Please Kill Me ─ The Uncensored Oral History of Punk

No volume serves juicier dish on punk’s New York birth . . . Tales of sex, drugs and music that will make you wish you’d been there.”Rolling Stone

Ranks up there with the great rock & roll books of all time.”Time Out New York

Once the most reviled musical movement in history, now a global rallying cry for the young and rebellious, punk has energy and power that remain undiluted. A contemporary classic that has inspired scores of other books,Please Kill Me is the definitive oral history of the most nihilist of all pop movements. Iggy Pop, Richard Hell, Dee Dee and Joey Ramone, Malcolm McLaren, Jim Carroll, and scores of other famous and infamous punk figures lend their voices to this decisive account of that outrageous, explosive era. From its origins in the twilight years of Andy Warhol’s New York reign to its last gasps as eighties corporate rock, the phenomenon that was known as punk is scrutinized, eulogized, and celebrated by the people who were there. In this 20th anniversary edition, Please Kill Me features several brand-new chapters, new interviews, new photos, and a new afterword by the authors.

Legs McNeil lives at the Schwenksville Narrative Oral History Institute.” He was the former Resident Punk atPunk magazine, a senior editor at Spin, and regularly contributes to Vice online.

Gillian McCain is the author of two books of poetry. Legs and Gillian’s most recent book isDear Nobody: The True Diary of Mary Rose, and they are currently at work on a new book about the California music and counterculture scenes of the 1960s.