Synopses & Reviews
Based in part on the recent interviews with more than 125 people among them Tommy Ramone, Chris Stein (Blondie), Lenny Kaye (Patti Smith Group), Hilly Kristal (CBGBs owner), and John Zornthis book focuses on punks beginnings in New York City to show that punk was the most Jewish of rock movements, in both makeup and attitude. As it originated in Manhattans Lower East Side in the early 1970s, punk rock was the apotheosis of a Jewish cultural tradition that found its ultimate expression in the generation born after the Holocaust. Beginning with Lenny Bruce, the patron saint of punk,” and following pre-punk progenitors such as Lou Reed, Jonathan Richman, Suicide, and the Dictators, this fascinating mixture of biography, cultural studies, and musical analysis delves into the lives of these and other Jewish punksincluding Richard Hell and Joey Ramoneto create a fascinating historical overview of the scene. Reflecting the irony, romanticism, and, above all, the humor of the Jewish experience, this tale of changing Jewish identity in America reveals the conscious and unconscious forces that drove New York Jewish rockers to reinvent themselvesand popular music.
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"A unique new perspective on the history of punk rock." Tommy Ramone, The Ramones
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"Shocking confessions of an eternally wicked tribe of dysfunctional kids in search of an identity." Malcolm McLaren, manager for the Sex Pistols
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"A beautiful, well-written book that's not only the kind you can't put down but also a true revelation." Alan Vega, Suicide
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"A remarkably rich and rewarding read." The Dallas Morning News
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"Beeber is an original thinker with an impressive gift for sociology, psychology and gossip." Ketzel Levine, NPR
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"The best account of punks nascent years." The Boston Globe
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"Mines a vein in punks needle-marked history that no one else has explored and is highly recommended." Vanity Fair
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"Entertaining, engrossing, and provocative." The Villager
Synopsis
Focusing on punk rock's beginnings in New York, this exhaustively researched book is certain to change how we view not only punk music and culture, but the nature of Jewish identity since the Holocaust. It draws on new interviews with more than 125 people--among them Tommy Ramone, Chris Stein (Blondie), Lenny Kaye (Patti Smith Group), and Hilly Kristal (CBGB's owner)--to show that punk was the most Jewish of rock movements.
This fascinating mixture of biography, cultural studies, and musical analysis begins with Lenny Bruce, "the patron saint of punk," follows the story through pre-punk progenitors such as Lou Reed, Jonathan Richman, Alan Vega (Suicide), and Handsome Dick Manitoba (The Dictators), delves into the lives of Jewish punks Richard Hell and Joey Ramone, and ends with post-punk pioneers such as John Zorn and Marc Ribot.
Originally known as New York Rock, punk began in that city because it could begin nowhere else--it was all about outsiders in the shtetl-like East Village, wiseasses with sharp minds and wounded psyches; it reflected the irony, the romanticism, and, above all, the humor of the Jewish experience. And via New York-dwelling Jewish Brit Malcolm McLaren, punk eventually made its way to England and then the world.
Ultimately a tale of changing Jewish identity in America, The Heebie-Jeebies at CBGBs reveals the conscious and unconscious forces that drove New York Jewish rockers to remake both themselves and popular music as we know it.
About the Author
Steven Lee Beeber has written for many publications, including Bridge, Conduit, Fiction, Heeb, Maxim, MOJO, The New York Times, The Paris Review, Playboy.com, Rain Taxi, and Spin. He is the editor of Awake: A Reader for the Sleepless, an anthology featuring work by writers including Margaret Atwood, Aimee Bender, Joyce Carol Oates, and Davy Rothbart.