The Heebie-Jeebies at CBGB's - by Steven Lee Beeber (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

Based in part on the recent interviews with more than 125 people--among them Tommy Ramone, Chris Stein (Blondie), Lenny Kaye (Patti Smith Group), Hilly Kristal (CBGBs owner), and John Zorn--this book focuses on punk's beginnings in New York City to show that punk was the most Jewish of rock movements, in both makeup and attitude. As it originated in Manhattan's Lower East Side in the early 1970s, punk rock was the apotheosis of a Jewish cultural tradition that found its ultimate expression in the generation born after the Holocaust. Beginning with Lenny Bruce, "the patron saint of punk," and following pre-punk progenitors such as Lou Reed, Jonathan Richman, Suicide, and the Dictators, this fascinating mixture of biography, cultural studies, and musical analysis delves into the lives of these and other Jewish punks--including Richard Hell and Joey Ramone--to create a fascinating historical overview of the scene. Reflecting the irony, romanticism, and, above all, the humor of the Jewish experience, this tale of changing Jewish identity in America reveals the conscious and unconscious forces that drove New York Jewish rockers to reinvent themselves--and popular music.

Review Quotes

"A beautiful, well-written book that's not only the kind you can't put down but also a true revelation." --Alan Vega, Suicide

"A remarkably rich and rewarding read." --The Dallas Morning News

"A unique new perspective on the history of punk rock." --Tommy Ramone, The Ramones

"Beeber is an original thinker with an impressive gift for sociology, psychology and gossip." --Ketzel Levine, NPR

"Entertaining, engrossing, and provocative." --The Villager

"Mines a vein in punk's needle-marked history that no one else has explored and is highly recommended." --Vanity Fair

"Shocking confessions of an eternally wicked tribe of dysfunctional kids in search of an identity." --Malcolm McLaren, manager for the Sex Pistols

"The best account of punk's nascent years." --The Boston Globe

About the Author

Steven Lee Beeber's writing has appeared in Bridge, Conduit, Fiction, Heeb, Maxim, MOJO, The New York Times, The Paris Review, Playboy.com, Rain Taxi, Spin and elsewhere. He is the editor of Awake: A Reader for the Sleepless.