richard hell - pioneer or silly old fool

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

anyone going to this? i'm tempted.

RICHARD HELL
MAKES RARE PUBLIC APPEARANCE
AT NEW MUSEUM (235 Bowery) ON SUNDAY SEPT 13 AT 4:30PM
TO BENEFIT HOWL! FESTIVAL’S NEW EMERGENCY ASSISTANCE AND HEALTH FUND HOWL! HELP

Tix: $6. *Special offer: Attend this event and receive half-priced ($6) admission to the Museu m galleries. Inquire at the Visitor Services desk for details.

On the occasion of the release of newly elaborated editions of his 1973 novelina , The Voidoid (now with drawings by Kier Cooke Sandvik), published in June, and his 1983 Voidoids album (with new guitar parts added by Marc Ribot, Bill Frisell, and Ivan Julian), which is re-released September 1 asDestiny Street Repaired, Richard Hell will make a rare public appearance reading from his self-bio in progress, among other works, and will sing at least one song with guitar accompaniment. Possibly other media will get play, too.
Richard Hell made his reputation as one of the original musicians to bring attention to CBGB and punk music in the mid-seventies. His album Blank Generation (1977) was one of the initial major statements of the movement. In 1984 he retired from music and has since made a reputation as a writer. He's been published in The New York Times and its Book Review, Vice, Art in A merica, Bookforum, The Village Voice, Black Book, Vanitas, The Brooklyn Rail, Flesh World, Toilet Paper, Punk, GQ, andNerve, among many other magazines. He's also appeared in numerous anthologies as an essayist on books, movies, art, and music. His books include the t wo novels Go Now and Godlike; the set of previously uncollected "essays poems lyrics notebooks pictures fiction" Hot and Cold; and two volumes of collaborations, Rabbit Duck (poems written with David Shapiro) and Psychopts (graphics created w ith Christopher Wool).

Novel
Novela
Novelina

Destiny Street Repaired sounds like a mistake, but I can see how it would nag at him how shitty that record sounds. good songs on it.

http://www.rollingstone.com/rockdaily/index.php/2009/07/08/richard-hell-repairs-the-voidoids-1982-album-destiny-street/

Can't believe this is the only thread him, christ on a crutch.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VQJSHY1K80c&feature=related

What's up with this? A Japanese documentary on Hell & the Voidoids? Anyone know anything about this?

Um, pioneer. Founding member of Television, etc........ Evidently has also tried his hand at stand-up comedy along the way, and is a funny mo-fo.

(x-post) Not a documentary (and German, not Japanese.) Although I've known about it for years, I've never seen this.

Blank Generation (1980)

Nada, a beautiful French journalist on assignment in New York, records the life and work of an up and coming punk rock star, Billy. Soon she enters into a volatile relationship with him and must decide whether to continue with it, or return to her lover, a fellow journalist trying to track down the elusive Andy Warhol.

xxxpost
Japanese trailer for a 1980 film by Ulli Lommel? Starring Hell as a punkrocker, haha. Never heard of it before.

xpost there ya go :)

cartoon review of recent dvd issue. really makes me want to see it :)

yah

Okay, I used to have the DVD. The Japanese trailer was confusing because it titled it Richard Hell & the Voidoids - Blank Generation as if it was a documentary.

I saw him "host" the 5 under 35 Festivalin Brooklyn last fall. He seemed pretty damaged and it was sort of hard to understand what he was saying.

Libby Edelson at Ecco has acquired the memoir of Richard Hell, the punk icon who retired from music in 1984 to focus on his writing. It is called I Dreamed I Was a Very Clean Tramp.

Mr. Hell is the man behind such tunes as “Blank Generation” and “The Kid with the Replaceable Head.” He was co-founder of the band Television, but left in 1975 after creative disputes with fellow songwriter Tom Verlaine. He went on to found the Voidoids with former members of the New York Dolls.

Since 1984,he has written the novels Go Now and Godlike, as well as the essay collection Hot and Cold.

“Writing this book was complicated and fraught,” Mr. Hell said in a statement, “and took a long time, but all that melts in my pleasure at being taken on by this great publisher.” He also mentioned Ecco’s “do-it-yourself” roots. The press release about the memoir mentions “endless nights with club denizens,” “encounters with literary luminaries like Susan Sontag” and “a long procession of vividly evoked girlfriends.” And heroin.

Rain Taxi published a chapter of this as a chap book earlier this yr (or late last yr) and it was very good, I have high hopes for this book.

Can't believe this is the only thread him, christ on a crutch.

That DVD was worth seeing for footage of the Voidoids but the movie overall was kind of lame. RH complains about the director for pretty much the entire length of his commentary.

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51dNaY%2BPmQL._SL500_AA300_.jpg
looks like this is finally coming out. next march. will read!

first chapter: http://g-ecx.images-amazon.com/images/G/01/HARPE-Image/idreamediwasaverycleantrampexcerpt.pdf

Ooh cool. I loaded that on my phone for my train ride tonight!

*prepares self for verlaine bashing*

*though probably not in the first chapter*

dean wareham reviews the new memoir - http://thetalkhouse.com/forum/view/dean-wareham-richard-hell
anyone checked the book out yet?

it's a good read. lucky in love, that guy. he personalized my copy at an in-store: "I Dreamed I Was A Very Clean Tramp Panhandling From Jeff."

I saw him read from it just as he was finishing it at Cake Shop. With Colson Whitehead and a few other people. He was all humble about doing a reading, feeling out of place in this literary world, regardless of how small the event was. And he got really choked up, read two passages about Tom Verlaine and was in tears.

wow no kidding! those guys should just hang out and get a cup of coffee or something. they probably live two minutes away from each other.

there is a passage at the end of the book about them bumping into each other recently at a used book store.

The book is really great & maybe in a strange way, what all of his work has been leading to

Yeah, that passage about them at the bookstore is what he read. He was literally crying. Totally not punk.

punk rock died the day richard hell cried at a book reading

what, in his telling, happened at the bookstore?

(i am assuming tv was a cold dick to him)

Meaning to read this soon. Perhaps will vacate the thread to avoid spoilers.

OK, hung around to read the Dean Wareham review since I recently read his book and figured he'd be kind of the perfect person to weigh in and he is.