Lexicon Devil: The Fast Times and Short Life of Darby Crash and The Germs
"Lexicon Devil is, pure and simple, the finest volume on punk to have seen the light of print. (Yes, folks: that includes Please Kill Me.) Great book!"—Richard Meltzer\ Production has started on the documentary feature based on the book.
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The true story of punk-messiah Darby Crash. Library Journal Since his heroin overdose in 1980, Darby Crash has become a symbol of punk irreverence, but his posthumous fame has tended to overshadow the seminal work of the punk band he fronted, the Germs. Mullen (who coauthored We Got the Neutron Bomb: The Untold Story of L.A. Punk), along with ex-Germs drummer Bolles and writer Parfrey, quickly deconstructs the myth of Crash (n Jan Paul Beahm) to reveal an embattled and confused soul who struggled with drug use and his homosexuality. Featuring raw quotations from Crash's peers in the burgeoning 1970s West Coast punk scene, the book offers both positive and negative views of the singer and the scene that raised him. Crash's fans were known for their cultish reverence, and Crash himself is shown to be a self-conscious misfit who used psychological ploys to enlist followers. It is unlikely that this book will reach a wide audience and thus imbue Crash's legacy with more humanity and, in turn, the Germs with more respectability, but it does strengthen the growing literature on American punk music. Recommended for popular music collections, especially as a complement to We Got the Neutron Bomb, which covers similar ground and whose oral history format this book replicates. Robert Morast, "Argus Leader," Sioux Falls, SD Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.
Publisher's Note Don Bolles' Introductory Musings Introduction The Boy With Blue Hair Vile Babies est, Scientology and IPS Richie Dagger's Crime Lexicon Devil Five Years What We Do Is Secret Raw Power Sophistifuck and The Revlon Spam Queens at the Dawn of Punk Forming -- The Germs Begin Hanging Out with the Runaways Germs' World Debut Sex Boy Kim Fowley Presents The Masque -- Out of the Woodwork and into the Basement Street Dreams We Must Bleed The Germs Spread Chelsea Hotel -- West Germs Burns and the Cult that Ruled the World The Coming of Cactus Head Gimme Gimme This, Gimme Gimme That Rift Among the Riffs Darby Spengler Art Damage F-Word Do Damage The Riverside Contingent Trouble at the Cup Tooth and Nail South Bay The HB Psycho Skinhead Scene G.I. Critics Astounded Staggeringly Reckless American Leather Oki Dogs The Other Newest One Tony the Hustler The Decline The Skate Connection Cruising Birth of the Slam Pit Bolles Gets Bootted First of the Mohicans "I Could Feel it Through His Jeans" The Darby Crash Band Skinhead Manor Dragon Lady Crying Wolf The Reunion Shut Down Aftermath APPENDICES: Cast of Characters Lyrics of the Germs' Recorded and Unrecorded Output Discography Germs' Gig List and Key Events Endnotes
\ Library JournalSince his heroin overdose in 1980, Darby Crash has become a symbol of punk irreverence, but his posthumous fame has tended to overshadow the seminal work of the punk band he fronted, the Germs. Mullen (who coauthored We Got the Neutron Bomb: The Untold Story of L.A. Punk), along with ex-Germs drummer Bolles and writer Parfrey, quickly deconstructs the myth of Crash (n Jan Paul Beahm) to reveal an embattled and confused soul who struggled with drug use and his homosexuality. Featuring raw quotations from Crash's peers in the burgeoning 1970s West Coast punk scene, the book offers both positive and negative views of the singer and the scene that raised him. Crash's fans were known for their cultish reverence, and Crash himself is shown to be a self-conscious misfit who used psychological ploys to enlist followers. It is unlikely that this book will reach a wide audience and thus imbue Crash's legacy with more humanity and, in turn, the Germs with more respectability, but it does strengthen the growing literature on American punk music. Recommended for popular music collections, especially as a complement to We Got the Neutron Bomb, which covers similar ground and whose oral history format this book replicates. Robert Morast, "Argus Leader," Sioux Falls, SD Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.\ \
