Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required. Learn more
Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.
Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.
Diary of a Punk Paperback – March 5, 2008
| Mike Hudson (Author) Find all the books, read about the author, and more. See search results for this author |
- Print length160 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherTuscarora Books
- Publication dateMarch 5, 2008
- Dimensions5.75 x 0.5 x 8.5 inches
- ISBN-100979769310
- ISBN-13978-0979769313
Editorial Reviews
Review
Riveting, rattling and detailed ... full of death-defying tales, angry Cleveland brio and self-inflected disasters. It's truly as punk as the band -- which has continued to exist on and off in some form -- ever was. --Ira Robbins, Trouser Press
He carves out words like a butcher carves a steak. Sometimes there's blood on the chopping block. --George Sample, Corry (Pa.) Journal, March 15, 20088
From the Inside Flap
About the Author
Product details
- Publisher : Tuscarora Books; 1st edition (March 5, 2008)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 160 pages
- ISBN-10 : 0979769310
- ISBN-13 : 978-0979769313
- Item Weight : 6.4 ounces
- Dimensions : 5.75 x 0.5 x 8.5 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #5,151,919 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #677 in Punk Musician Biographies
- #7,253 in Rock Band Biographies
- Customer Reviews:
About the author

Mike Hudson was born in Cleveland, Ohio, on Feb. 2, 1956. At the age of 16, he dropped out of school, hitchhiking throughout the United States and Mexico before joining the United States Army. By the time he was 21, he was an editor for Cleveland’s Sun Newspapers, and also released his first record with the Pagans, the seminal American punk rock group he co-founded with his brother, Brian. The band released a short stack of classic singles, including “Six and Change,” “What’s This Shit Called Love?” “Dead End America,” and “Not Now, No Way.”
Touring and recording steadily for the next two years, Hudson left the newspapering business and began publishing fiction in the fanzines of the nascent punk rock movement. By 1980, the Pagans had broken up, and he founded Terminal Records, a label that released the work of more than 20 bands, many of which appeared on the groundbreaking “Cleveland Confidential” LPs. The Pagans reformed briefly in 1982-83, releasing the classic “Pink Album.”
In 1984, Hudson moved to the Allegheny Mountains of Pennsylvania to work as a crime reporter at the "Corry Evening Journal," a small daily newspaper. “Buried Alive,” a compilation album that included all of the Pagans studio tracks from the 1970s came out in 1986 to much critical acclaim. This led to another series of tours. Hudson continued publishing journalism and short fiction, moving to New York City in 1992 to work as a literary critic at the "Irish Echo" newspaper. A spoken word collection of his fiction, “A Monster and the Devil,” was released around this time.
In New York, Hudson recorded his first solo album, as well as two new spoken word albums. Around the turn of the century, he moved to Niagara Falls, where he founded his own tabloid, the "Niagara Falls Reporter." He also published five books, including “Niagara Falls Confidential,” “Diary of a Punk,” “Mob Boss” “Jetsam” and “Never Trust the World.” Hudson’s reputation grew, culminating in 2011 with a nationwide book tour.
Soon, Hudson found himself living in Los Angeles, where he would write his novel, “Fame Whore,” and record his first album in 15 years, “Hollywood High.” His writing has appeared in publications as diverse as "Radar," "Field & Stream," "Hustler," the Associated Press, "Master Detective," and the "New York Post." His 18 albums have sold hundreds of thousands of copies and charted in "Rolling Stone." Today, Hudson often appears as an extra in Hollywood feature films and television programs such as "True Blood" and "Glee."
Customer reviews
Customer Reviews, including Product Star Ratings help customers to learn more about the product and decide whether it is the right product for them.
To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. Instead, our system considers things like how recent a review is and if the reviewer bought the item on Amazon. It also analyzed reviews to verify trustworthiness.
Learn more how customers reviews work on Amazon-
Top reviews
Top reviews from the United States
There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.
I was interested to learn a lot of the background to the forming and trajectory of the band. I was also interested to learn that Tim Allee was the real musical core of the band, and I guess Mike Metoff to a lesser extent. It would be nice to read another book that collected interviews or input from the other members, especially Allee and Metoff.
I'm sorry that Mr. Hudson's life was marked with such wretched excess. But at least he survived a lot of it. Unlike GG Allin, whom he takes a brief swipe at towards the end of the book. I am a bigger fan of GG than the Pagans, as it so happens. I agree that GG's act was a pitiful sideshow farce, but his first two albums and other singles are among some of the best punk rock ever produced. I also resent that Hudson dismissed all GG's songs as merely 'funny', as if they were just cheesy novelty songs. There was a lightheartedness to many of GG's songs, for sure. Do you have to angry all the time to be punk?
Punk is primarily about anger, however, anger at the betrayal of "the city" to faithfully deliver on its promises. And the Pagans certainly had that in spades.
Thinking about how the Cleveland media tried to quash the Pagans by ignoring them, my theory is that they wanted to maintain a wholesome image for the mid west, like with the groups the Choir and the Raspberries. Anger and craziness were for NYC and California.
Mr. Hudson is quite a slick writer, a real pro. It gave the book a cold, detached feel that grated on me.
I also thought Mr. Hudson's slagging of John Lydon was uncalled for. I'm not a big fan of John Lydon. I can listen to the Pagans any day but you couldn't pay me to listen to the crap the Sex Pistols put out. But Lydon's book was exemplary in collecting and quoting a lot of the people involved in the scene. It made a real effort to present a well-rounded view. Hudson's book, in contrast, is totally self-absorbed and one-sided.
This material probably means more to me than it should. I guess I'm still stuck in a love/hate relationship with "the city", myself.
The working-class basis of the group was also inspirational to me.
This book is still excellent reading for anyone who feels the heavy undercurrent of negativity flowing underneath modern life that "the system" tries so heavily to suppress and force a grotesque mindless positivity onto us all.
Mr. Hudson says he was 23 in 1980. I was 27.
I relate somewhat with the other reviewer concerning Hudson's beat/stream-of-consciousness style, but I really dug it. 'Diary of a Punk' is one of those prizey books which demand to be read within 24 hours - like Breakfast of Champions, Naked Lunch, Carburetor Dung, Fear and Loathing, or The Road. You can't put it down! It is a series of harrowing tales from life on the edge, but Hudson's many personal insights made me want to laugh and cry at times. The author makes no apologizes and lays it on the line in journalistic fashion. It is one of those rare books where life make just a little bit more sense after it has been read.
This book truly prooves the range of artistic talent that Mike Hudson possesses - musician, show-man, and journalist! I will definately buy Mike's other books now!!
Please keep writing Mike! Oh, and think about another musical performance (here in Cleveland). The Pagans is why the phrase "Cleveland Rocks" came into concept!!

