richard hell - pioneer or silly old fool

By the time Richard Hell got around to playing with the Voidoids, he'd already been in two of NYC's seminal punk bands; Television and Johnny Thunders & The Heartbreakers. The fact that he got kicked out of both bands before they put out records doesn't change the fact that the guy was punk to the bone, ur-punk, proto-punk, like Iggy or Joey Ramone. If ya can't dig that you need a bigger shovel, kid.

Track down Television or The Heartbreakers doing live versions of "Blank Generation" or "Love Comes In Spurts" - if the Voidoids' versions sound "new wave" to you, it was just Hell trying to keep up with the times. Matter of fact, The Heartbreakers' "One Track Mind" is "Love Comes In Spurts" with different lyrics. But you've probably never heard the original mix of L.A.M.F. (not Revisited, and not the Lost Mixes - the original mix on vinyl), one of the most perfect pieces of punk pooped out of NYC's steaming backalley... Plus Robert Quine is among the greatest guitarists, ever, so tread gently with the Voidoids slagging....

Good sources on Hell are Lester Bangs' Psychotic Reactions and Carburetor Dung (couple of good essays, pro and con, on Hell there) and Clinton Heylin's From The Velvets To The Voidoids.

I bought Blank Generation when it came out and was somewhat nonplussed, those guitar lines sounded more like Beefheart than the Ramones, but eventually I learned to love it.

We discussed Hell's writing on a Lester Bangs thread last year, he wrote THE BEST tribute I guess on the 20th anniversary. Skimming the gruesome Go Now made me glad I never did heroin.

What's on that anthology?

Couple of proto noo-wave novelty records, hung out with Johnny Thunders, first to wear a ripped T-Shirt(!) Who cares?

Two Bonus Tracks:
One Dim Stars
One Television - "Blank Generation" (Live at CBGB's)

-- Soukesian (byakheenospa...), September 21st, 2005.

Okay, I'll take the bait.

Hell founded The Neon Boys with childhood friend Tom Verlaine in 1972. Neon Boys became Television in '73. Hell & Verlaine stumbled upon CBGBs and arranged Television's gigs there in '74 - making them the first punk band to play CBGBs. It's their headlining shows that form the backbone of the punk scene in NYC from '74-'76 - they were the big fish in the small pond at that point, along with Patti Smith and The Ramones. McLaren saw Hell and exported his style back to England. You can say "ripped shirt, spiked hair, big deal," but that depends on whether you value punk as a music style, fashion sense, or attitude. At punk's foment, the three were inextricably entwined and Hell was there early on *all* three fronts. Verlaine excised Hell's musical & stylistic influences by the time Television's debut album appeared in '77, but Hell's songs were encore material, show-stoppers.

By the time Hell is in the Heartbreakers in '76, he's a continuing influence on the Sex Pistols and the rest of the English punk first wave. Just as in Television, Hell isn't just holding the big guy's (Johnny Thunders) coat. His presence / songs / attitude were a big part of The Heartbreakers; after all, they kept playing his songs even after he left. Again, you say "who cares" because his influence was never committed to vinyl prior to '77, but by that time he had written the book on being punk, not to mention selling the movie rights.

I agree wholeheartedly that Hell went to junkie seed pretty quickly after '77, but that has nothing to do with his impact at punk rock's epicenter. Your casual dismissal of him is so off-base I'm halfway to thinking it's provocative posing.

I've just always been a bit underwhelmed by the vinyl to rep ratio, and you may have a point that he was too busy being a punk to really get it together on record.

http://s46.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=2TRIAM5N1ZH6W0MOXB0WPVFSMV

The Neon Boys (1972) - Sounds a lot like the Velvet Underground
Heartbreakers (1975) - IMO the best version, from a demo recording
Voidoids (1977)- Hell finally gets a record deal and his guitarists get their freak-on
Heartbreakers - One Track Mind (1977) Nervy bastards; they just took Love Comes In Spurts and put different words to it! The album is so good you forgive them.

uhhh http://www.insound.com/Richard_Hell_and_the_Voidoids_Destiny_Street_Repaired__PRE-ORDER_LP%2BCD%2BPoster/productmain/p/INS61199&from=99939/

Pretty weird, really - he's de-Quining the record! Quine was the best thing about that record!

link's not working but wtffff at de-Quining

http://www.mbvmusic.com/richard-hell-and-the-voidoids-destiny-street-repaired/11718

i mean, ribot, frisell and julian are pretty tasty choices, but this seems kinda star wars special edition here.

http://geek-tastic.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/george_lucas17.jpg
godfather of punk

^1st bounty hunter to rip breast plate up

NO QUINE NO CREDIBILITY

what next, Lou Reed replaces RQ on The Blue Mask with Pat Metheny?

(^^^would buy, actually)

http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/farid/research/digitaltampering/stalin1+2.jpg

would buy either of them things

(also: in Soviet Russia, photo shops U)

dunno, is this sort of thing EVER a good idea? Think that Hell has fairly decent intentions here -- righting something that he's felt wasn't up to par. But I'm almost positive that every musician who has ever recorded anything has felt like, "hey, i could do that better now" probably ... but that doesn't mean they should go ahead and do it.

First of all, learn to read! Here's what the post says:

A totally new “rescued and re-recorded” version of the Voidoids’ final 1982 album, featuring the original rhythm tracks, with new vocals, and new lead guitar parts from Marc Ribot, Bill Frisell, and Voidoid Ivan Julian. It features the original rhythm guitar tracks by Robert Quine, from tapes just recently discovered by Hell.

Hell was in bad shape when he made this record. I've heard earlier versions of many songs (they're rough and apparently contained finished rhythm section and rhythm guitar, but only rough takes of vocal and lead guitar. The album was a disappointment when it came out, the product of lengthy-wrangling over its "commercial" possibilities and hideous record company influence. You'll recall that Hell basically quit music for about a decade after its long-delayed release. Naux was a mistake - that's obvious - and the vocals and mixes were done poorly and very quickly, due to budget problems. This ought to set it right, and I look forward to it!

hell was bottoming-out at the time of destiny street, "living like a rodent" in his own words. but I wonder how interested he is in music? or how much he's played in recent years?

First of all, learn to read!
easy there, the catbird dude definitely added that bit after i read it.

and anyway, i'd say that Quine's solos are the best part of the record still -- whether the new lead parts are just as good, I dunno.

A stupid idea indeed - I'll stick with my old cassette copy of the original DS, thanks.

Better he should get Mark Arm or whoever to redo his own vocals.

I'm still having a hard time getting over Ned's assertion that "Blank Generation" is a shitty song.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yp9MufnUANg

O.G.

Tom Verlaine guest DJ'd on WFMU a few years back and played that one! Funny.

are most of the songs on blank generation just rips of others?

I mean I fuckin love the album but

xpost: "It features the original rhythm guitar tracks by Robert Quine".

OK, I should know, but I don't: why were these taken off in the first place?

http://www.richardhell.com/destline.html liner notes from earlier CD reissue by Hell himself

wow that rod mckuen shit is kind of braeking my heart

Quine re: Destiny Street: "I said 'OK, let's make it quick and painless.' We got a really good band together- Fred Maher, who I had played with in Material, Naux, this really great guitar player, Hell on bass (thank god). We rehearsed about a week, did the basic tracks and it was pretty good. It was done in early '81. There were some financial problems so the studio kept the tapes captive for about a year. Hell disappeared for about a week and a half (due to personal problems) after we did the basic tracks and had the studio booked. We had a week and a half for me and Naux to do overdubs- I did backwards guitar, feedback guitar, speeded-up guitar. I got that out of my system for once and for all. After it got held up, I didn't want anything to do with the mix. There was just this morass of guitars. Considering what they were dealing with, the record isn't that bad. Not nearly as good as the first one. 'Time' was really good."
from over yonder (great interview: http://furious.com/perfect/quine.html)
who knows, Quine was such a curmudgeon that he might've wanted to do this repair job himself if he was still around.

what an interview

yeah, far and away the best RQ interview I've come across.

this part is especially interesting: "Another influence was Brian Eno. He lived in New York from the late 70's to '84/'85. Pretty good friends with him. I actually recorded a lot with him but almost none of it ever came out. He did On Land, which made me appreciate the ambient stuff even more. It's sort of a nice back-and-forth influence thing. I got him onto 'He Loved Him Madly.'"

is Quine on any Eno records? I can't remember -- he says "almost none of it ever came out"

dude probably just sits in a room like this all day

http://www.slashfilm.com/wp/wp-content/images/arkwarehouse.jpg

Raiders of the Lost ARP

Decide for yourself about the whole "Destiny Street Repaired" thing-- I just put up a streaming album player for it

http://www.mbvmusic.com/destiny-street-repaired

I definitely remember that duplex detail from somewhere as well

love the apartment article so much

I have been in that apartment, in the sense that in 1994, he buzzed me in, i walked up to whatever floor it is, he opened the door, I walked in, we conversed about the reissue for Destiny Street he and I were working on, he handed me something germane to the reissue, I said "thank you, talk to you soon" and went back to the office, or my own apartment on 7th street. Couldn't really scrutinize what it was like. But for sure I could tell it was unusually capacious for the neighborhood. Like, vastly so…

What I can infer is that he bought both units when the getting was good, but in terms of the maintenance that any other owner of such a property would keep up on w/r/t a sale at some point, he doesn't bother with it. He's not going to sell it, he's going to die there, and it does what he wants it do, he doesn't need to see to every crack in every corner…

"deferred maintenance" in real estate lingo, yes, haha I just fixed a broken (interior) window in our house after 25 years