The Official Punk Rock Book of Lists – Review

The Official Punk Rock Book of Lists

By Amy Wallace & Handsome Dick Manitoba (Backbeat)
By Craig Regala

Like punk in the ’70s, no one asked for it, it makes up its own rules, and it’s a helluva lotta fun. Really, WTF? I mean, these are kinda like “Call someone up we know who’s kinda cool and ask’m ‘whats yer fave nine unpunk things to do in a punk way.'”. Beside these sortsa shenanigans, there are choices by all kindsa people involved in punkliness/punklitude/punkness that sound off about various musical, philosophical, and sartorial situations. A couple of my favorites are Johnny Rotten’s “22 Picks,” and Jeff Ament’s “Eight Best Punk Rock Bass Players”. Rotten’s picks showed him to be a music fan with wide-open ears and pissed off his asshole manager who wanted him to be perceived as an extra from A Clockwork Orange, not someone who loved music. Check a few of his picks: “I’m Not Ashamed” by Culture, “Fleance” by Third Ear Band, “Sweet Surrender” by Tim Buckley, and “The Blimp” by Captain Beefheart. Cool list. Ament plays in Pearl Jam and loves his ’77 to ’82 punk. Hey, anyone with Discharge and The Minutemen on any lists is worth buyin’ a beer. Bug the library into buyin’ one for the “Reference Section” and get your own for the bathroom. Hey, gimme bus fair and I’ll read various selections at Handsome Dick’s bar (in NYC) Manitobas, as long as fellow NYCers The Brought Low and Mighty High close the show. 99 Ave. B, here I come!
(www.backbeatbooks.com)