Kid with the replaceable head
There is a war on today which goes far beyond rest-of-society vs. punks; it's the war for the preservation of the heart against all those forces which conspire to murder it, which you know about because you pinned some of them in "Liars Beware." But you are not waging that war. You can call me self-righteous for saying that, and condescending for what I will finish this off with, but I don't care because it is out of nothing but love that I tell you that, in spite of being one of the greatest rock n' rollers I have ever heard, you are full of shit. So if you do choose to go down, I promise to dig up that crypt and kick your ass.
-Lester Bangs, 1978, "Richard Hell: Death Means Never Having to Say You're Incomplete"
I thought I knew everything. That was pretty comfortable. There is something attractive about that. By the same token, it is kind of one-dimensional! It's interesting to get middle aged. There's more advantages than disadvantages. The disadvantages are pretty minor. Every period or stage has its own pros and cons about it. You know what's the annoying thing? You're always a little bit behind figuring out where you are. It's like you never catch up to where you are. You're actually trying to figure out where you are now. You're never quite there but you're someplace else by the time you figure it out.
-Richard Hell, 1997, Perfect Sound Forever
Liars Beware - Richard Hell & The Voidoids
The Kid with the Replaceable Head - Richard Hell & The Voidoids
Blank Generation (live) - Richard Hell & The Voidoids
Buy:
Blank Generation, Richard Hell & The Voidoids (US, UK)
Spurts: The Richard Hell Story (US, UK)
Psychotic Reactions and Carburetor Dung, Lester Bangs (US, UK)
Please Kill Me: The Uncensored Oral History of Punk, Legs McNeil and Gillian McCain (US, UK)
posted by Amy at 7:40 PM
2 comments
2 Comments:
My head is spinning. Bellini, now Richard Hell? Are you gonna write my long-overdue High on Fire post next?
Pulling one song off of Blank Generation is a sort of strange act. There's almost AOR stuff on there, as well as definitive punk and Quine wonk at its best. That album is definitely not trying to do the same work as many it gets lumped with from the same period. Exactly what that work is deserves something other than a comment...
Richard Hell I love. You know my devotion to cute punk rock boys (especially if they're junkies!) and he definitely goes down as the most beautiful, sexiest, etc., ever. I think you're confusing this with my ambivalence about Television--a band I'll probably have to leave to you. And I think you forget that when we met (11 years ago!) I was listening to Bikini Kill...But you're right: Hell carves his own niche that's punk only by default.
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