Totally Wired features 32 interviews with the post-punk era's most innovative musicians and colourful personalities. From Ari Up, Jah Wobble, David Byrne, Edwyn Collins, it also includes conversations with the most influential of label bosses, managers, record producers, DJs and journalists - such as John Peel and Paul Morley. Crackling with argument and anecdote, these conversations bring a rich human dimension post-punk's exceptional characters, from their earliest days to their glorious and sometimes disastrous musical adventures. Along with interviews, we get 'overviews': further reflections by Simon Reynolds on key icons and crucial scenes, including John Lydon and Public Image Ltd, Ian Curtis and Joy Division, and the lineage of glam grotesquerie running from Siouxsie & The Banshees to the New Romantics to Leigh Bowery.
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Book Description
From the author of the bestselling post-punk history Rip It Up and Start Again comes a formidable companion book of conversations.
About the Author
Simon Reynolds is the author of Energy Flash: A Journey through Rave Music and Dance Culture, Blissed Out: The Raptures of Rock, The Sex Revolts: Gender, Rebellions and Rock and Roll (co-written with Joy Press), Rip it Up and Start Again: Postpunk 1978 - 1984 and, most recently, Bring the Noise: Twenty Years of Hip Hop and Hip Rock.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
By Nelson Viper
Format:Paperback
Totally Wired is the companion book to Rip It Up And Start Again. This one is comprised mostly of interviews and a few bits of Reynolds' other writing.
What comes over most strongly from Totally Wired is Reynolds attempt to shoehorn his interviewees into agreeing with him. My favourite interview by far is with David Thomas, Pere Ubu, who clearly dislikes the kind of music journalism Reynolds represents and shoots him down at every available opportunity. Martin Rushent is pretty interesting, as are Devo and Phil Oakey
The nadir is Reynolds interviewing himself. A masterpiece of egomania, in which he talks about the creative process that lead him to imposing his theories onto other people's achievements.
Now, you could see this as a clever and playful meta devise. A way for Reynolds to answer questions that arose from his intellectual research into the meaning of Post Punk . But you could equally argue that Reynolds is just a bloke who listens to, writes about and categorises music. And has confused this with being creative. A lot of music journalists start writing in their teens and often whilst still in education. They seem to retain a desire for good grades. The pat on the back for writing that half baked thesis. The ordinary reader has no reason to be interested in what they have to say, beyond being informed and entertained. The problem is that Reynolds isn't that informative or entertaining. His writing is like dry academia, yet as a historian he does little more than trawl through selective bits of his record collection as evidence. The result is big weighty door stoppers with nothing much to say.
Totally Wired is better than most of Reynolds books simply because he plays a smaller role in it.
What comes over most strongly from Totally Wired is Reynolds attempt to shoehorn his interviewees into agreeing with him. My favourite interview by far is with David Thomas, Pere Ubu, who clearly dislikes the kind of music journalism Reynolds represents and shoots him down at every available opportunity. Martin Rushent is pretty interesting, as are Devo and Phil Oakey
The nadir is Reynolds interviewing himself. A masterpiece of egomania, in which he talks about the creative process that lead him to imposing his theories onto other people's achievements.
Now, you could see this as a clever and playful meta devise. A way for Reynolds to answer questions that arose from his intellectual research into the meaning of Post Punk . But you could equally argue that Reynolds is just a bloke who listens to, writes about and categorises music. And has confused this with being creative. A lot of music journalists start writing in their teens and often whilst still in education. They seem to retain a desire for good grades. The pat on the back for writing that half baked thesis. The ordinary reader has no reason to be interested in what they have to say, beyond being informed and entertained. The problem is that Reynolds isn't that informative or entertaining. His writing is like dry academia, yet as a historian he does little more than trawl through selective bits of his record collection as evidence. The result is big weighty door stoppers with nothing much to say.
Totally Wired is better than most of Reynolds books simply because he plays a smaller role in it.
3 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
If you're remotely interested in the post-punk era of the late 70s/early 80s this book of interviews by Simon Reynolds of important (though in a few cases quite obscure) figures from the era is absolutely fascinating.
Rip it Up and Start Again: Postpunk 1978-1984 presented Reynolds's history of the - I hesitate to say genre of such a disparate bunch of music, maybe attitude is a better word because post-punk was more about being forward-looking than sticking to a particular musical formula. It's inevitably shone through the prism of his own tastes and interests to some degree; I didn't personally have a problem with that and he is quite even-handed for the most part.
But in the process of writing it, he inevitably interviewed numerous musicians and others involved at the time and this book reproduces those and other relevant interviews, edited for relevance and clarity more than length, letting the artists speak for themselves. And most of them are absolutely fascinating if you're interested in post-punk. Apart from the interviews, there are a few essays by Reynolds, and lastly he ... interviews himself, mostly on the subject of why and how he came to write Rip It Up... This may sound as if he's slightly up himself, but as rock writers of the era go, he's refreshingly free of hubris and unfashionably interested in letting the music he loves speak for itself.
An all round excellent read.
Rip it Up and Start Again: Postpunk 1978-1984 presented Reynolds's history of the - I hesitate to say genre of such a disparate bunch of music, maybe attitude is a better word because post-punk was more about being forward-looking than sticking to a particular musical formula. It's inevitably shone through the prism of his own tastes and interests to some degree; I didn't personally have a problem with that and he is quite even-handed for the most part.
But in the process of writing it, he inevitably interviewed numerous musicians and others involved at the time and this book reproduces those and other relevant interviews, edited for relevance and clarity more than length, letting the artists speak for themselves. And most of them are absolutely fascinating if you're interested in post-punk. Apart from the interviews, there are a few essays by Reynolds, and lastly he ... interviews himself, mostly on the subject of why and how he came to write Rip It Up... This may sound as if he's slightly up himself, but as rock writers of the era go, he's refreshingly free of hubris and unfashionably interested in letting the music he loves speak for itself.
An all round excellent read.
Format:Paperback
I read Mark Stewart, Jah Wobble, Ari Up, Dennis Bovell, James Chance, Lydia Lunch and Steve Severin first. All the greats then journeymanned onward to Paul Morley and Phil Oakley. Initially enthralled, an uneasy feeling gradually crept up and tapped me on the shoulder; Revisionism.
These interviews reflect the biography of the author, as he pushes us to shoe gazing the aepothesis of music...according to him. The Morley interview, reinforced in the Oakey talk, is a self serving obsessive justification; the idea musical evolution is linear. The narrative in this chunk of clunk is punk rock died with the the Damned 1st album, eventually replaced by something more wholesome; fey wimp middlebrow shoe gazing purp.
A point where the book nosedives into middle brow toilet offerings, hopefully should be buried in an unmarked grave. Where Jon Savage's vision ascends this hits the bed pan. Non, DIJ, Sol Inv, Young Gods, Swans, Butthole Surfers, Foetus, Psychic TV, Wire, Neubatuen, Test Dept Killing Joke, Ministry are all written out of the cannon. Odd because Malady Maker championed this genre in 90's.
Revisionism; Punk existed to usher in the grandeur of fey pop. The musical journey of Reynolds, the uber ego. Here he twists the arms of his subjects to justify his personal acned journey to intertia. Latterly he champions "black" music with all the aplomb of the vicars son Tim Westwood...ouch
I wonder who he left out as he edited the book??? Bags of Coke, backhanders damp patches on the bed are conveniently ignored in Revisionism. Mammon is absent from the discourse apart from the refuseniks Ari and Mark S. Gang of 4 appear almost apologetic for making political observations in the late 70's.... Read more ›
These interviews reflect the biography of the author, as he pushes us to shoe gazing the aepothesis of music...according to him. The Morley interview, reinforced in the Oakey talk, is a self serving obsessive justification; the idea musical evolution is linear. The narrative in this chunk of clunk is punk rock died with the the Damned 1st album, eventually replaced by something more wholesome; fey wimp middlebrow shoe gazing purp.
A point where the book nosedives into middle brow toilet offerings, hopefully should be buried in an unmarked grave. Where Jon Savage's vision ascends this hits the bed pan. Non, DIJ, Sol Inv, Young Gods, Swans, Butthole Surfers, Foetus, Psychic TV, Wire, Neubatuen, Test Dept Killing Joke, Ministry are all written out of the cannon. Odd because Malady Maker championed this genre in 90's.
Revisionism; Punk existed to usher in the grandeur of fey pop. The musical journey of Reynolds, the uber ego. Here he twists the arms of his subjects to justify his personal acned journey to intertia. Latterly he champions "black" music with all the aplomb of the vicars son Tim Westwood...ouch
I wonder who he left out as he edited the book??? Bags of Coke, backhanders damp patches on the bed are conveniently ignored in Revisionism. Mammon is absent from the discourse apart from the refuseniks Ari and Mark S. Gang of 4 appear almost apologetic for making political observations in the late 70's.... Read more ›
2 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Interesting interviews with interesting people. While Rip It Up is essential, I wouldn't say this is as it's just some interviews that goes a bit more in-depth with some of the subjects of Rip It Up, but it is definitely a pleasant read if you're interested in the era, or any of the personalities within.
I also enjoyed Reynolds' 'afterword', the interview with himself. If it's something I can understand that people are annoyed with (I'm not), it's his sort-of fanboy approach in Rip It Up. Here he openly admits that that was the point, as he feels the post-punk era is undermined by punk rock, and strongly deserves celebration. There's also the rallying call that some of the bands and scenes are hardly skimmed over with Rip It Up.
Is Rip It Up still the only decent book on this era? I can't wait for there to be released a book that covers more of what Reynolds' didn't, or for a book about the further evolutions of british rock (indie pop and so on).
I also enjoyed Reynolds' 'afterword', the interview with himself. If it's something I can understand that people are annoyed with (I'm not), it's his sort-of fanboy approach in Rip It Up. Here he openly admits that that was the point, as he feels the post-punk era is undermined by punk rock, and strongly deserves celebration. There's also the rallying call that some of the bands and scenes are hardly skimmed over with Rip It Up.
Is Rip It Up still the only decent book on this era? I can't wait for there to be released a book that covers more of what Reynolds' didn't, or for a book about the further evolutions of british rock (indie pop and so on).
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