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For anybody who wants to go deeper into the ontology of an idea that animates a kind of music, or is illuminated by that music, read Greil Marcus's "Lipstick Traces", just reissued in an expanded edition for the book's twentieth anniversary. I often say that "Traces" is the best book ever written about music, even though it's not actually about music: it is about the life of an idea.--Sasha Frere-Jones"New Yorker online" (10/21/2009)
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A cult classic in a new edition.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This is a must read for any arts student. It will take whatever interest they may have in "punk" and present the phenomena in a new light. This is a far broader (and more "artistic") context then the gritty social history of Savage's England's Dreaming.
Marcus' original thesis is that the Sex Pistols were heirs to the theories of the Situationists - and were, perhaps, the concrete manifestation of their obtuse and impenetrable philosophy. This realisation of situationist thinking - it is argued - took the form of a pure 'revolt' by the disenfranchised punks. This articulated their desire to live as the "subjects, and not the objects of history".
Taking this as his Thesis, Marcus proceeds upon a fragmented "secret history" of the twentieth century - connecting the threads which led from the Free Spirit Brethen through radical "left bank" groups down to the punks. This "secret history" is that of marginal groups holding out for "impossible freedom" against the dominant discourse which would crush it. Marcus reproduces some Situationist artwork and I must confess that, for me, the Punk stuff is the shallow stuff in here. You might be drawn by the unique perspective on punk but you will leave an aspirant situationist.
Marcus' original thesis is that the Sex Pistols were heirs to the theories of the Situationists - and were, perhaps, the concrete manifestation of their obtuse and impenetrable philosophy. This realisation of situationist thinking - it is argued - took the form of a pure 'revolt' by the disenfranchised punks. This articulated their desire to live as the "subjects, and not the objects of history".
Taking this as his Thesis, Marcus proceeds upon a fragmented "secret history" of the twentieth century - connecting the threads which led from the Free Spirit Brethen through radical "left bank" groups down to the punks. This "secret history" is that of marginal groups holding out for "impossible freedom" against the dominant discourse which would crush it. Marcus reproduces some Situationist artwork and I must confess that, for me, the Punk stuff is the shallow stuff in here. You might be drawn by the unique perspective on punk but you will leave an aspirant situationist.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This is not your father's music history book.
If you are expecting a book about punk rock, read it. It is about punk rock in a manner of speaking. But even if you aren't a punk rocker, still read it. I know they always say this and then you think to yourself, why would I want to read a book about something I could care less about? But this book only uses punk as a kind of centerpiece or metaphor. But this book is about everything--Dadaism, revolution, Situationism, even a medieval religious fanatic who walled himself into a city with a group of followers resorting to canabalism and self-annihilation. See, it seems interesting. It is scholarly, but quite readable (and God knows, most aren't). Sometimes a little unfocused, but if it had too much structure, it wouldn't be punk.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I bought this book about a year ago and have read it 4 times since. Despite being a huge, scolarly, intellectual work, it still manages to exite at just the same level as the music about which it speaks. Facts and ideas appear and disappear again only to resurface generations later in a different, often more potent and subversive context. Some of the ideas covered are self-evidently unworkable (as Marcus knows as well as his readers) but they still excite and energise the imagination through their sheer radicalism. Like the best Punk Music they prompt the reader to a paradoxical reaction: "I can't condone any of this intellectually, but I feel like fighting in the streets to defend it". Read it, and it will remind you how pitifully dull and conformist your life is. Obviously, you won't be manning barricades on the street, but your first reading of this towering work will blow your assumptions and preconceptions apart and regular helpings thereafter will keep your sense of intellectual radicalism alive, kicking and screaming "Destroy!!"
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Unconvincing attempt to link punk to Dadaism
Perhaps the subtitle "A Secret History of the Twentieth Century" should have alerted me, but with the name Greil Marcus and a picture of Johnny Rotten on the cover, I presumed that... Read more
Published on 14 Feb 2009 by Guardian of the Scales
BEST DAMN BOOK YOU WILL EVER READ!
DO NOT WASTE ANY TIME. READ THIS BOOK. IT WILL CHANGE YOUR WORLD FOREVER. FIND THE EXTRAORDINARY LURKING BEHIND THE ORDINARY THAT YOU ALWAYS SUSPECTED WAS THERE, THE BEACH BENEATH... Read more
Published on 14 July 1998
oh yeah, baby!
I'm in the midst of reading this badboy at this very moment. And though the likelihood of my reaching the end of it is slim, the book has proven beyond doubt, its ability to... Read more
Published on 12 April 1998
ooh it good
this book is amazing. it's tough though. for one, you won't want to put it down, but it makes you wanna go do stuff. it's a must read for those who like punk. Read more
Published on 29 Dec 1997
I got to the middle then I got lost.. your mileage may vary.
Is it just me, or does it just go a bit too far? I admit, I never did get to finish the book, and probably didn't get to see the whole "point" of it all... Read more
Published on 1 May 1997
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