ROCK and ROLL Book Club: Please Kill Me

No rock and roll book club would be complete without this "Uncensored Oral History of Punk." For those of us that were not alive in the 60's and 70's, this book is the next best thing to being witness to what I consider some of the greatest music ever being created. I'm talking MC5, The Stooges, Velvet Underground, Ramones, New York Dolls,  Blondie, the Dictators, David Bowie, Dead Boys, ya know that kind of stuff.  And since I was not alive, this book gave me a sense of what it was like, and also laid the foundation for my music taste for the rest of my life, making it the Number One entry in the Rock and Roll Book Club.

 

Considered by some as a rock and roll "bible" of sorts, it is not only informative but funny, fucked up, tragically sad, and still oh so good. The book is comprised of a series of interviews done over several years by Legs McNeil and Gillian McCain. Interviewing everyone and anyone that was a player, the musicians, the producers, the photographers, the journalists, the record label guys, the groupies, the club owners, the friends, the girlfriends, the boyfriends, the girls who were boys and the boys who were girls and so on, Legs and Gillian give the most in depth look at this subject that there is. Declared one of the "top ten books of 1996" with good reason, I purchased it in 2000 when I was in high school and was still able to get an first edition. This was brought to my attention last April, when, along with my friends Sarah and Brett, I ventured to the UK campus in Lexington to hear Legs McNeil talk about Please Kill Me and his newest projects. When Legs signed my book, he was pleasantly surprised to see it in it's beat up condition, and said "Oh you have the first edition!" This night turned into a "top five night" (you'll find out more about those later) that you can read more about in a previous post, just click here. 
Listen to the interview!

ARTxFM EXCLUSIVE - Interview with resident PUNK Legs McNeil by Sarah Swain and Brett Holsclaw by Blythe Shadburne on Mixcloud

Needless to say, I was pretty freaking stoked about the possibility of hanging out with Legs McNeil, like even saying it is ridiculous! I did a book report on Please Kill Me for my senior humanities class. And then, not only did we talk to him after the discussion, Sarah and Brett did that terrific interview, and THEN we hung out with him for several hours and dropped him off at his hotel at about 1:30 in the morning. In my head I am saying "How the hell did I go from some suburban girl to hanging out with LEGS MCNEIL!?!" Apparently, I had been doing something right. Like having the right friends, for one...It was a thing, definitely a thing.

To sum it up, the book is great. It's entertaining, it's fucking great.  But don't take my word for it. Check out the PLEASE KILL ME website HERE !

This is NOT the same place we saw him at.

After the talk, he signs stuff.

"Blythe, Thanks for a wonderful night! You were the BEST! Love + Kisses, Legs"

Top Five Night!

Next time on Rock and Roll Book Club - The Dark Stuff by Nick Kent

Send me an email at blytheoftheball@gmail.com if there's a book you dig enough to be in the Rock and Roll Book Club!