Richard Hell & the Voidoids - Blank Generation

Makes me proud to be an american!

Richard Hell was probably one of the first artists on the american punk scene. He most likely got the Ramones fired up and going. Not a bad cut on this one! NO SIREEE BOB! April 5, 2008

Blank Generation

Richard Hell & The Voidoids-Blank Generation *****


Love may come in spurts but the amount of classic music Richard Hell released in the 1970's did not. As one fourth of Television along side Tom Verlain, (although he went by Richard Lloyd) Hell made one of the top albums of all time with Marque Moon. After leaving Television he joined the great Johnny Thunders(New York Dolls) to form Johnny Thunders & The Heartbrakers. No not same heartbrakers as Tom Petty's band, Hells came first and was far better. After recording yet another classic album L.A.M.F. with them he left and formed his own band, The Voidoids. The Voidoids was a way for Hell to breath life into his poetry which was what he really wanted to do more then anything.

Blank Generation is really and essential document of its time. Dressing artful ambitions in a nihilistic apathy, and using fusion on the cross-purposes of the genre. Depending on when you ask Hell he either did or did not invent punk rock, the choice is yours, but really it doesn't matter either way. What matters is the this, Blank Generation is one of the top five albums of 1977 and one of the very best of all time. The punk integrity of the songs masked with whit and intelligence is a furious combination.

Opening with 'Love Comes In Spurts' both meaning the pain you go through to keep it and the sexual act which is implied is one of the best songs the album offers and gives us our first look at Ivan Julian, the third in the line of amazing guitar players Richard Hell worked with in 1977. The first being Verlain, and the second Thunders. 'Liars Beware' and 'Who Says' so the odd time signatures the band would often use, as Hell had jazz leanings, much like duding Television. Then there are tracks like the slow 'I'm Your Man' which are unlike anything else on the album. 'Another World' is an eight minute epic, once again in the same vein as Television, especially the bands own 'Marque Moon.' Blank Generations title track is the stuff of legends. One of the quintessential songs of it's time. Jazzy chord progressions which would be ripped off by The Stray Cats a few years later on 'Stray Cat Strut.' Incredible lyrics totally depicting that time more honestly then almost anything else released then. The song is the focal point of the album and is what makes this album a must. Also with Marc Bell playing drums this is a piece of history. This was his debut on the music scene as soon he would become Marky Ramone in the Ramones.

It is nearly impossible to get the original album so you must buy the version with all the extra tracks. 'Down At The Rock And Roll Club' (alternate version) is great here. Tells of the New York night life of the time. As much as I wish I could say the John Fogerty cover 'Walking On Water' was not on the original it was. It is easily the weakest track, not bad but not great, and really out of place. The Frank Sinatra cover 'All The Way' which closes the album is actually good. Done as a tribute to Hells lounge act idol. Not like Sid Vicious' cover of 'My Way' which was a black humoured posthumous joke, this was actually done well.

Blank Generation is loud, angry, virtuosic, and intelligent. It is a stunning album, and one of the crowning achievements of the 1970's New York punk movement. January 26, 2008

A Classic!!

One of the bands that started it all way back in 77. Which was a good year for music I thought although this was where alot of my friends dropped off the boat. I couldn't get enough of this record when it first came out and although I have moved into other things musically, I still love this record. Robert Quine is brillant and the band is killer too so if you are new to this one or the scene back then in general this is the best of places too start!! November 25, 2007

classic album from a punk pioneer

The British punk scene turned "punk" into a fashion trend, and ultimately into a parody of itself, with its stereotypical buzz saw guitars, spiked hair, etc., becoming totally conformist. Prior to that, the music movement was born out of a scene comprising of a relatively small number of bands centered around lower Manhattan in NYC. Richard Hell helped found 3 of those bands - Television, the Heartbreakers, and then his own Richard Hell & the Voidoids. Unlike the later scene, these original bands were a highly eclectic and creative bunch, most of whom didn't even fit the mold of the stereotypical "punk" sound.

If you listen to this album you won't hear the buzz saw guitars, and most of the vocals are sung, not hollered. It even closes with a (very tongue-in-cheek) cover of a Tin Pan Alley ballad. Which isn't to say that it doesn't rock out, but it does so in much more of a garage-band sort of way - it is full of punk attitude! The guitars jab and slice at you, rather than pummel you over the head. They would be very influential on later bands like Gang of Four. Some have referred to this as the first "post-punk" album. The lyrics are thoughtful, literate and witty. Richard Hell is certainly no great singer from a technical standpoint (beside the point!), but his vocals are very effective in their context. He sings a lot of the vocals in a way that seems to be almost shrugging them off, but they are actually right on the money, even the extended grunting and groaning session on "Another World", which is hysterical. The off-key bits of his singing are deliberately and effectively jarring. The title track is of course a manifesto for the whole punk movement, and for alienated people everywhere.

Even if you aren't a fan of punk in general, please give this one a listen.
November 20, 2007

Punk at its best

I can't think of proper words to describe this album because of its magnitude. The sounds are so perfect I assume it speaks for itself. Minimalist at times, danceable at others -- this should be on your list of original punk "must haves." July 3, 2006

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