I already said all I wanted about Kim Fowley, so here are a more few Cliff’s Notes now that I’ve finished. This oral history spends over a quarter of its bulk on the early 70s glitter glam scene (the opening chapter is about Jim Morrison) which beyond a few Iggy/NY Dolls anecdotes, was uninvolving because the scene of half-assed Bowie/Sparks bargain budget imitators was not very interesting. Every city has third rate bar bands that never made it - who cares? It’s only nearly a hundred pages in that we get to any actual punks. The Pistols play their final gig in Frisco, the Weirdos, Zeros, Germs form, Devo migrate west, but it’s the Screamers that are the most interesting. We’ll never know if their music was any good because they left no recorded legacy aside from some crappy live recordings somehow scraped up years later, but they were way ahead of their time: really aggressive weird keyboards combo with screaming vocals, originally no drummer (they used whatever musicians were conveniently at hand, so sometimes), big influence on the Dead Kennedys and forerunner of ’90s industrial alternative bands like Meat Beat Manifesto and NIN. Their logo was more famous than the band - you’ve seen it.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Screamers

Then there’s Black Randy, the West Coast GG Allin, except funnier, less extreme, and more musically talented. Pass the Dust, I Think I’m Bowie was his only album. Goes around telling people that Idi Amin is his personal hero. Which is better than Lee Ving walking around carrying Mein Kampf just to piss people off, because obviously it’s just a tastless joke. Surprisingly little about Fear, though, and no mention of the Angry Samoans. Lots about the Germs but you already know about all that. Earnest college commies the Dils HATE Kim Fowley for obvious reasons and he hates back. John & Exene hook up at a poetry reading and the Dickies are formed by Iggy & Bowie’s drug dealer Stan Lee. Everybody is on coke, vodka, and qualudes, sometimes all at the same time. X favor gin because it’s “mildly hallucinogenic” - huh?! Billy Zoom teaches Jane Weidlin guitar, he fucks her, then she hooks up with John Doe, that tramp. Their girlfriends are upset.

The wit & wisdom of Kim Fowley: https://www.flickr.com/photos/8586095@N07/54751362140/

The Knack do not prefigure a New Wave Skinny Tie Power Pop takeover as the Nerves break up after one great 4-song ‘7 and 20/20 fizzle out. Top Jimmy, the Blasters, Los Lobos, and the Gun Club lead a more successful roots rock scene. Hardcore invades from the Orange County suburbs, though since aside from Keith Morris (more famous for the Circle Jerks) who was only in Black Flag for one little EP, nobody from the Flag is interviewed, that chapter is disappointing. Jack Grisham of Vicious Circle/TSOL is the main villain for bringing hardcore slamdance violence to punk gigs, a 6‘2 psychopathic jock who was one of the meatheads responsible for ruining punk rock by turning it into skinhead hardcore.

Decline & Fall of Western Civ gets shot, Darby dies, X sell out stadiums in L.A. (but nowhere else), the Go-Go’s become stars, Pat Smear gets invited to join Nirvana, The End.

A decent read but not nearly as interesting as Please Kill Me because the NYC bands were just a lot more interesting, period. Aside from X, the vast majority of West Coast bands paled in comparison to their East Coast and U.K. counterparts. The book doesn’t counter my long held impression that Cali punk was a derivative trend-chasing copy of the real thing. There was never an organic punk scene that sprouted up there like it did in London or Cleveland or even Brisbane, trendy outcasts only got into it after they heard about on TV.