Land of the misfits

“Please Kill Me: The Uncensored Oral History of Punk” by Legs McNeil and Gillian McCain

“She liked her lovers half-dead.”

This is a tale about the undesirables, the misunderstood, the trouble makers. They are the misfit people in society that found each other and found their creative outlets through music. Punk music.

The stories are written with an energy matching with punk’s chaotic vibe. It’s honest, uncensored, filthy, sometimes funny, and surprisingly detailed account of some of the most rebellious people on Earth (and their groupies). It’s raw, it’s rude and scandalous, filled with borderline psychotic people with low morals, worthy of the stigma of sex, drugs and rock & roll.

The book itself is the culmination of hundreds of original interviews conducted in the 1990s by the authors, Legs McNeil and Gillian McCain (hence, oral history), while in some cases interviews and text were excepted from other secondary sources such as journals, magazines, anthologies, other interviews, and other books.

And the way the authors stitch them all up in the book is quite unique: the entire book consist of quotes and excerpts from various people in the interviews, but all somehow knitted together into a nice smooth flow of conversation. It is as if these rock legends are all talking in the same room, collectively remembering the many events from the origins of many songs, to the many wild stories from behind the scenes, to a lot of quirks such as how Iggy Pop got his nickname “Pop” or who coined the word “punk” for the music genre.

And whenever there’s a conflict (and there are tons of them in this drugged-up, hyper toxic, environment), the book shows all perspectives directly from the conflicting people. Likewise, whenever there’s an epic or hilarious incident, there will surely be several people reminiscing and laughing about it that will show the complete story from many different vantage points.

In a way, this conversation-style of storytelling makes this book a casual reading perfect for the subject of unassuming punk rock. I just can’t believe that the authors only use 5-10% of the materials they’ve gathered to make this thick book of 725 pages, to ensure that all the information in it are the absolute meat with no bone. And it was such a blast reading it.