England's Dreaming, Revised Edition: Anarchy, Sex Pistols, Punk Rock, and Beyond
England's Dreaming is the ultimate book on punk, its progenitors, the Sex Pistols, and the moment they defined for music fans in England and the United States. Savage brings to life the sensational story of the meteoric rise and rapid implosion of the Pistols through layers of rich detail, exclusive interviews, and rare photographs. This fully revised and updated edition of the book covers the legacy of punk twenty-five years later and provides an account of the Pistols' 1996 reunion as well...
Search in google:
England's Dreaming is the ultimate book on punk, its progenitors, the Sex Pistols, and the moment they defined for music fans in England and the United States. Savage brings to life the sensational story of the meteoric rise and rapid implosion of the Pistols through layers of rich detail, exclusive interviews, and rare photographs. This fully revised and updated edition of the book covers the legacy of punk twenty-five years later and provides an account of the Pistols' 1996 reunion as well as a freshly updated discography and a completely new introduction. Publishers Weekly With wit and authority, freelance writer Savage pens an entertaining, exhaustive chronological history of punk rock and politics through 1980. For the first several chapters the account focuses on attention-getting impresario Malcolm McLaren, who opened a series of outrageous clothing shops including Let It Rock and Sex during the early '70s with companion Vivienne Westwood. McLaren's visits to New York City left him enamored of such iconoclastic American bands as the New York Dolls and Television, and, using the nervy, bored adolescents he met while selling punk fashion, he nurtured a group that would become the Sex Pistols. McLaren and the Pistols' shenanigans are set against a background of such seminal punk bands as Iggy and the Stooges, the Clash, the Damned and the Ramones. Savage also devotes attention to McLaren's flamboyant shop maven Jordan, Chrissie Hynde of the Pretenders and Siouxsie Sioux of Siouxsie and the Banshees as he chronicles the Pistols' ascent and decline. Even readers who consider this volume's length somewhat daunting will find it the definitive source of early-punk anecdotes. Photos. (Feb.)
\ From the Publisher"[T]he definitive history of the English punk movement..."—The New York Times Book Review\ "Scholarship with spunk."—Rolling Stone\ "The best book about punk rock and pop culture ever."—New Musical Express\ "An exceptional book: dead serious and achingly funny, full of delicate complex emotions about the most brutally simple form of pop music ever created."—Entertainment Weekly\ \ \ \ \ \ Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly\ With wit and authority, freelance writer Savage pens an entertaining, exhaustive chronological history of punk rock and politics through 1980. For the first several chapters the account focuses on attention-getting impresario Malcolm McLaren, who opened a series of outrageous clothing shops including Let It Rock and Sex during the early '70s with companion Vivienne Westwood. McLaren's visits to New York City left him enamored of such iconoclastic American bands as the New York Dolls and Television, and, using the nervy, bored adolescents he met while selling punk fashion, he nurtured a group that would become the Sex Pistols. McLaren and the Pistols' shenanigans are set against a background of such seminal punk bands as Iggy and the Stooges, the Clash, the Damned and the Ramones. Savage also devotes attention to McLaren's flamboyant shop maven Jordan, Chrissie Hynde of the Pretenders and Siouxsie Sioux of Siouxsie and the Banshees as he chronicles the Pistols' ascent and decline. Even readers who consider this volume's length somewhat daunting will find it the definitive source of early-punk anecdotes. Photos. (Feb.)\ \ \ Library JournalSavage uses the band the Sex Pistols as the core of this definitive history of the punk rock and pop culture movements of the 1970s. Music critics consider this the book on the subject. (LJ 4/1/02) Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.\ \ \ \ \ Library JournalThat a group of disaffected English teenagers should in the span of two years, five 45s, and one album become the vanguard of the punk rock movement exerting musical and social influence which persists today is an improbable and, in the hands of rock journalist/author Savage, a fascinating story. This is a lengthy and detailed treatise grounded by material derived from interviews with the principal participants and the author's own journal entries. The bibliography and 50-page Sex Pistol/punk rock discography appended to the text alone can justify purchase. The analysis is cogent, if at times academic, while the decidedly Anglophilic nature of the subject, politics, and language may intimidate readers more interested in fanzine material. This should become an important work on a seminal band and movement; the numerous Sex Pistol photo books and Glen Matlock and Peter Silverton's recent I Was a Teenage Sex Pistol ( LJ 11/15/91) pale in comparison. Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 9/15/91.--Barry Miller, Austin P.L., Tex.\ \
