a book
Please Kill Me: The Uncensored Oral History of Punk
Legs McNeil & Gillian McCain · 2016 · 448 pages
"Ranks up there with the great rock & roll books of all time."--Time Out New York
"Lurid, insolent, disorderly, funny, sometimes gross, sometimes mean and occasionally touching . . . Resounds with authenticity."--The New York Times
"No volume serves juicier dish on punk's New York birth . . . Tales of sex, drugs and music that will make you wish you'd been there."--Rolling Stone
A contemporary classic, Please Kill Me is the definitive oral history of the most nihilistic of all pop movements. Iggy Pop, Richard Hell, the Ramones, and scores of other punk figures lend their voices to this decisive account of that explosive era. This 20th anniversary edition features new photos and an afterword by the authors.
"Utterly and shamelessly sensational."--Newsday
recommended by 3 people
sourced from public statements
St. Vincent
“It’s so good. It makes me want to read, just read.”↗
Santigold
““Please Kill Me is one of the most fun books I’ve ever read. It’s basically a collection of oral histories, first-hand accounts from all the people who were around in New York as punk began. It’s the inside scoop on everything punk, with all kinds of details about who hooked up with who and the crazy shit they did. It’s not like reading a history book – it’s almost like being there, talking to all these people who were part of the birth of punk.” -S”↗
Corey Taylor
“Please Kill Me, that’s a great book. I consider it part of the trilogy of the punk movement, which would be England’s Dreaming [by Jon Savage], Please Kill Me and We’ve Got The Neutron Bomb [by Marc Spitz and Brendan Mullen]. You’ve got the English punk scene covered in England’s Dreaming, but Please Kill Me really starts with New York and the midwest, and then Neutron Bomb covers all of the west coast. I love how Please Kill Me is the nucleus of the American punk movement, and it starts right where the bomb went off, before that scene even moved over to CBGBs. It talks about Iggy seeing The Doors for the first time, and then moves all the way up to Nico dying and stuff like that. It’s such a great oral history, and I love the fact that it comes from interviews and stuff like that, so it really feels like you’re listening to somebody tell you that story.”↗