyed the coverage of the Cleveland scene and there is a nice chapter on Suicide, but on balance this book is irritating. Much of it reads like a wrinkly love letter to Patti Smith, Heylin absolutely loathes British punk and the book ends with a "Postlude" that is both a bilious screed against any and all other writers on punk and also a frank mash note to Smith. That's hardly writing on "The Birth Of American Punk Rock," as per the subtitle, but rather some kind of personal emotional problem better suited to a therapeutic setting. See p. 331 for Heylin's sad description of Jon Savage's "England's Dreaming:" this is just unforgivable. So: find a used copy and pick out the interesting bits, ignore the rest.