richard hell - pioneer or silly old fool

Think hell had his editing gigs to eke by with maybe but who knows. But yeah, nowadays…

He used to have a movie review column for a few years. I think he’s able to make some money by writing regularly but it’s probably a different gig each time. (It’s possible he’s gotten work as an editor too.)

Inherited money? Spouses?

inherited money generally probably more of a factor than people assume, then and now. no idea about richard hell's case tho.

fwiw, when I googled him to get the wiki I saw the "estimated net worth" deal Google puts in the info box on the right, and it said $500,000. No idea where they come up with that, of course. I thought I had remembered him doing film music but no sign of that in the wiki.

chinese rocks is on a million compilations and probably some soundtracks.

I don't believe Verlaine or Hell's background was anything more than middle class

That’s was my impression as well. They went to that private school but I don’t think it was particularly fancy.

Quick someone do a detective podcast series investigating how Hell can afford his bills.

(Sorry that sounds so snarky. It’s a funny line of inquiry is all, & I imagined someone getting really into the question.

Growing up in NJ, when I finally met other Richard Hell / Television fans they told me he worked at Guitar Bar in Hoboken, lol. I'm not sure that is/was actually true.

I think Bowie covering "Kingdom Come" helped out Verlaine a LOT.

Again, he does get published regularly, and his music has also been reissued every now and then - the Spurts compilation, the Destiny Street remake, then later the deluxe edition with the remix, the anniversary edition of Blank Generation, having his stuff licensed for various compilations by Rhino or Numero Group, etc.

(Also, they're apparently reissuing Blank Generation on CD this month - it's basically updating the old CD so that it 1) uses the 40th anniversary mastering from 2017 and 2) makes everything correspond to the original LP, which means using the original artwork and the original LP version of "Down at the Rock & Roll Club.")

In terms of published writings, here's a sample:

Across the Years Hell selected poems 1970-1991
(Amsterdam: Soyo Publishers, 1991)

ARTIFACT notebooks 1974-1980 (includes contributions from Hell)
(NY and Madras: Hanuman, 1992)

THE VOIDOID 1973 novelina
(Hove, U.K.: Codex, reprinted in 1996)

Go Now novel by Hell
(New York: Scribner, 1996)

WEATHER series of twelve poems
(New York: CUZ Editions, 1998)

WANNA GO OUT? by Theresa Stern poems of Theresa Stern
by R. Hell & T. Verlaine
(Perpignan: Éditions Anna Polèrica, reprinted in 1999)

Hot and Cold "essays poems lyrics notebooks pictures fiction" by Hell
(New York: powerHouse, 2001)

Rabbit Duck 13 collaborative poems by Richard Hell and David Shapiro
(Milwaukee: REPAIR, 2005)

Art show catalogue essay "Sadness Notes" by Hell
(Normal: University Galleries, 2005)

Godlike novel by Hell
(New York: Little House on the Bowery [imprint of Akashic], 2005)

The Toilet Paper Columns 14 newsmonthly columns
(New York: CUZ Editions, 2007)

Psychopts artist's book collaboration with Christopher Wool
(New York: JMc & GHB Editions, 2008)

Disgusting drawings and writings by Hell, with unique endpapers by Josh Smith
(New York: 38th Street Publishers, 2010)

And there are many more magazine articles/essays, book introductions, comic books, etc. In short, he's a working writer, and I'm sure he gets paid well given his well-earned reputation.

It’s a funny line of inquiry is all

I don't think it is. While there are more artists than ever writing songs about wealth inequality, it seems that actual inquiring about the ways in which mid-level or low-tier artists are able to own vintage modular gear and spend weeks recording in fancy studios remains taboo. I just assume the answer is always generational wealth, because how could it be anything else?

(Sorry that sounds so snarky. It’s a funny line of inquiry is all, & I imagined someone getting really into the question.

― The land of dreams and endless remorse (hardcore dilettante),

I didn't take your point as snark, but I still don't get why asking how an artist lives day to day is strange.

Slightly different point, but what I always think about bands and artists that are full time bands and artists is what do they do all day?

Cocklodging is often the answer, can't speak for R. Hell in that regard mind

xpost

xp songwriting is work that takes time and effort! So is demoing, rehearsing, and recording music.

Cocklodging is often the answer, can't speak for R. Hell in that regard mind

Slightly different point, but what I always think about bands and artists that are full time bands and artists is what do they do all day?

― Renaissance of the Celtic Trumpet (Tom D.)

Bake brownies, read Elizabeth Bowen.

the little reading i've done by his girlfriend, all linked from her site, indicates her family is dirt poor.

_(Sorry that sounds so snarky. It’s a funny line of inquiry is all, & I imagined someone getting really into the question.

― The land of dreams and endless remorse (hardcore dilettante), _

I didn't take your point as snark, but I still don't get why asking how an artist lives day to day is strange.

Cocklodging is often the answer, can't speak for R. Hell in that regard mind

xpost

― I question your commitment to the revolution (Matt #2), Saturday, June 10, 2023 8:31 AM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

upthread someone said he bought his apartment years ago when it was still cheap

i think i was wrong about that; thought i'd read it somewhere. here he says it is rent-stabilized.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424127887323936404578581993025822864

this has most of the content of the wsj article without the firewall:

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/harriet-books/2013/07/at-home-with-richard-hell-

here's an article by his downstairs neighbor:

https://bedfordandbowery.com/2013/07/looks-like-its-time-to-give-up-allen-ginsbergs-old-apartment/

hmm that poetry foundation link only works if you cut and paste it into a browser.

I've mentioned on ILX previously that I worked for Razor & Tie from 93-95 and worked with Msieu Myers on the reissue of Destiny Street, which was licensed from Marty thau… it was marty's to license, lock stock & barrel, but there were some issues that needed Hell's consent…he HATED marty, Marty hated him, but both were of one mind about a number of issues, albeit grudgingly…

I mentioned before that the first time I met him for a formal meeting (I had seen him on the street scores of times prior), he wanted to put this hentai he had made with some artist into the reissue, and I had to say, "uh I don't think we're gonna go for that"(I spose he could have made a case as to what this creation had to do with the context of this record, made in 1982, but he did no such thing) "but we'd really like for you to write some notes for each song." He did so, and was unfailingly cooperative and gracious throughout production. Super super nice guy!

One day, he came to the office for a courtesy meeting with the owners of R&T, who barely had any idea who he was (big springsteen guys, y'see): it was July, probly in the 90s, and he was wearing the kind of t shirt you would get a surf shop, board shorts and a par of chucks… he was not dressed like that for the previous meeting, and for that matter neither you nor I can EVER imagine Tom V or Bob Q EVER consenting to wear anything of the sort. He was very proud of this Mustang he owned, showed me and one of the owners a picture of it, and said "yeah, I drove this across the country when I was dope sick and needed to kick, and that did the trick…" the owner was discomfited, as I don't think he had much experience with the dope demimonde.

I visited his apartment once, to drop off something he needed to sign…by 12th st between 1st ave and Ave A standards, it was (or is) pretty big, he had two floors…this is the same building in which Allen ginsberg's apt was… and before and after my dealings with him (he never recognized me again and I didn't feel like bothering him as such), every single solitary time out of the 20-30 times I saw him on the street, he was with an incredibly hot woman, each fitting the type to which Ms Faw belongs, never the same person but all many decades his junior… for, despite his status as the ne plus ultra of EV hipsters, with an unimpeachable rep, never sold out etc etc, he was extremely well preserved.

Yea, I remembered some of this from the last time you posted it. Glad I didn’t imagine it.

here's part of a granta interview with Ms. Faw from 2014, presumably before she met RH?

What else has influenced your work besides other writers?

I went to film school before I went to writing school. Nikki’s Kool-Aid hair is a nod to Christiane F., this German movie from the eighties about a teenage junkie prostitute in the Bahnhof Zoo train station. Young God is from a Swans song. I remember first hearing this Lou Reed song in high school, ‘Some Kinda Love’, the part about putting Vaseline on your lover’s shoulder, and just being blown away by what was possible in a pop song. I started making my own T-shirts. Like a little boys’ Fruit of the Loom with the sleeves cut off, written all over in black Sharpie. One of them was just the lyrics to Richard Hell’s daughter-fucking song, ‘The Plan’. I was really into the whole seventies New York punk scene. It’s basically why I came to New York, which is nothing like that at all now.

TV: Well, yeah.

(Looks up and down W12th Street, bends over, hides copy of Theresa Stern poems in hard-to-find position on book cart)

Richard Hell has a speaking agency and the gigs those places book can actually come with real money, certainly better than chapbook money.

https://www.allamericanspeakers.com/booking-request/Richard-Hell/434268

rent stabilization is often as good as buying a place. I know a family with a soho loft on broome street where the elevator opens up into their living room, they pay 700 dollars a month.

Right. And feel like even if he has his own place he may be partaking of the spirit if not the letter of the practice Matt #2 mentioned.

MAY 2023: EXCLUSIVE ANNOUNCEMENT--There will be a reading/book launch by Richard in early July... Hell will be joined by Emily Simon for readings from their new Winter Editions titles at White Columns gallery in New York's Meatpacking District (right by the Whitney Museum) on Thursday, July 6. The books will be available for sale and the authors will sign them for those who so wish. The doors open at 6:30 PM and the reading starts at 7:00. It's free.

an enterprising new yorker can just go and ask him.

Ha, I nominate you.

I missed him reading at Book Court a few years ago and never looked back.

ha i've seen him do several readings. he is always thoughtful and amusing. seems like a swell guy. but i am covid-shy these days and don't go to indoor things if i can help it.

I saw him read at cake shop for a small series. Colson Whitehead was also on the bill. Hell was nervous and said he hadn’t done many readings like that and his book was about to come out. He read the bit about running into Verlaine at the strand and cried.

there was that memorial for robert quine at the cb's gallery where, at the very end, he sang his song "time" with ivan jullian's accompaniment and he was flooded with tears. very moving.

I saw him at a tribute to Lester Bangs at the church on the not-so-lower East Side- St. Mark’s, maybe? He read a page from the index of Psychotic Reactions and Carburetor Dung.

He's great on the BBC Rock Family Trees about NYC punk from the 90s, very funny and smart and unassuming. I've not read Tramp yet - I really should, but I read Go Now as a teen and it was brilliant but a lot darker than I was ready for.

Go Now, I think is a pretty exceptional novel, I remember kind of hating it at the time but I think mostly I was just sick of "junkie novels" which at the time were numerous. I re-read it a few yrs ago and thought it was great.

Godlike is one of my favorite novels ever, I've read it several times and every time I am more & more impressed by it. If it had another name other than Richard Hell on it I am sure fewer people would know of it but its rep would be greater.

I Dreamed I Was a Very Clean Tramp is much better then your average music memoir.

I am eagerly looking forward to the new poetry collection, hoping Rain Taxi hooks Mpls up with another Hell reading in town (he's done a few over the yrs)

Not quite sure why, but I saw Richard Hell introduce a screening of John Huston's Wise Blood at the Glasgow Film Theatre a few years ago. He made some good points about the soundtrack not being very appropriate/good. As Stevie says, he seemed smart and unassuming.

I also remember reading Thurston Moore saying that the Dim Stars project floundered when Hell insisted on individual songwriting credits rather than a collective Dim Stars credit. Maybe one of the ways you stay afloat as a countercultural icon is by making it your business to pay attention to things like writing and producing credits and the copyright on your recordings.

I doubt any of Richard's literary endeavors generate significant "coin" as the saying goes. Those speaking-bureau gigs can pay well from what I've heard but you need sizable and consistent audience demand. Back in the day there was a weird subculture of people, not necessarily involved in creative activities, who lived on the margins in Manhattan, without visible or ahem Traditional means of employment, in rent-controlled or stabilized apartments. I met a couple of these characters in the early Eighties. Reading Hell's excellent memoir you get some sense of this lost world. Today the city is so high-priced that it's hard to imagine anybody surviving this way. But there are a few holdouts. Richard Hell is still savvy and no doubt gets by on some combination of all the different suggestions here. I wouldn't want to ask him.

would love to find a copy of Godlike. the only one i see available is $400.

Hell is selling it. Mystery solved.

haha! it says "sold out" on his own site.

Friend of mine who worked in publishing used to throw Hell regular editing gigs throughout the 2000s, working under his fairly anonymous govt name. My friend knew it was him but never let on, getting the distinct sense that RH was happy to keep that kind of work separate from his more public identity. My friend had no interesting stories about his work relationship with RH except to say that RH was always polite, professional, and grateful for the work.

In 2005, he answered the question, Sort of.

Are you able to support yourself just on your artwork, your books, your poetry?

It's funny how often I get asked that. Since like 1975, there was only one period of about six months in the late '80s - that was where I made the shift from music to writing and wasn't getting a lot of music royalties - that I had to work a real job.

Now where does the money keep coming from? From the book tours? From sales?

No, I get record royalties. Everything that I want to be in print is in print. Now I write a movie column six times a year. I do two or three high-paying readings a year. There’s a steady trickle from merchandise at the site. Every couple of years I make a good score in advances, either for music or writing...

New book arrived yesterday, it is great