Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #32714 in Books
• Published on: 2005-01-28
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 256 pages

Customer Reviews

Exterminate! Exterminate!
From skinny ice-cream clerk to muscled, tattooed Nietzschean uber-monster, Rollins demonstrates his descent from 'normality' to life alone in a garden shed where he dreams of napalming his audience. Quite whether Rollins ever recovered completely from the psychosis he undoubtedly went through as front man of Black Flag is a moot point. Most people I know still rate him as a frontline nutter with that thousand-yard stare of his, but he does have a perceptive intellect, a versatile imagination and an often hilarious sense of humour (check out his spoken word LPs)and the realisation that the enormous ego needed in captivating an audience has to be balanced by humanity and modesty. Reading it, from eating dog-food sandwiches to all out war with billy-clubbing police and violent thugs at the gigs, then riding coast to coast in a van - playing gigs in shit-holes where they had to fight to get paid on an insane schedule - five hundred mile trip between three cities in twenty four hours - you wonder why none of them ended up in straight jackets. It's an awesome read and the very lack of editing in its diary form that makes it 'raw' and definitely no work of literary art only adds to the adrenaline rush you'll get from the best of it. Some is gutty and hard going though and unless you're a fan you'll find some of the asides repetitive and tedious. But the bands of this era, DOA, FLipper, Circle Jerks et al lived as no other had before or since, and as we all know the Flag were the fastest, hardest, loudest terrormeisters of the lot. I terrorized my neighbours with the rolling thunder of Flag's DAMAGED LP for years! Brilliant photos give you a real feel for the scene too. Buy, read, enjoy!

Get in the van: on the road with Black Flag
Had I not fallen in love with Henry Rollins, I would never have read this book. I lived through the [English] punk era and emerged unmoved, so it's not about nostalgia or a belated interest in Black Flag, rather a search for the genesis of the man he is now. Here we get an inkling of the sharp, clever but still angry Rollins of today, minus the self-deprecating observations which make his spoken word outings so funny.

If I were not an admirer, the young Rollins might come across as a self-righteous misanthrope, yet reading this book almost broke my heart. It is not about war or genocide or any of the really awful things that happen to people on a daily basis. It is just Henry Rollins's recollection of the degradation, depression, alienation, loneliness and unremitting grinding slog of being in Black Flag.

The relentless touring of cities and countries, playing in front of often hostile crowds is recounted in graphic and vemon filled detail. He yearned for Black Flag to be taken seriously, but hated the adulation that came with being the front man.

Having said all of the above, this is a compulsive and compelling read with some laugh out loud moments. Had the young Rollins's life been anything other than miserable, he might never have quit his McJob to Get in the Van. The Henry Rollins of today appears remarkably well adjusted in comparison with his young self.

The humanity!
I already liked Mr Rollins before reading this book, but now I also have an enormous respect for him! The unspeakable things that he goes through for the music he loves is beyond belief. Interesting, eye-opening, and always entertaining, this book is chock-full of Rollins' touring experiences, wit, and philosophy of life. A definite must-read for anyone even remotely interested in the life of an underground musician.