“Blank Generation (album)”的意思、由来-开放百科全书

Blank Generation is the debut studio album by American punk rock band Richard Hell and the Voidoids. It was produced by Richard Gottehrer and released in September 1977 on Sire Records.

Background

Kentucky-born Richard Meyers moved to New York City after dropping out of high school in 1966 aspiring to become a poet. He and his best friend from high school, Tom Miller, founded the rock band the Neon Boys, which became Television in 1973.{{sfn|Hannon|2010|p=98}}

The pair adopted stage names after French poets they admired: Miller became Tom Verlaine, after the Symbolist Paul Verlaine, and Meyers became Richard Hell, inspired by A Season in Hell (1873) a poem written by Verlaine's idol Arthur Rimbaud.{{sfn|Finney|2012|pp=15–16}} The group was the first rock band to play the club CBGB, which soon became a breeding ground for the early punk rock scene in New York.{{sfn|Hannon|2010|p=98}} Hell had an energetic stage presence and wore torn clothing held together with safety pins and spiked his hair, which was to become punk fashion{{sfn|Finney|2012|p=5}}—in 1973, after a failed management deal with the New York Dolls, impresario Malcolm McLaren brought Hell's ideas back with him to England and eventually incorporated them into the Sex Pistols' image.{{sfn|Finney|2012|pp=47–48}}

Disputes with Verlaine led to Hell's departure from Television in 1975, and he co-founded the Heartbreakers with New York Dolls guitarist Johnny Thunders. Hell did not last long with this band,{{sfn|Hannon|2010|p=99}} and began recruiting members for a new one.{{sfn|Hermes|2011|p=207}} For guitarists, Hell found Robert Quine and Ivan Julian—Quine had worked in a bookstore with Hell, and Julian responded to an advertisement in The Village Voice. They lifted drummer Marc Bell from Wayne County. The band was named the Voidoids after a novel Hell had been writing.{{sfn|Hermes|2011|p=207}}

Hell drew musical inspiration from acts such as Bob Dylan, the Rolling Stones, the Beatles, the Stooges and fellow New Yorkers the Velvet Underground, a group with a reputation for heroin-fueled rock and roll with poetic lyrics.{{efn|Quine's admiration of the Velvet Underground led him to make hours of bootleg recordings of the band in 1969, which saw release in 2001 as The Quine Tapes.{{sfn|Astor|2014|p=45}} }}{{sfn|Finney|2012|pp=24–29}} Hell also drew from—and covered—garage rock bands such as the Seeds and the Count Five, both found on the 1972 Nuggets compilation.{{sfn|Finney|2012|pp=25–26}}

Hell had written the song "Blank Generation" while still in Television; he had played it regularly with the band since at least 1975, and later with the Heartbreakers.{{sfn|Finney|2012|p=30}} The Voidoids released a 7" Blank Generation EP in 1976 on Ork Records{{sfn|Hermes|2011|p=207}} containing "Blank Generation", "Another World" and "You Gotta Lose". The cover featured a black-and-white photo by Hell's former girlfriend and unofficial CBGB photographer Roberta Bayley, depicting a bare-chested Hell with an open jeans zipper.{{sfn|Balls|2014|p=58}} It was an underground hit, and the band signed to Sire Records for its album debut.{{sfn|Balls|2014|p=59}} Bell eventually left and became Marky Ramone, a member of the Ramones, in 1978.

Recording

The album was co-produced by Richard Gottehrer, a songwriter associated with the Brill Building who co-penned his first hit in 1963 with "My Boyfriend's Back" and who performed in the group the Strangeloves, known for hits such as "I Want Candy".{{sfn|Astor|2014|pp=49–50}} The album was recorded at Plaza Sound Studio in New York City. Both Quine and Julian played Fender Stratocasters through Fender Champ amplifiers, Quine panned to the right and Julian to the left in the mix. Mixed in the center were Bell's drums and Hell's bass and vocals.{{sfn|Astor|2014|p=3}}

Analysis

Julian opens "Blank Generation" with a riff loosely inspired by the Who's 1970 song "The Seeker". The rest of the band joins one by one until Quine's short lead ends in feedback. The main section of the song features lyrics reflecting the hopelessness of his generation against a descending chord progression patterned after "The Beat Generation", a 1959 novelty song by Bob McFadden and poet Rod McKuen,{{sfn|Astor|2014|pp=2–3}} the descent matched with falsetto "ooh-ooh" backing vocals.{{sfn|Astor|2014|p=4}} Quine takes two guitar solos—the first eight bars, the second 16—exhibiting his peculiar atonal mix of 1950s rock and roll with 1960s free jazz.{{sfn|Astor|2014|pp=3–4}} The song closes with a falsetto, doo-wop-like "Whee-ooh!"{{sfn|Astor|2014|p=5}}

Cover design

The original album sleeve features a front cover photo by Bayley of a shirtless Hell in black jeans, opening a frayed jacket to reveal the phrase "YOU MAKE ME _______" written across his chest. The back cover featured a posed photo of Hell and the Voidoids taken by Kate Simon.{{citation needed|date=January 2012}} Hell's hair was spiked, a look he attributed to Rimbaud.{{sfn|Law|2003|p=485}}

Critical reception

In a contemporary review of Blank Generation, Robert Christgau of The Village Voice wrote that the Voidoids "make unique music from a reputedly immutable formula, with jagged, shifting rhythms accentuated by Hell's indifference to vocal amenities like key and timbre", and that he intended "to save this record for those very special occasions when I feel like turning into a nervous wreck."^[10]

In the first edition (1979) of The Rolling Stone Record Guide, Dave Marsh rated it 2 stars out of 5 and described it as "bull-oney", writing "In the first place, Jack Kerouac said everything here first, and far better. In the second place, Hell is about as whining as Verlaine is pretentious."^[11] However, in a radical and uncharacteristic re-evaluation, the second edition (1983) replaced Marsh's review with one from Lester Bangs, who upped the rating to a full 5 stars, labeling it "seminal" and "essential to any modern music collection", and describing the music as "shattering assaults by a band that prophesied the later No Wave punk-jazz fusion".^[12]

Mark Deming of AllMusic called Blank Generation "one of the most powerful [albums] to come from punk's first wave" and "groundbreaking punk rock that followed no one's template, and today it sounds just as fresh—and nearly as abrasive—as it did when it first hit the racks."^[1] Sid Smith of BBC Music, in a 2007 retrospective review, called it "a thrilling and improbably poignant listening experience".^[13]

1990 reissue

The 1990 compact disc reissue of Blank Generation differed in several respects from the original vinyl album. It sported a different cover, and included two bonus tracks: a version of the pop standard "All the Way" and an original, "I'm Your Man" (not the Leonard Cohen song of same name). Both were outtakes from the original album sessions. Also, the version of "Down at the Rock & Roll Club" was a noticeably different recording from that which appeared on the original album.

2017 reissue

In October 2017, it was announced that a 40th anniversary limited edition of the album would be released on CD and vinyl on November 24 for Record Store Day's Black Friday sale. The reissue, mastered by original engineer Greg Calbi, will include a second disc of previously unreleased alternate takes, singles-only tracks and rare bootleg live tracks recorded at the band's first CBGB performance in 1976, as well as a booklet featuring an essay from Hell, previously unpublished photos by Bayley, and snapshots of Hell's notebooks and private papers.

Legacy

Rock critics have held Blank Generation in high regard. It has been highly influential, reflecting the kinds of themes that soon became commonplace in punk. Along with such groups as Television, Suicide, the Ramones, the Patti Smith Group, and the Heartbreakers, the Voidoids helped define the early New York punk scene.{{sfn|Finney|2012|p=6}}

Upon the album's release, critics such as Velvet Lanier called it "one of the greatest records ever cut"; Jimi LaLumia at The Village Gate called the title track "a classic, a unifying lifeline" for the punk scene;^[15] and Record World called it "the Future of American rock".{{sfn|Finney|2012|p=35}} To Joe Ferbacher at Creem, "Blank Generation" was evidence that punk was essentially American, and was more authentic than the more commercially successful but less intellectual or philosophical British punk scene.{{sfn|Finney|2012|pp=35–36}}

Punk became a phenomenon in England, with the quick rise and fall of the Sex Pistols and with longer lasting bands such as the Clash.{{sfn|Finney|2012|p=6}} McLaren instructed the Sex Pistols to write a British "Blank Generation", and the result was "Pretty Vacant" in 1977;{{sfn|Finney|2012|p=49}} Hell was at first offended at how much McLaren had taken from him—musically, lyrically, and visually—but came to accept it, as he believed "ideas are free property",{{sfn|Finney|2012|p=52}} and praised the band's vocalist Johnny Rotten for taking his nihilist persona further than he felt himself able to do.{{sfn|Finney|2012|p=53}} The Voidoids toured England with the Clash in 1977, and during one show, Rotten appeared on stage and goaded the audience into demanding an encore from Hell and his band.{{sfn|Finney|2012|pp=53–54}} The nihilism of "Blank Generation" was echoed in other songs in the early British punk scene such as the Sex Pistols' "Anarchy in the U.K.", the Clash's "London's Burning" and Generation X's "Your Generation".{{sfn|Finney|2012|pp=48–49}}

Hell became mired in heroin addiction,{{sfn|Finney|2012|p=6}} and the group did not release another album until 1982's Destiny Street, by which time punk had passed from headlines in favor of new wave. The album had a weak reception, and Hell turned focus on non-music projects.{{sfn|Finney|2012|pp=6–7}}

Meanwhile, British punk had swept the US and was to largely define its public perception. American bands influenced by British punk proliferated, and the music evolved into genres such as hardcore punk and alternative rock.{{sfn|Finney|2012|pp=57–61}} Many of these bands delved into punk history and paid tribute to the Voidoids and other New York bands, in particular New York-based noise rockers Sonic Youth, whose frontman Thurston Moore had seen the Voidoids live in the 1970s.{{sfn|Finney|2012|pp=61–62}} The Voidoids were a key influence on the Minutemen, whose D. Boon name-dropped Hell in "History Lesson – Part II".{{sfn|Finney|2012|pp=63}}

Track listing

Personnel

The Voidoids

Technical personnel

Notes

References

1. ^¹{{cite web |url=https://www.allmusic.com/album/blank-generation-mw0000653840 |title=Blank Generation – Richard Hell & the Voidoids / Richard Hell |last=Deming |first=Mark |publisher=AllMusic |accessdate=September 9, 2012}}
2. ^{{cite book|last=Christgau|first=Robert|authorlink=Robert Christgau|year=1981|title=Rock Albums of the Seventies|publisher=Ticknor & Fields|isbn=089919026X|chapter=Consumer Guide '70s: H|chapter-url=https://www.robertchristgau.com/get_chap.php?k=H&bk=70|accessdate=February 26, 2019|via=robertchristgau.com}}
3. ^{{cite book |title=The Encyclopedia of Popular Music |last=Larkin |first=Colin |authorlink=Colin Larkin (writer) |publisher=Omnibus Press |edition=5th concise |year=2011 |isbn=0-85712-595-8}}
4. ^{{cite journal |title=Richard Hell & the Voidoids: Blank Generation |journal=Melody Maker |location=London |date=22 February 2000 |page=46}}
5. ^{{cite journal |title=Richard Hell & the Voidoids: Blank Generation (40th Anniversary Deluxe Edition) |journal=Mojo |location=London |issue=291 |date=February 2018 |last=Chick |first=Stevie |page=105}}
6. ^{{cite journal |title=Richard Hell & the Voidoids: Blank Generation |journal=Q |location=London |issue=163 |date=April 2000 |pages=108–11}}
7. ^{{cite book |chapter=Richard Hell |last=Abowitz |first=Richard |title=The New Rolling Stone Album Guide |editor1-last=Brackett |editor1-first=Nathan |editor2-last=Hoard |editor2-first=Christian |publisher=Simon & Schuster |edition=4th |year=2004 |isbn=0-7432-0169-8 |pages=373–74}}
8. ^{{cite journal |title=Richard Hell & the Voidoids: Blank Generation |journal=Select |location=London |issue=2 |date=August 1990 |last=Norris |first=Richard |page=119}}
9. ^{{cite book |editor-last1=Weisbard |editor-first1=Eric |editor-last2=Marks |editor-first2=Craig |title=Spin Alternative Record Guide |publisher=Vintage Books |year=1995 |isbn=0-679-75574-8}}
10. ^{{cite news|last=Christgau|first=Robert|authorlink=Robert Christgau|date=October 31, 1977|url=http://www.robertchristgau.com/xg/cg/cgv11-77.php|title=Christgau's Consumer Guide|newspaper=The Village Voice|location=New York|accessdate=April 29, 2013}}
11. ^{{cite book|chapter=Richard Hell And The Voidoids|last=Marsh|first=Dave|title=The Rolling Stone Record Guide (first edition)|editor1-last=Marsh|editor1-first=Dave|editor2-last=Swenson|editor2-first=John|publisher=Random House/Rolling Stone Press|year=1979|isbn=0-394-73535-8|page=168}}
12. ^{{cite book|chapter=Richard Hell And The Voidoids|last=Bangs|first=Lester|title=The Rolling Stone Record Guide (second edition)|editor1-last=Marsh|editor1-first=Dave|editor2-last=Swenson|editor2-first=John|publisher=Random House/Rolling Stone Press|year=1983|isbn=0-394-72107-1|page=222}}
13. ^{{cite web |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/music/reviews/fv63 |title=Review of Richard Hell and the Voidoids – Blank Generation |last=Smith |first=Sid |date=April 24, 2007 |publisher=BBC Music |accessdate=September 9, 2012}}
14. ^https://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/richard-hell-and-the-voidoids-prep-blank-generation-reissue-w509483
15. ^https://americanstudies.nd.edu/assets/91769/finney_thesis.pdf