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engpunk77's review against another edition
5.0
"Bad Religion represents nothing less than the marriage of punk rock protest and intellectual inquiry....[their] legacy is...one that champions questioning authority, challenging dogma, and resisting easy answers. For the last forty years, Bad Religion has urged its audience to think for themselves, and by doing so has made the world a more intelligent place, one lyric, one listener, at a time." (304)
I discovered BR as a 14-year-old swimming in outrage with no healthy outlets. The No Control album began my 6-year punk phase that evolved into listening to other bands that WERE characterized by "mindless fury, self-effacing debasement"(304) and those who just cared to keep the party going. It was about finding a new community of like-minded people and finding the music that matched my inner turmoil. Listening together became that healthy outlet, and those were formative years. When I had my own child, I put all the punk music away in favor of folk music and children's peace-promoting tunes. 20 years later, I still consider myself a punk at heart, even though my lifestyle, I figured, didn't reflect it. I haven't dropped the "punk" from my online handles, and wondered why I have held onto this for so long. I identify mostly as an "ex-punk."
I live the life of what I would've called a sellout back then. I attend education and technology conferences in professional attire (with intentionally mismatching socks as my way of harmlessly but surely protesting my conformity), and twice I have met another educator who shared my punk history albeit on different coasts. We stayed up all night reminiscing as if we had been friends back then, and it's like meeting long-lost family. We no longer to listen to punk, but we cherish that part of ourselves. I will try to have something on me that communicates my experience in the punk scene in my youth, as it's a beacon to others who shared that experience as a way to make new connections with the kinds of people I want to know.
Reading this book made me realize that BR has been carrying on all of these years without me! I've been lilting along for the past 19 days, immersing myself in punk songs (I played a track from every band mentioned, and oh, the sweet nostalgia!) feeling so comfortable with myself, past and present. I've a lot to catch up on in terms of BR's music since 1998, but the most important thing I learned is that I'm still punk rock, no matter what I listen to anymore. It's not something I'm "holding onto" or trying to be even though I'm not. It's not that I was a punk back then and a sellout now. This book reminded me that where I started, with BR, is where I still am. Greg says that BR's objective all along was to "get people to think, and reject the falsities of pseudo-science and superstition." Ya-hey! That is me. I love their lyrics, I love their mission, and I have chosen a profession in which I have the ability to influence our youth to become critical thinkers. I advocate, I'm vocal, I protest, I am never satisfied with the status quo. I may not dress the part of a teen punk rocker, but I am punk rock in the way I want to be. I do what I want.
This biography of the band couldn't be any more well written. I learned a ton about the band and leave with even more respect for them and a desire to catch up on all of the albums I missed during my child-rearing years. But to be honest, it was also pretty depressing despite the author's attempts at ending with hope. Revisiting the lyrics from 30 and 40 years ago is an upsetting experience in that nothing has changed. The relevance of the band's observations, fears, and complaints to today's society and government is ridiculous and disturbing. In fact, things are significantly worse.
The chapter Shock and Awful is the most distressful. The chapter chronicles BR's reaction to the Iraq war after 9/11 and the re-election of George W. Bush. The authors claim that "most of the free world saw this for what it was: a shameless show of brute force by an imperialist power that needed to flex its muscles after the September 11 attacks." However, unconnected to a punk community and struggling with my first year of teaching and being a single mom of a toddler (and getting my Master's degree at the same time), I felt utterly alone in my interpretation of events. I live in a rural part of upstate New York, only two hours from Greg Gaffin's liberal Ithaca, and could only see the blind support and false patriotism of conservatives, and I wondered where all the intelligent people were....they certainly weren't in congress. I felt like no one got it. Oh, how I wish I had been connected to BR and all its fans, listening to Empire Strikes First! Anyway, about the book, the authors make statements like this:
-"In the wake of 9/11, protest was painted as unpatriotic" (251)
-"The band's anger at the administration was outpaced only by its incredulity that a simpleton like Bush could get elected in the first place. This was a man who, during the presidential election, couldn't remember the title of a single book he admired..."
-"To combat the xenophobia the administration was cultivating...(252) and
-"On the 25th anniversary of "Fuck Armageddon..This is Hell", the war criminals in the White House could no longer lay claim to any moral high ground as they...conned their base into voting against its own interests with an agenda that pandered to Christian fundamentalism....their hypocrisy was out in the open and Bad Religion was having none of it" (260).
These notes on the state of the Bush administration seen through the lens of today's Trump country is disturbing. Can all of this only get progressively worse? Is this just a milder iteration of what's to come despite our futile attempts at change? As I did at 14-20, I contemplated the text of this book and BR lyrics with a feeling of despair. To be fair, the author does try to inspire you with hope, touting BR as an influencer of change and continuing the fight in the best way they can, via song writing, production of albums and stimulating shows, but I'm not buying it. RBG died last night, just to provide some context for my current mood as I write this review.
This book will remind you how awesome BR is, and you will fall in love with them all over again. You'll learn their whole story in the most entertaining way, and your mind will be stimulated as well (as per usual with anything BR). You will hear from the band members about their intentions behind particular songs and what they had intended to accomplish with each album. And you’ll remember what punk really is and isn’t if you’ve been out of the scene for 20 years. :) I can’t recommend this book enough to fans, and if you've been disenchanted with them because of some of their decisions you didn't support, read this to get a better understanding.
5 stars, and thanks for all the new perspectives!
I discovered BR as a 14-year-old swimming in outrage with no healthy outlets. The No Control album began my 6-year punk phase that evolved into listening to other bands that WERE characterized by "mindless fury, self-effacing debasement"(304) and those who just cared to keep the party going. It was about finding a new community of like-minded people and finding the music that matched my inner turmoil. Listening together became that healthy outlet, and those were formative years. When I had my own child, I put all the punk music away in favor of folk music and children's peace-promoting tunes. 20 years later, I still consider myself a punk at heart, even though my lifestyle, I figured, didn't reflect it. I haven't dropped the "punk" from my online handles, and wondered why I have held onto this for so long. I identify mostly as an "ex-punk."
I live the life of what I would've called a sellout back then. I attend education and technology conferences in professional attire (with intentionally mismatching socks as my way of harmlessly but surely protesting my conformity), and twice I have met another educator who shared my punk history albeit on different coasts. We stayed up all night reminiscing as if we had been friends back then, and it's like meeting long-lost family. We no longer to listen to punk, but we cherish that part of ourselves. I will try to have something on me that communicates my experience in the punk scene in my youth, as it's a beacon to others who shared that experience as a way to make new connections with the kinds of people I want to know.
Reading this book made me realize that BR has been carrying on all of these years without me! I've been lilting along for the past 19 days, immersing myself in punk songs (I played a track from every band mentioned, and oh, the sweet nostalgia!) feeling so comfortable with myself, past and present. I've a lot to catch up on in terms of BR's music since 1998, but the most important thing I learned is that I'm still punk rock, no matter what I listen to anymore. It's not something I'm "holding onto" or trying to be even though I'm not. It's not that I was a punk back then and a sellout now. This book reminded me that where I started, with BR, is where I still am. Greg says that BR's objective all along was to "get people to think, and reject the falsities of pseudo-science and superstition." Ya-hey! That is me. I love their lyrics, I love their mission, and I have chosen a profession in which I have the ability to influence our youth to become critical thinkers. I advocate, I'm vocal, I protest, I am never satisfied with the status quo. I may not dress the part of a teen punk rocker, but I am punk rock in the way I want to be. I do what I want.
This biography of the band couldn't be any more well written. I learned a ton about the band and leave with even more respect for them and a desire to catch up on all of the albums I missed during my child-rearing years. But to be honest, it was also pretty depressing despite the author's attempts at ending with hope. Revisiting the lyrics from 30 and 40 years ago is an upsetting experience in that nothing has changed. The relevance of the band's observations, fears, and complaints to today's society and government is ridiculous and disturbing. In fact, things are significantly worse.
The chapter Shock and Awful is the most distressful. The chapter chronicles BR's reaction to the Iraq war after 9/11 and the re-election of George W. Bush. The authors claim that "most of the free world saw this for what it was: a shameless show of brute force by an imperialist power that needed to flex its muscles after the September 11 attacks." However, unconnected to a punk community and struggling with my first year of teaching and being a single mom of a toddler (and getting my Master's degree at the same time), I felt utterly alone in my interpretation of events. I live in a rural part of upstate New York, only two hours from Greg Gaffin's liberal Ithaca, and could only see the blind support and false patriotism of conservatives, and I wondered where all the intelligent people were....they certainly weren't in congress. I felt like no one got it. Oh, how I wish I had been connected to BR and all its fans, listening to Empire Strikes First! Anyway, about the book, the authors make statements like this:
-"In the wake of 9/11, protest was painted as unpatriotic" (251)
-"The band's anger at the administration was outpaced only by its incredulity that a simpleton like Bush could get elected in the first place. This was a man who, during the presidential election, couldn't remember the title of a single book he admired..."
-"To combat the xenophobia the administration was cultivating...(252) and
-"On the 25th anniversary of "Fuck Armageddon..This is Hell", the war criminals in the White House could no longer lay claim to any moral high ground as they...conned their base into voting against its own interests with an agenda that pandered to Christian fundamentalism....their hypocrisy was out in the open and Bad Religion was having none of it" (260).
These notes on the state of the Bush administration seen through the lens of today's Trump country is disturbing. Can all of this only get progressively worse? Is this just a milder iteration of what's to come despite our futile attempts at change? As I did at 14-20, I contemplated the text of this book and BR lyrics with a feeling of despair. To be fair, the author does try to inspire you with hope, touting BR as an influencer of change and continuing the fight in the best way they can, via song writing, production of albums and stimulating shows, but I'm not buying it. RBG died last night, just to provide some context for my current mood as I write this review.
This book will remind you how awesome BR is, and you will fall in love with them all over again. You'll learn their whole story in the most entertaining way, and your mind will be stimulated as well (as per usual with anything BR). You will hear from the band members about their intentions behind particular songs and what they had intended to accomplish with each album. And you’ll remember what punk really is and isn’t if you’ve been out of the scene for 20 years. :) I can’t recommend this book enough to fans, and if you've been disenchanted with them because of some of their decisions you didn't support, read this to get a better understanding.
5 stars, and thanks for all the new perspectives!
n8duke's review against another edition
4.0
What I liked:
- reading about the colossal mistakes the band members made (from quitting at the wrong time, to putting out Into the Unknown, to signing to a major just before punk broke, to going on major benders).
What I disliked:
- the back quarter of the book was basically just a list of their releases and the track listings.
- reading about the colossal mistakes the band members made (from quitting at the wrong time, to putting out Into the Unknown, to signing to a major just before punk broke, to going on major benders).
What I disliked:
- the back quarter of the book was basically just a list of their releases and the track listings.
johno's review against another edition
3.0
I always enjoy band biographies and this one was no exception. It was really great to hear a bit more about all of these places you hear referenced in songs - OkieDogs, etc. (Especially as a Brit born way after the scene started).
Towards the end I felt like it lost a bit of steam. It felt like it was written by a journalist for an extended article - just felt a bit impersonal - I guess as consequence of not being written directly by a band member.
3.5/5
Towards the end I felt like it lost a bit of steam. It felt like it was written by a journalist for an extended article - just felt a bit impersonal - I guess as consequence of not being written directly by a band member.
3.5/5
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