List Price: $16.95 Details

Save: $3.58 (21%)

$4 delivery January 19 - February 9. Details

Arrives after Christmas. Need a gift sooner? Send an Amazon Gift Card instantly by email or SMS.

Usually ships within 8 to 9 days.

As an alternative, the Kindle eBook is available now and can be read on any device with the free Kindle app.

[{"displayPrice":"$13.37","priceAmount":13.37,"currencySymbol":"$","integerValue":"13","decimalSeparator":".","fractionalValue":"37","symbolPosition":"left","hasSpace":false,"showFractionalPartIfEmpty":true,"offerListingId":"GWhQn%2BXd8sYdLoRkFgUDL1iVpbixG%2Bf8LODRmD7NQ5QY9nMt%2FFAtHwdaEy2NlWLwONnIURZKCC2fl5n%2Bo0pqw4PNy2mzugZhBtt0tKwRSDkol%2FFPJqx9Akc7zMxEkzPBbU%2FGh5QoaMAc3860nivBM9eyeo0ftyUyQNXMmqUHLPQaLpa4PJ2DiJA0ngVwfyJX","locale":"en-US","buyingOptionType":"NEW"},{"displayPrice":"$7.72","priceAmount":7.72,"currencySymbol":"$","integerValue":"7","decimalSeparator":".","fractionalValue":"72","symbolPosition":"left","hasSpace":false,"showFractionalPartIfEmpty":true,"offerListingId":"oNevuwUstO3B7D5N6lWM2NO4lUwJ0RmZo%2BKTy76TXxjBdtOfjWzp6cSOPWQgCrTxGHgRdz4GyoGZAGW%2BAY1MW66%2BVUx5hF8iSnFLIu%2FI4NkunwPL0eZUzoDl47xXfiX1o5pkLDGxtYgdTAzsbfGrjbQYEJ2cYfbrXCQBZ%2B9YaFeDW1eshD8P%2B592zOpndE6U","locale":"en-US","buyingOptionType":"USED"}]

$$13.37 () Includes selected options. Includes initial monthly payment and selected options. Details

Secure transaction

Ships from

V-King

Sold by

V-King

Details

Ships from

V-King

Sold by

V-King

Return policy: Returnable until Jan 31, 2023

$3.98 delivery December 23 - 28. Details

Or fastest delivery Wednesday, December 21. Order within 18 hrs 12 mins. Details

Arrives before Christmas

Select delivery location

Used: Good | Details

Sold by glenthebookseller

Access codes and supplements are not guaranteed with used items.

Have one to sell?

Sell on Amazon

Other Sellers on Amazon

Added

Not added

$15.38
+ $3.99 shipping

Sold by: allnewbooks

Added

Not added

$17.23
+ $3.99 shipping

Sold by: TheWorldShopUSA

Added

Not added

$22.29
& FREE Shipping

Sold by: Book Depository US

Flip to back Flip to front

Listen Playing... Paused You're listening to a sample of the Audible audio edition.
Learn more

See all 3 images

Follow the Authors

Simon Reynolds

Totally Wired: Postpunk Interviews and Overviews Paperback – August 17, 2010

by Simon Reynolds (Author)

28 ratings

See all formats and editions

Price

New from

Used from

Kindle

"Please retry"

$12.99

—

Paperback

"Please retry"

$23.55

$19.45

$12.59

Paperback, August 17, 2010

$13.37

$12.85

$6.10

Enhance your purchase

With his critically acclaimed Rip It Up and Start Again, renowned music journalist Simon Reynolds applied a unique understanding to an entire generation of musicians working in the wake of punk rock. Spawning artists as singular as Talking Heads, Joy Division, The Specials, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Gang of Four, and Devo, postpunk achieved new relevance in the first decade of the twenty-first century through its profound influence on bands such as Radiohead, Franz Ferdinand, and Vampire Weekend.

With Totally Wired the conversation continues. The book features thirty-two interviews with postpunk’s most innovative personalities—such as Ari Up, Jah Wobble, David Byrne, and Lydia Lunch—alongside an “overview” section of further reflections from Reynolds on postpunk’s key icons and crucial scenes. Included among them are John Lydon and PIL, Ian Curtis and Joy Division, and art-school conceptualists and proto-postpunkers Brian Eno and Malcolm McLaren. Reynolds follows these exceptional, often eccentric characters from their beginnings through the highs and lows of postpunk’s heyday.

Crackling with argument and anecdote, Totally Wired paints a vivid portrait of individuals struggling against the odds to make their world as interesting as possible, in the process leaving a legacy of artistic ambition and provocation that reverberates to this day.

Print length

464 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Soft Skull Press
Publication date

August 17, 2010
Dimensions

6 x 1.5 x 9.25 inches
ISBN-10

1593762860
ISBN-13

978-1593762865
See all details

Simon Reynolds
214
Paperback
14 offers from $7.33

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

SIMON REYNOLDS is a consulting editor at Spin magazine. He is also the author of Blissed Out: The Raptures of Rock, The Sex Revolts: Gender, Rebellion and Rock ’n’ Roll, Totally Wired, and Bring the Noise.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Soft Skull Press (August 17, 2010)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 464 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1593762860
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1593762865
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.2 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6 x 1.5 x 9.25 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #750,862 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #303 in Punk Music (Books)
- #1,949 in Music History & Criticism (Books)
- #2,983 in Rock Music (Books)

Customer Reviews:
28 ratings

Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.

Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

Videos

Help others learn more about this product by uploading a video!

Upload your video

About the authors

Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations.

Simon Reynolds
Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.
Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.
Discover more of the author’s books, see similar authors, read author blogs and more
See more on the author's page
Simon Reynolds
Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.
Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.
Discover more of the author’s books, see similar authors, read author blogs and more
See more on the author's page

Customer reviews

5 star		60%
4 star		18%
3 star		16%
2 star		6%
1 star 0% (0%)		0%

How customer reviews and ratings work

Top reviews from the United States

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

Chad

Simon Reynolds, TOTALLY WIRED

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on June 20, 2011

Verified Purchase

If you have read the book "Rip it Up and Start Again" by Reynolds, then you might be feeling how I feel. Overwhelmed by the vast amounts of music he talks about in the 6 years between 78-84. Overwhelmed, and excited to have a huge encyclopedia of bands and albums and labels to check out. I read Rip it Up, about 3 years ago, and I am still exploring bands he talked about. So if you are a fiend and cannot stop ingesting music history, as you cannot stop ingesting music into your ears, and you have loved everything you have discovered through Rip It Up, then naturally, you need to get "Totally Wired". It's just more good stuff, full interviews with some of the star characters in Rip It Up. It's more about the artists in the first half of the book, they are interviewed, and Reynolds, being the brilliant critic and journalist that he is, pretty much stays out of the picture in these interviews and lets the artists take it away.

The book is in 2 parts, interviews, and then overviews. I haven't gotten to the overviews, so I dunno what that is like, but really, do we have to ask? I'm sure it';s gonna be great, filled with more knowledge and good music than we will ever be able to listen to in our lifetimes!~

One person found this helpful

Helpful

Phillip Rogers

Great Reference Book

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on June 4, 2013

Verified Purchase

Really interesting interviews with some of the important figures from an interesting point in music history. Punk was great but post-punk is when things really started to get interesting for me.

2 people found this helpful

Helpful

Rombonauta

One of Simon Reynolds best books

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on June 18, 2019

Verified Purchase

If you want to read about post punk, just drink directly from the source.

Helpful

lfoley

An interesting companion to Rip It Up

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on March 21, 2013

Verified Purchase

An interesting, if not quite as crucial, companion to Rip It Up and Start Again: Postpunk 1978-1984 that is worth buying if you are particularly interested in the genre.

One person found this helpful

Helpful

Assaf

Five Stars

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on October 5, 2017

Verified Purchase

Great in depth interviews about the time and place(s). Smart, funny and moving.

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on September 19, 2015

10/10.

Great follow-through to "Rip" but I wanted even more

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on April 26, 2011

For American consumers of his "Rip It Up and Start Again" post-punk history, this raw material and added fiber's nourishing. A chapter was cut there that appeared in the British edition, so I enjoyed SST's inclusion along with "interviews" (thirty-two singers, players, producers, provocateurs) and "overviews" on Ono-Eno-Arto along with Malcolm McLaren and NYC "concept rock"; John Lydon's autobiography and his stint with PiL; London's glam-club revival, SST Records' "progressive punk;" and two films on Manchester's scene, "24 Hour Party People" + "Control." Reynolds concludes by interviewing himself, expanding and refining his definition in "Rip" of why post-punk matters as "a space of possibility" opened up 1978-84 by the assault of punk, but eclectic and inventive enough for individual voices and very diverse desires.

Tony Wilson of Factory Records early on defines what set punk apart from post-punk. He riffs off of Joy Division-New Order's Bernard Sumner and distinguishes the "F[---] you" of the former movement's music with its anger but its limitations aesthetically and ideologically, with the "I'm f[---]ed" of what followed. I agree with David Thomas of Pere Ubu: rock music represents the culmination of modernist art, and however avant-garde such music as his band created sounded to many, it was mainstream. That is, it spoke to everyday issues and real people, made not by the likes of Mick Jagger singing in his fifties about teenaged girls. Also, such groups as Pere Ubu had ambitions far outstripping those of the manufactured Sex Pistols and their ilk. Thomas insists he wanted to "create something worthy of William Faulkner and Herman Melville," and it's hard to fault him when you read his prickly, intelligent reflections.

I was impressed by the quality of those interviewed, and the in-depth knowledge of their interviewer. I learned a lot from PiL's Jah Wobble and Suicide's Alan Vega, but I also appreciated the thoughts of the late (more than one person included has died not long after) John Peel as elder statesman, and ZTT Records "aesthetician" Paul Morley as much as those who actually made the music that others promoted and played. Groups that for me stayed on the fringe, such as Cabaret Voltaire's Richard H. Kirk, Swell Maps + Jacobites' Nikki Sudden, Josef K's Paul Haig, and the Associates' Alan Rankine, kept my attention due to their articulate accounts of how provincial scenes and local friendships spurred many to follow the lead set down by London and New York. A strength of this anthology is that Sheffield and Glasgow, Bristol and Cardiff, Cleveland and Leeds earn as much if not more attention than the usual metropolitan voices and labels.

As Reynolds comments, the trio of music papers weekly in England mattered, since in the provinces, records were discovered as if hidden treasures imported and hoarded and worn out, and word of mouth carried songs and ideas into the workplace, the classroom, the pub, the tearoom. Before the net, outside of nearly all radio, with hardly any record stores or alternative networks nationwide, the shock of the new and the tension with tradition spread slowly, by conversations, record-playing and Penguin paperbacks. Week by week, within a few months or years, these transformative possibilities percolated into the minds and through the instruments and lyrics of those who were scattered, bored, and desperate for renewal.

The power of these years lingers. Even those whose music I have little or no interest in proved very eloquent and well worth hearing about their own experiences, such as Edwyn Collins of Orange Juice, Phil Oakey of The Human League, Green Gartside of/as (a telling transition as Reynolds shows, from the socialist, squatter Rough Trade collective of late-70s post-punk to the capitalist pop of the ZTT, New Romantic, MTV neon dancefloor) Scritti Politti. Also, juxtaposing, say, two members of Devo, Mancunian Wilson and Liverpudlian Bill Drummond, transplanted New Yorkers David Byrne, James Chance and Lydia Lunch, or The Fall + Blue Orchids' Martin Bramah with Ludus' Linder Sterling and JD + NO's Steven Morris make for great counterpoints that tease out connections and reverberations about how local scenes and bands (r)evolved.

Reading how Oakey looked at increasingly meticulous (and pre-computer, very exacting) production as a leader of his band vs. how his producer Martin Rushent did proves instructive. So many of these individuals were self-taught, crafting their sounds and words in near-isolation, and learning from a few other outliers how their instruments worked, how songs grew, and how DIY could jumpstart a whole new system, for a while, of record distribution, community pride, and heady talent.

My quibble, although I admit I'm a glutton for this genre, is that I wish Reynolds had taken the opportunity to restore the other missing "Rip" material from the British original printing. Goth and industrial music, and especially Howard Devoto & Subway Sect's long-lasting impacts are heard only at a distance by those interviewed. Devoto and Vic Godard merited their own spotlight. Maybe the publisher here's at fault, but given the reactions of disappointed fans stateside (like me) to what we were sold as "Rip," I'd hoped for all the missing material to have been restored in this follow-up.

Also, some of the overviews added, as in the John Lydon review of his "No Blacks, No Irish, No Dogs," sound (as did "Rip" at times) too term-paper-ish, even if Reynolds gets around to some provocative comments on the singer's abandonment of PiL's vision to cash in on "filthy lucre" and the "flogging the dead horse" (my phrases, borrowed not from the book) of Pistols' reunion tours. I wondered, if he added these largely previously published articles to his collection, why he could not have appended the excised material from the "director's cut" (his phrase for some pieces) of "Rip"'s British original.

Even if the second half of the book, the New Romantic-dance stage, interests me far less as music than as movement, Reynolds provides a fine testimony to what he admits is an overlooked generation. Much as I as with anyone interviewed admire the music of their predecessors, this revision and re-examination of previous music and modern trends provides too a welcome antidote to endlessly self-satisfied books on the Sixties, I agree. Those of us who came of age later (he's two years younger than me) deserve our pop culture moment.

(P.S. I've read "Rip It Up" only in its US edition, 200 pages shorter. I suspect that the US "Totally Wired" may also differ slightly from its British predecessor in content. Like those import vs. US Beatles LPs?)

4 people found this helpful

Helpful

E. Oslan

a great companion to 'Rip It Up and Start Again'

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on February 22, 2011

I wasn't a fan of 'Rip It Up and Start Again' because of Simon Reynolds' typically verbose journalistic style of writing as well has his slagging off of John Lydon's post-'Flowers...' versions of PiL and most of Killing Joke's career. Since Reynolds is the only one who has since written about post-punk in depth, his opinion seems to have become the standard. Fortunately he also (sort of) wrote 'Totally Wired', which compiles a number of interviews as well as other articles and overviews. This makes for way more compelling reading. We get fresh interviews from David Byrnes, Lydia Lunch (Teenage Jesus and the Jerks), Jah Wobble (PiL bassist), Martin Brammah (Fall guitarist), Steve Morris (Joy Division drummer), along with Factory records owner Tony Wilson and many more artists of post-punk. Much of the info was already stated in 'Rip It Up...' but it's more interesting to read the direct quotes rather than Reynolds' summary. Especially interesting were ::spoiler alert:: David Byrnes' claim that he wrote the Talking Heads song "The Overload" after reading a Joy Division album review and trying to mimic what he thought the music sounded like.

My only complaint with the book is the second section, which contains Reynolds' articles from other publications. In the reviews for John Lydon's 'Rotten' memoir and PiL's 'Metal Box', he continues to slag the singer, almost as if he has a personal vendetta against him. The later, theoritical articles about Brian Eno and Yoko Ono are similar to the writing style of 'Rip It Up...', that is, verbose and full of journalistic theorizing, rather than straight reporting. Needless to say I rolled my eyes at the statements, "if Yoko Ono was the first proto-punk then Eno was the first proto-post-punk." It's writing like that which annoys musicians and makes them hate journalists so much.

Otherwise, since most of the book consists of interviews, it definitely is compelling reading, even for the musicians who I never heard of such as Ludus.

7 people found this helpful

Helpful

Top reviews from other countries

Translate all reviews to English

cris

Even better than Rip it Up and Start again

Reviewed in Italy 🇮🇹 on April 7, 2014

Verified Purchase

I'm a big fan of books about music, and I usually prefer interviews to essays, so this one was great!

Mister Mister

Authentische Einblicke in die Zeit des Post Punk

Reviewed in Germany 🇩🇪 on March 27, 2013

Verified Purchase

Funktioniert auch ohne Vorab-Lektüre von "Rip it off". Was als Nachlader zu Reynolds Bestseller hier vermarktet wird, ist auch für sich ein grandioses Werk. Zahllose Interviews mit den Beteiligten aus der Post-Punk-Zeit geben tiefe Einblicke in den sozialen und kulturellen Kontext jener Zeit. Nur wenige dieser Informationen fanden tatsächlich Eingang in "Rip it off".

One person found this helpful

Translate review to English

ian jones

Three Stars

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on July 18, 2015

Verified Purchase

Not a bad read

See all reviews

Buy new: $13.37$13.37 $4.00 delivery: Jan 19 - Feb 9 Ships from: V-King Sold by: V-King

Buy used: $7.72

Other Sellers on Amazon

Follow the Authors

Totally Wired: Postpunk Interviews and Overviews Paperback – August 17, 2010

Enhance your purchase

Customers who viewed this item also viewed

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Product details

Videos

About the authors

Simon Reynolds

Simon Reynolds

Customer reviews

Top reviews from the United States

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

Top reviews from other countries

Buy new:

$13.37

$4.00 delivery: Jan 19 - Feb 9

Ships from: V-King

Sold by: V-King

Buy used:

$7.72