Legs McNeil
What Lou Reed Taught Me, by Legs McNeil
Lou mined the depth and articulation of sheer desperation. Whether I was waiting for my drug dealer, or trying to get off during sex, or some other private weirdness I was too mortified to admit, Lou'd already been there, and he'd come back with a song.
Dee Dee Ramone - Portrait of a Punk
Dee Dee was the archetypical fuck-up. He was a male prostitute, a would-be mugger, a heroin user and dealer, an accomplice to armed robbery—and a genius poet who was headed for an early grave, but was sidetracked by rock ‘n’ roll.
100 Miles Per Hour
I was talking to photographer Bob Gruen the other day, and he told me he’d just come from visiting our old friend Alan Vega, the lead singer of the revolutionary electronic proto-punk band Suicide, in the hospital. I immediately thought, 'Oh shit, not...
Among the War Pigs
It’s amazing how many real-life Spinal Tap moments I’ve had. They always lead me to ask myself, “Did that really happen?” I had one of those experiences with Ozzy Osbourne in Nuremberg, Germany, in the same stadium where Leni Riefenstahl made her epic...
Happy, Happy, Happy! - A Memory of Arturo Vega
Arturo Vega, the man behind the Ramones' iconic logo, passed away on June 8, 2013. I remember him back in 1978 pulling all-nighters at the band's Second Street loft, pouring over their silk-screen operation—one long counter weighted down with a wooden...
David Bowie Stole My Suicide Record So I Ripped the Hubcaps off His Limo
In my ongoing attempt to rebuild my vinyl collection, I was recently perusing a Brooklyn hipster record store and came across the new David Bowie album, 'The Next Day.' This is sort of a review, but it’s mostly about the time he robbed me at the...
