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A review of England's Dreaming

by Jon Savage

The definitive book on punk rock, the Sex Pistols and what the hell it all meant.

Reviewed by: Michelle Miller Detwiler
About Michelle Miller Detwiler

England's Dreaming "England's Dreaming," by Jon Savage, is an exhaustive book about the history of punk rock. Written in 1992, shortly after grunge's ascent on the music industry, "England's Dreaming" chronicles the very beginnings of the punk genre, as well as its demise at the end of the 1970s'.

Savage interviewed dozens of people, researched hundreds of recordings and dug up nearly everything that ever was written, recorded, said or done about punk rock music. If there was a person alive who visited Malcolm McLaren's legendary Sex shop, caught the Sex Pistols perform in a dive bar in London, or the Ramones at CBGBs in New York, he was interviewed for this book. No amount of praise can describe just how invaluable this tome is as a resource for understanding so many different genres of music - as varied as industrial, gothic, techno, ska, hip hop and even nu metal - that are so popular now. Punk paved the way for experimentation, and served as a backlash to the so-called "establishment" and the formulated music of the 1970s, which had, by that time, been far removed from the innovators of rock 'n' roll music.

Not just the amount of work that went into writing this mammoth and extremely significant work of literature is impressive. There are never-before seen pictures of the bands, their fans and groupies (as well as darling photos of both McLaren and Johnny "Rotten" Lydon as young boys), drawings, reproductions of handbills, and an incredibly comprehensive discography in the back of the book. Other books have been written on the bands themselves - the Sex Pistols, The Clash, the Ramones - but none have so much as touched the comprehensiveness of this. If you really want to know about punk - real punk - read this book; it may take a few months to get through, but it will be well worth it.

Click here to buy this book, or read more about it at Amazon.com: England's Dreaming

Copyright © by Michelle Miller Detwiler, 2002

Reviewed by Michelle Miller Detwiler:
-- And I Don't Want To Live This Life - by Deborah Spungen
-- A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius - by Dave Eggers
-- England's Dreaming - by Jon Savage
-- I'm With the Band - by Pamela Des Barres
-- Our Band Could Be Your Life - by Michael Azerrad
-- Maus: A Survivor's Tale - by Art Spiegelman
-- Psychotic Reactions and Carburetor Dung - by Lester Bangs
-- Healing Digestive Disorders - by Andrew Gaeddert
-- U2 At the End of the World - by Bill Flanagan









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