Please Kill Me

We just got back our well-loved copy of Legs McNeil's oral history on the origins of punk in New York City and beyond. We pass our copy along like the family bible, evangelizing its uncensored, gritty details that have spewed forth form the likes of Iggy, the Asheton Bros, Jim Carroll, Bebe Buell, Wayne Kramer, Malcolm McLaren, Richard Hell, Patti Smith, Dee Dee Ramone, Lou Reed, Nico, and on and on... It's hilarious yet tragic. It felt like a third of those, to whom we found ourselves emotionally attached (that's you, Johnny Thunders), never made it out of the proverbial Bowery alive. It happens to be a perfect companion piece to Rotten's Filth and the Fury. However, Legs likes to set the record straight that punk, in every sense of the word, was born on this side of the pond despite continuing debate.