Gillian McCain - Please Kill Me: The Uncensored Oral History of Punk

This book made available by the Internet Archive.

Authors' Note

The overwhelming majority of the material in Please Kill Me is the result of hundreds of original interviews conducted by the authors. In some cases, interviews and text were excerpted from other sources, including anthologies, magazines, journals, published and unpublished interviews, and other books. A list of these sources and the pages they correspond to in this text appears on page 423. We wish to acknowledge the contributions of these authors and publishers, who have enriched the content of our book.

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Acknowledgments

Quite a few people lived through this book and encouraged us through it with their love, support, and humor. The authors would like to express their thanks to the following:

Legs McNeil and Gillian McCain: Susan Lee Cohen, our literary agent, for always performing above and beyond the call of duty; and Dawn Manners, our full-time transcriber, who took care of us through the duration and whose intelligence and insight were always an inspiration. Special thanks as well to all the other transcribers: Liz McKenna, Ann Kottner, David Vogen, Nora Greening, Filiz Swenson, and Allie Morris.

Extra special thanks to Richard Hell for letting us steal the title for our book from his T-shirt.

Also to those friends who invited us into their lives: Abbi Jane, Mariah Aguiar, Billy Altman, Callie Angell, Kathy Asheton, Ron Asheton, Scott Asheton, Laura Allen, Penny Arcade, Al Aronowitz, Bobby Ballderama, Roberta Bayley, Victor Bockris, Angela Bowie, Pam Brown, Bebe Buell, William Burroughs, John Cale, Jan Carmichael, Jim Carroll, James Chance, Bill Cheatham, Leee Black Childers, Cheetah Chrome, Ira Cohen, Tony Conrad, Jayne County, David Croland, Ronnie Cutrone, Jay Dee Daugherty, Maria Del Greco, Liz Derringer, Willie DeVille, Ged Dunn, Mick Farren, Rosebud Feliu-Pettet, Danny Fields, Jules Filer, Cyrinda Foxe, Ed Friedman, Gyda Gash, John Giorno, David Godlis, James Grauerholz, Bob Gruen, Eric Haddix, Steve Hagar, Duncan Hannah, Steve Harris, Mary Harron, Debbie Harry, Richard Hell, John Holmstrom, Mark Jacobson, Urs Jakob, Garland Jefferies, David Johansen, Betsey Johnson, Peter Jordan, Ivan Julian, Lenny Kaye, Scott Kempner, Eliot Kidd, Wayne Kramer, Liz Kurtzman, Mickey Leigh, Richard Lloyd, Matt Lolya, Jeff Magnum, Gerard Malanga, Handsome Dick Manitoba, Ray Manzarek, Philippe Marcade, Jim Marshall, Malcolm McLaren, Jonas Mekas, Alan Midgette, Paul Mor-rissey, Billy Name, Bobby Neuwirth, Nitebob, Judy Nylon, Pat Olesko,

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viii ... Acknowledgments

Terry Ork, Andi Ostrowe, Andy Paley, Patti Palladin, Fran Pelzman, Susan Pile, Dustin Pittman, Eileen Polk, Iggy Pop, Howie Pyro, Bob Quine, Dee Dee Ramone, Joey Ramone, Johnny Ramone, Genya Ravan, Lou Reed, Sylvia Reed, Marty Rev, Daniel Rey, Ed Sanders, Jerry Schatzberg, Andy Shernoff, Kate Simon, John Sinclair, Leni Sinclair, James Sliman, Gail Higgins-Smith, Patti Smith, Chris Stamp, Sable Starr, Michael Sticca, Linda Stein, Seymour Stein, Syl Sylvain, Kevin Teare, Marty Thau, Dennis Thompson, Lynne Tillman, Tish & Snookie, Maureen Tucker, Alan Vega, Arturo Vega, Holly Vincent, Ultra Violet, Jack Walls, Russell Wolensky, Mary Woronov, La Monte Young, Marian Zazeela, and Jimmy Zhivago.

Five people passed away during the making of Please Kill Me whom we interviewed or were about to interview. We offer our condolences to the families and friends of Sterling Morrison, Patti Giordano, Todd Smith, Fred "Sonic" Smith, and Rockin' Bob Rudnick. We hope we made them come alive in these pages for those who didn't have the pleasure of knowing how special they were.

Special thanks to our publisher and hero, Morgan Entrekin, and all the other wonderful people at Grove PressCarla Lalli, Colin Dickerman, and John Gall.

Also special thanks to Gina Bone, Doug Simmons, Mary Harron, Victor Bockris, and Jeff Goldberg for letting us use their original material.

For their technical assistance, we'd like to thank Tom Hearn, Stephen Seymour, Drey Hobbs, Christian Berg, and Osako Kitaro.

For their constant support, thanks to Chris Cush and Arlene, owners of Mojo Guitars at 102 St. Marks Place, New York City, where members of the cast of Please Kill Me can be found hanging out at any given time.

Legs McNeil: For her love, patience, and insight, I would like to thank Mary C. Greening. For their love, patience, and insight, I'd also like to thank Patrice Adcroft, Gary Kott, Jonathan Marder, Mrs. Ellen McNeil, Craig McNeil, Rudy Langlais, Adam Roth, Michael Siegal, Tom and Judy Greening (and also for their hospitality in L.A.), Carol Overby, Jeff and Susan Goldberg, John Mauceri, Danny Alterman, Jim Tynan, Kevin Kur-ran, Jack Walls, Yvan Fitch, Lynn Tenpenny, Mim Udovitch, Chris McGuire, Julia Murphy, Kathy Silberger, Susan Dooley, Carl Geary, Shane Doyle, and Jennifer Smith.

And special thanks to Maggie Estep for introducing me to Gillian.

Gillian McCain: Most of all, I would like to thank my family for their love, support, and encouragement. My love and gratitude to H.H.,

Acknowledgments ... ix

Mark, Ann, Peter, Laura, Gail, Chris, Joyce, Luke, John, and my late mother, Billie.

I would also like to thank all my friends who were so supportive during the writing of this book: Chris Simunek, David Vogen, Jo Ann Wasserman, Janice and Patrick McGyver, Eric and Filiz Swenson, Diana Rickard, Trinity Dempster and David Hughes, Joan Lakin, Douglas Rothschild, Larry Fagin, Michael Gizzi, Steve Levine, Nancy McCain, Patrick Graham, and my late aunt and uncle, Mr. and Mrs. P. T. Johnson.

Also, for their warm assistance in providing help and support in an assortment of ways, I would like to thank Ian Wright, Brad Sullivan, Yvan Fitch, Goran Andersson, Chris McGuire, Coyote Shivers, Ann Sheroff, Tracy Truran, Carl Geary, Mark Jacobson, Maya Mavjee, Bobby Grossman, and the Poetry Project.

And thanks to Maggie Estep for introducing me to Legs.

Also, to the memory of the late Dave Schellenberg and the late Mario Mezzacappa.

For his gorgeous taste in music, his generous intellect,

and his killer sense of humor, this book is dedicated to

Danny Fields, forever the coolest guy in the room.

"Them that die'll be the lucky ones." Long John Silver, Treasure Island

xvi ... Contents

Part Four YOU SHOULD NEVER HAVE OPENED THAT DOOR: 1976-1977

Please Kill Me

Prologue

All Tomorrow's Parties 1965-1968

Lou Reed: All by myself. No one to talk to. Come over here so I can talk to you...