Please Kill Me, The Uncensored Oral History of PUNK
by Legs McNeil and Gillian McCain

I’ve just started reading Please Kill Me for the second time, and it remains one of my most highly recommended books of all time. It paints a picture, full of intimate details and sprinkled with photos, of the punk scene, laying down a foundation with The Velvet Underground, Patti Smith, The MC5, and The Stooges, and continues through The Ramones and Sex Pistols, with many other notable bands woven into the timeline. I’ve learned so much from this book about how my favorite bands, as well as other names that were just kind of familiar, were related and influenced by one another.

But what makes this book such a fascinating read is that it is an oral history, stringing together snippets of first-hand accounts of what went down back in the day. And the thing is, the stories often conflict. Take these excerpts from which the book gets its title:

BOB GRUEN: The first time I saw Richard Hell, he walked into CBGB’s wearing a white T-shirt with a bull’s-eye painted on it, and the words Please Kill Me written on it. That was one of the most shocking things I had ever seen. ...

RICHARD HELL: I don’t even remember wearing the Please Kill Me T-shirt, though I do remember forcing Richard Lloyd to wear it. I was too much of a coward.

or this:

DEE DEE RAMONE: ... Then Iggy just looked at everybody and said, “You people make me sick!” Then he threw up.

IGGY POP: It was very professional. I don’t think I hit anyone.

RUSSELL WOLENSKY: I was up front… Iggy got me on the shoulder.

The authors make no effort to find out what really happened, because that what history is: imperfect memories and individual perspectives.

The other thing that stands out in this book is the level of depravity and self-destruction that was prevalent in the early punk scene, summed up for me by the story of Sid Vicious filling his syringe from a toilet full of every substance the human body has to offer.

It boggles the mind, and leads to a pretty fascinating read… twice!