High On Rebellion

Inside the Underground at Max’s Kansas City

by Yvonne Sewall-Ruskin (Thunder’s Mouth Press 287 pp. $24.95)
by Thomas Christian

Ruskin’s book takes its name from the title of a Patti Smith poem, features a contributory forward by Lou Reed, and content-wise strings together a zitherscope of oral remembrances and photographs of a generation of once-unknowns who would grow to rule the cultural empires of the world. So, what’s not to like? Hell, I even forgive ’em for tossing me out Xmas ’81 on the night they closed the doors for the last time.