From Library Journal
Since his heroin overdose in 1980, Darby Crash has become a symbol of punk irreverence, but his posthumous fame has tended to overshadow the seminal work of the punk band he fronted, the Germs. Mullen (who coauthored We Got the Neutron Bomb: The Untold Story of L.A. Punk), along with ex-Germs drummer Bolles and writer Parfrey, quickly deconstructs the myth of Crash (n Jan Paul Beahm) to reveal an embattled and confused soul who struggled with drug use and his homosexuality. Featuring raw quotations from Crash's peers in the burgeoning 1970s West Coast punk scene, the book offers both positive and negative views of the singer and the scene that raised him. Crash's fans were known for their cultish reverence, and Crash himself is shown to be a self-conscious misfit who used psychological ploys to enlist followers. It is unlikely that this book will reach a wide audience and thus imbue Crash's legacy with more humanity and, in turn, the Germs with more respectability, but it does strengthen the growing literature on American punk music. Recommended for popular music collections, especially as a complement to We Got the Neutron Bomb, which covers similar ground and whose oral history format this book replicates. Robert Morast, "Argus Leader," Sioux Falls, SD
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.
This intense oral history traces the life of a rock icon so enigmatic that few knew he was gay. The Germs had released only one album, G.I., before their leader, Darby Crash (ne Paul Beahm), 22, OD'd in a suicide pact (the other participant survived). His death, covered in detail here, just enhanced the Germs' cachet as protopunks. The book's compilers--Germs drummer Don Bolles is one of them--also serve up a lot about early West Coast punk, reported by a virtual punk who's who, sans, perhaps refreshingly, Henry Rollins, but including Jello Biafra, Exene Cervenka, Phranc ("America's Favorite Jewish Lesbian Folksinger"), and two who figured massively in the love triangle that, among many other factors, precipitated Darby's last exit, Gerber ("Queen of L.A. Punk") and Rob Henley. Evocative as hell of the punk ethos ("Part of the $400 [for the overdose drugs] was my rent money," mourns Ella Black), not least because of scads of photos of baby-faced adolescents (some nude) trying to look ugly. Mike Tribby
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Review
...as compellingly readable a portrait of a personality and a culture as anything you're likely to set eyes on. -- Crispin Sartwell
...pure and simple, the finest volume on L.A. punk--world punk--PUNK!--to have seen the light of print. -- Richard Meltzer
A fascinating, often hilarious look at the L.A. rock scene of the late '70s. One hell of a read. -- D.D., Paper Magazine
Darby Crash was the Christopher Columbus of horror, grotesquery, and bad behavior--of course he needs his story told... -- Kim Fowley
Hilarious, caustic, irreverent...far more intriguing than Please Kill Me... -- Lydia Lunch
Number One, with a silver bullet...Truly obscene, appallingly funny, sad beyond words. I await the Hollywood motion picture. -- Jimmy McDonough, author of Shakey: Neil Young's Biography, and The Ghastly One: The Sex-Gore Netherworld of Filmmaker Andy Milligan
This book scared the shit out of me. It's amazing, it's great ... I can't believe how good it is. -- Pat Smear, Germs guitarist, and later a player for Nirvana and the Foo Fighters
About the Author
Since his influential collection, Apocalypse Culture, was first released in 1987, the award-winning writer Adam Parfrey has been credited for discovering and revealing the inner workings of cults and unusual pop culture histories. With "Love, Sex, Fear, Death," Parfrey has captured the cooperation of primary players in the most secretive and talked about cult of our time.
