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Suicide: Dream Baby Dream, A New York City Story: A New York Story
“We were living through the realities of war and bringing the war onto the stage... Everybody hated us, man” Alan VegaBorn out of the city's vibrant artistic underground as a counter-cultural performance art statement, opposing the war by mirroring its turmoil, Suicide became the most terrifyingly iconoclastic band in history, and also one of the most influential. By the time the punk scene they're usually associated with came out of CBGBs in the mid-seventies, Suicide had already been causing havoc in New York’s clubs for several years.Working closely with the author, Rev and Vega explain the influences and events which led to the birth of Suicide and their early struggles. They invoke another world and era, peppered with smoky jazz clubs, Iggy Pop in his new-born Stooge persona and even suffer an attack from beat guru Allen Ginsberg.Along with interviewing major figures in the Suicide story, the author reaches back into 40 years chronicling and interviewing major players in New York’s musical history, including Blondie, Jayne County, James Chance and the New York Dolls. While the city changes around them, it all adds up to the definitive account of the lives and times of this unique duo.
- GenresMusicNonfictionPunk
384 pages, Kindle Edition
Published October 12, 2015
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
October 4, 2016
Definitely authoritative. The first part was more interesting than the end. I'll go listen to Martin Rev's solo work now because of this book.
April 18, 2020
Been waiting to read since published! Five Stars all the way. The Author I'm familiar with thru the years thru his other writings. Brilliant stuff and, research and interviews really tie this story all together. Then there is SUICIDE. I've loved them since day one on Max's release. Whadda great story they have and, all the history and life experience they brought to their music. Both artists prolific solo music/art...Totally inspiring!
January 22, 2020
A wonderful history of a magnificent band and time.
Should be in the library of every rock'n'roll fan... and in every library, period.
Should be in the library of every rock'n'roll fan... and in every library, period.
July 4, 2023
Berättelsen om det otroligt fascinerande bandet Suicide, men även mycket om det kulturella New York, med lejonparten förankrad i de skitiga 60- och 70-talen. Velvet Underground! Silver Apples! New York Dolls! CBGB’s! Max’s! Rent godis och obligatorisk för den intresserade.
October 4, 2016
Interesting rock bio, really places Suicide within the nascent underground New York scene. It's interesting to note how they werent taken seriously by the New York 'punk' scene, Hilly Crystal hated them, and they were more aligned with bands like the Cramps and Ramones than Blondie, Television or Richard Hell. In many ways they were the coolest and and sonically most interesting, and politically fierce. RIP Alan Vega, and Marty Rev long may he live, please do at least another 5 albums before you leave us!
December 14, 2018
What a great (but somewhat limited, you cannot fit in all of it as the book would be as big as a set of encyclopedias) history of music in New York City using The band Suicide as thread to weave the tale, much bigger than Suicide it covers everything from Do-wop to Jazz to Punk to 70s disco, New Wave and more, very impressive!
March 21, 2017
Took a while but I got there. It was interesting to note how the pantomime Punks in the UK just didn't 'get' what Suicide were doing. Mainly because they weren't playing sped up Chuck Berry riffs like The Sex Pistols.
Interesting stuff.
Interesting stuff.
August 31, 2019
Kris Needs lets us know at the start of the awkwardly titled Dream Baby Dream: Suicide: A New York City Story that he had planning an ambitious history of New York book, but that it never came to fruition and had kinda morphed into a book about the cities legendary duo, Suicide. And he clearly didn't want to waste all his work, because presumably lots of it is here as Needs goes off at tangents, particularly early on. Fair enough I guess, though some of it wasn't really to my taste. I'm a big fan of Martin Rev but the account of his 60's love of Jazz was probably a little too detailed for me. Indeed, the whole book is geared far more towards Rev as he was clearly a more willing participant than Alan Vega. It's also far more about the duo's early days than what came later and once we get past the classic second LP Needs rushes through the rest of their history too much for my liking.
Still, it's worth reading, though if you only want to read one Suicide book I would recommend the excellent Suicide: No Compromise by David Nobakht. But if you want to read another...welcome aboard!
Still, it's worth reading, though if you only want to read one Suicide book I would recommend the excellent Suicide: No Compromise by David Nobakht. But if you want to read another...welcome aboard!
May 29, 2021
An excellent book that, while obviously focused on Suicide, manages to mix in a great history of pre-CBGB New York underground rock. Sorry kids, time did not begin with Television. I mean, this book is worth reading just for the Mercer Arts Center stuff. And the fact that Suicide once appeared on a bill with Zoot Sims. (I wonder what he thought?). Some whiners have bitched about Needs inserting himself too much in the narrative, but I found Mr. Needs first-person sections to be interesting, relevant and minimal, so those people can go fuck themselves. All in all, a must for anyone with an interest in Suicide and/or punk rock pre-history.
November 30, 2017
Pretty good core of the book (1970-1980) but let down by too much padding about other artists disguised as context-setting, and far too much about the author. I really couldn't care less about when he was DJing where or what exactly his position was at Zigzag at any given time, or the stalled progress of his series of CD/books on New York. The lengthy excerpting of his own reviews is just lazy. The tone could have been slightly less reverential too, especially on the solo careers..
September 2, 2023
Filled with details
This book covers not just Suicide’s evolution and career, but the evolution of the music and culture which inspired them in NYC. All of the interviews and research were wonderful and the book gave me so much more music to dig into.
This book covers not just Suicide’s evolution and career, but the evolution of the music and culture which inspired them in NYC. All of the interviews and research were wonderful and the book gave me so much more music to dig into.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews