Henry RollinsCritiques

Not the most enjoyable read but I suppose the tedium of touring is reflected in Henry's diary which includes the the never ending physical abuse. Military tropes. And there's a fair amount of crabbiness including complaints about Mike Watt. I was touched by how he was able to become friends with Nick Cave (and Diamanda Galas) by simply writing fan letters. I was very pleased that in the postscript, he apologies for dissing Kira. Kira!

If you are a fan of music, in particular rock music of the punk, indie, electronic, jazz, or noise varieties, this book is a fun read. As the book is composed of 100 of Henry's LA Weekly articles,written over a couple of years, there is some repetition. Example: Henry's love of Iggy Pop. But it's all in good fun and fanatic fandom, and is quite infectious. Very different from a lot of Henry's heavier writing. Funny and well-done. You will want to listen to more music after this book.

Great interviews. Lots of fun.

Really enjoyed this, though it took me several months to read. It is not a one-sitting read. It is kind of a dark stream of consciousness poetic screed -- BUT it is full of some really great quotes, some of them really very funny. It is not for those who are new to Henry's writing.

This was a quick read. Some of the stories you will have heard before if you have listened to or read Henry, but some of his thoughts on travel, travel preparation, and lots of other stuff are pretty insightful. I think I'm just kind of fascinated because Henry goes EVERYWHERE. So when he talks about some place, you know he's had the first-hand experience.

Henry has an interesting way of describing these images, often shifting to the point of view of some other person. I've read a lot of Henry's work, and frankly I think this is the best thing he's done.

Really enjoyed this book. I don't think bands do this kind of touring anymore. A good read, though I recommend spreading the read out over a couple of months, as the journal entries can feel a bit repetitious.

existential masterpiece

"I find much bitterness in myself" (p.94). This work reminds me how hard I find non-linear books/stories/works. The unceasing negativity that rolls off the pages just means this book isn't for me. More than half the book is a section titled '124 Worlds' which is 124 vignettes, most a sentence or paragraph in length. I did like 'Exhaustion Blues' and 'Black Coffee Blues' quite a bit, but that's only about thirty pages or so.

This was ok. Got a bit repetitive after a while. Lots of ranting. Enjoyed the back section much more that described where the photos were from, etc. Makes me want to travel more.

This was ok. Got a bit repetitive after a while. Lots of ranting. Enjoyed the back section much more that described where the photos were from, etc. Makes me want to travel more.

Not going to do a star rating for this one. I got 20% in and remembered how much hated this historical moment. I despised the rooms full of white boys grabbing women by their hair and breasts and genitals (including me on several occasions, this is not second-hand info.), I hated watching them beating each other into unconsciousness. I hated hearing their racist and homophobic shit at EVERY show (many would not have considered themselves racist, but I saw a lot of people with "Nazi Punks Fuck Off" t-shirts stay mute when vile things were said about people of color.) Mostly I hated the agreement to pretend that anger was a reasonable substitute for talent. There are bands I love that came out of the hardcore scene, Husker Du, Flipper, Minutemen, Bad Brains, Fugazi (though they are of a slightly different scene), but most of it was crap. I never liked Black Flag and I still don't, though I saw 3 shows (only because I had friends in bands that opened) and will say the energy, though foul and testosterone soaked, was intense and I understood what people got from being in that room. And also, Rollins is interesting and knows how to string words together. So when I saw the eBook on Hoopla I checked this out. His woe is me, I am an oppressed white guy, the world is against me and my buds garbage grates even more now than it did 30 years ago. I have news for Henry, there are innocent people victimized by police every day in this country, and you and your other thrash pals are not those people. (He tells a story about his trusty roadie laughing when he saw a swastika spray-painted on the hood of an old man's car. The man shook his fist or something, and the roadie said, something like "oh he probably thinks I am a skinhead." Really, a tattooed guy with a shaved head who thinks swastikas are funny? Guess what dude, you are a skinhead!) People petitioned to get you kicked out of their neighborhoods, cops rousted you, and people kicked you out of stores because you were violent thieving miscreants, not because they didn't like thrash. Your pal Ian MacKaye and his wife Amy lived down the street from me in Arlington in the 90's. He was lovely, kept his house looking nice and free from hazards, and though he was recording Fugazi tracks there, sometimes audibly (at reasonable times) I certainly never heard of anyone trying to get him evicted. It’s not the music, it is that you and your friends often deserved it. The amount of theft I saw committed in the name of thrash is staggering, and then you can throw in the property damage and the assault I also witnessed and that equals someone you don't want in your neighborhood. I am not saying this chronicle of a scene is without value, or that Rollins does not capture the moment very well. He does. It’s just not something I want to relive.

Rollins does not disappoint. Very raw and gritty.

If you are a fan of music, in particular rock music of the punk, indie, electronic, jazz, or noise varieties, this book is a fun read. As the book is composed of 100 of Henry's LA Weekly articles,written over a couple of years, there is some repetition. Example: Henry's love of Iggy Pop. But it's all in good fun and fanatic fandom, and is quite infectious. Very different from a lot of Henry's heavier writing. Funny and well-done. You will want to listen to more music after this book.

I don't think Rollins can really write but some of the stuff is amusing. For a high schooler or so. Read it if you are a hardcore fan, if not don't bother.
In my opinion only "Get in the van" is interesting.

A collection of columns from LA Weekly and Rolling Stone Australia. Although I agree with him politically, I found the political rants a bit tiresome and already dated, but the writing about travel, music, and record collecting were great.

This was a quick read. Some of the stories you will have heard before if you have listened to or read Henry, but some of his thoughts on travel, travel preparation, and lots of other stuff are pretty insightful. I think I'm just kind of fascinated because Henry goes EVERYWHERE. So when he talks about some place, you know he's had the first-hand experience.

Henry has an interesting way of describing these images, often shifting to the point of view of some other person. I've read a lot of Henry's work, and frankly I think this is the best thing he's done.

Really enjoyed this, though it took me several months to read. It is not a one-sitting read. It is kind of a dark stream of consciousness poetic screed -- BUT it is full of some really great quotes, some of them really very funny. It is not for those who are new to Henry's writing.

Great interviews. Lots of fun.

more like Get in Henry's Head

This book was not what I was expecting. I was expecting a tour journal that recounted the places, people and shows from Rollins' years in Black Flag. It instead is a really, really dark look in the mind of someone forever changed by the spotlight. It's clear that he was already an antisocial figure, but being the singer for Black Flag certainly took him to further violent, destructive and vicious spaces. It was all very bleak.

Far too angry and focused on destroying for me. I feel like his writing loses some of the tone that hearing him tell these stories in person conveys. Prefer the touring journals to his fiction.

I love you, Henry, that's all I can say. I read this after finding his shows on IFC and wanting more.

I love you, Henry, that's all I can say. I read this after finding his shows on IFC and wanting more.

A collection of writings. There is micro-fiction, poetry, some very short non-fiction and single sentence thoughts. The book was self-published in 1987 and features a drawing by composer/Devo founder Mark Mothersbaugh on the cover. Mike gave me this autographed copy for Christmas because I'm a Rollins fan. If his name is unfamiliar to you, he is the former singer of legendary punk band Black Flag. Rollins is now an actor, spoken word performer, stand-up and writer whose columns appear in Rolling Stone Australia.
I didn't love this book for one reason: it's unrelenting misery. Seething anger, loneliness, isolation, violence, every page is another vignette that begins and ends badly. Rollins is a favorite, he's an amazingly creative and intelligent guy, but there's a reason why you don't see a lot of 25 year-olds with book contracts. At 55, he's still an angry guy, but now it's controlled and focused rather than spewed out at everyone like I found here.½