Lily's Please Kill Me Blog Post
April 05, 2018, by Lily
Admittedly, I am not a punk fan. I enjoy most types of music, sure, but I have never opted to listen to punk with my own free will. Nevertheless, I truly enjoyed reading the selections of “Please Kill Me,” and learning more about the grunge, experimental punk movement of the 70’s and 80’s. One thing that really jumped out to me as I was reading was how many similarities there are between the punk movement in New York, and the new jazz movement that happened in the same city, just a couple of decades earlier. We had just finished reading about jazz greats such as Sonny Rollins and John Coltrane, so these comparisons were fresh in my mind. It seems as though many aspects of both musical phenomena were not appreciated in their time. I remember discussing in class how some of Coltrane’s music was laughed at, and disparaged by critics as too loud, obnoxious, or hard to listen to. However, as time went on, it became more accepted in mainstream culture, and is revered today. People reacted to the Velvet Underground in the same way. Iggy Pop says, “The first time I head the Velvet Underground…I just hated the sound. You know, “How could anybody make a record that sounds like such a piece of shit?…then about six months later it hit me. ‘Oh my god! Wow! This is a fucking great record!” (18). I thought it was funny how a lot of great musicians take time to be fully appreciated. Speaking of Iggy Pop, later on in the book, Alan Vega describes a concert Iggy was giving, and states “Iggy came out and he’s wearing dungarees with holes, with this red bikini underwear with his balls hanging out. He went to sing and he just puked all over, man….he jumped Johnny Winter, who was sitting beside Miles Davis. Johnny Winter hated them, but Miles Davis loved it” (66). I thought it was really interesting how Miles Davis made an appearance in this book, because it drew a in between the jazz movement and the punk movement. I wasn’t surprised that Davis enjoyed Iggy’s weird antics, given that he revolutionized and inspired many great, experimental jazz artists. In terms of inspiration throughout both music movemens, while reading, “Please Kill Me,” I noticed how much Andy Warhol reminded me of Miles Davis, in that both were huge names in their own right, and really served as mentors to other artists. John Cale even says “Warhol was a good catalyst” for band such as the Velvet Underground (20). It almost seems that, in these music eras, the new drew upon the practices and teachings of the old, to become their own sound that still carried traces of tradition.
Overall I enjoyed the reading. It was fun reading something that was recounted orally. Because the book is mostly transcribed interviews and testimonies, it feels as though you are part of a conversation, and not reading a stuffy old book. I really enjoyed that. It was hard to keep track of all the people at times, and given my inexperience with punk, I found myself pausing many times while reading, to look up names like Lou Reed and MC5. Still, I liked reading about them, and learning about a genre I was not familiar with. I sensed an interesting environment of community, while reading these chapters. All the punk figures of that time knew each other, hung out with each other, and admired each other. It seemed like a crazy, frenetic, explosive time, and reminded me a lot of the scene at the Village Vanguard, or in the 19th century Bowery. Just, with a lot more guitar and hair dye.