- Paperback: 512 pages
- Publisher: Penguin Paperbacks (Sep 18 1997)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0140266909
- ISBN-13: 978-0140266900
- Product Dimensions: 19.8 x 13.1 x 2.3 cm
- Shipping Weight: 376 g
- Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (72 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #492,722 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Amazon
Though Britain's notorious Sex Pistols shoved punk rock into the face of mainstream America, the movement was already brewing in the U.S. in the 1960s with bands like the Velvet Underground and Iggy and the Stooges. Through hundreds of interviews with forgotten bands as well as the ones that made names for themselves--including Blondie and the Ramones--Legs McNeil and Gillian McCain chronicle punk rock history through the people who really lived it. Please Kill Me is a thrash down memory lane for those hip to punk's early years and an enlightening history lesson for youngsters interested in the origins of modern "alternative" music.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Publishers Weekly
As its sensationalist title suggests, this stresses the sex, drugs, morbidity and celebrity culture of punk at the expense of the music. Starting out with the electroshock therapy Lou Reed received as a teenager, working through such watersheds as the untimely deaths by overdose or mishap of Sid Vicious, Johnny Thunders and Nico, as well as the complicated sexual escapades of the likes of Dee Dee Ramone, the portrayal here of the birth of an alternative culture is intermittently entertaining and often depressing. McNeil, one of the founding writers of the original 'zine, Punk, in 1975 , is certainly qualified to tell this tale. But the book's take on punk rock as "doing anything that's gonna offend a grown-up" overemphasizes the self-destructive side of the movement. Details of Iggy Pop's drug abuse and seedy sex with groupies receive more attention than important bands such as Television and Blondie, which had comparatively puritan lifestyles. Constructed as an oral history, the book weaves together personal accounts by the crucial players in the scene, many of whom seem to have been so drugged out most of the time that their reliability is questionable. McNeil and McCain (Tilt) provide a vivid look at the volatile and needy personalities who created punk, if they do not offer perceptive musical or cultural analysis. Photos.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Most helpful customer reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Better to burn out than fade away,
By
This review is from: Please Kill Me (Paperback)
"Please Kill Me" is a beautifully arranged oral history of punk music in America. Legs McNeil and Gillian McCain are heroes for clipping together hundreds of interviews and making it not only coherant (it reads like everyone is in the same room together), but visceral - when Stiv Bators gets in a knife fight on the street or the Ramones pee into Johnny Rotten's soda, you're right there with them. It's a great read, and totally entertaining.And something else, too. McNeil and McCain have the benefit of hindsight - they didn't arrange this book until long after punk was no more. The writing during the glory years have a wonderful, kinetic urgency to them - but as the music started to get co-opted, and people started to die as a result of hard living, the book becomes genuinely moving and heartfelt. And the fact that so much time is spent on "forgotten" artists is totally heartwarming - and completely in the spirit of the music, and the movement. You can skip around "Please Kill Me," but it's a much better read from cover to cover. Read it, and emit a deep, mournful sigh at the next Blink 182 song you hear.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great read.,
By jason gilmour (Toronto, Ontario) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Please Kill Me (Paperback)
Please Kill Me is a fantastic and highly entertaining exploration of the early American punk rock'n'roll scene. This is the REAL history of punk baby! Killer interviews with the true heroes of punk about the crazy exploits and wild times in mid to late 70's New York. Please Kill Me features lots of interviews with members of The New York Dolls, Heartbreakers,Ramones, The Dictators, the founders of Punk magazine and many, many more people that were part of the CBGBs scene.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Wildly entertaining,
By
This review is from: Please Kill Me (Paperback)
A rollicking great read of the road from late 60's bands like the Velvets and the MC 5 to the original glam band, the NY Dolls, to NY punk and beyond as told by those who were there. Centered in decadant and decaying NYC of the time, the stories of drugs, music, artistic inspiration, sexual liasons, and classic "I was there" stories about performances (from the first Ramones show, Iggy's glass act, and the NY Dolls at the Mercer) this book is a snapshot of time gone by. At the same time, given the way pop culture works, so many of today's bands owe their existence to these pioneers, many/most of whom never made much money at their craft.With the passing of Dee Dee and Joey Ramone in recent years, and icons like Johnny Thunders and Nico before them, this book's snapshot of the late 60's and early 70's takes on something of a bittersweet edge. A wonderful book you may be tempted to read again and again.
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