England's Dreaming: Anarchy, Sex Pistols, Punk Rock, and Beyond

by Jon Savage

Overview

England’s Dreaming is the ultimate book on punk, its progenitors, the Sex Pistols, and the moment they defined for music fans in England and the United States Savage brings to life the sensational story of the meteoric rise and rapid implosion of the Pistols through layers of rich detail, exclusive interviews, and rare photographs. This fully revised and updated edition of the book covers the legacy of punk twenty-five years later and provides an account of the Pistols' 1996 reunion as well as a freshly updated discography and a completely new introduction.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780312087746
Publisher:	St. Martin's Press
Publication date:	11/15/1992
Edition description:	Older Edition
Pages:	602
Product dimensions:	6.24(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.45(d)

About the Author

Jon Savage began writing about music in 1976 and has covered the music scene for U.S. and international publications ever since. His books include The Kinks: The Official Biography and Time Travel, a collection of articles. He lives in West London.

Table of Contents

December 1971 to August 1975		1	(104)
August 1975 to December 1976		105	(156)
December 1976 to June 1977		261	(108)
June 1977 to January 1978		369	(102)
January 1978 to May 1979		471	(71)
Appendix		542	(5)
Discography		547	(46)
Acknowledgements		593	(2)
Index		595

Editorial Reviews

With wit and authority, freelance writer Savage pens an entertaining, exhaustive chronological history of punk rock and politics through 1980. For the first several chapters the account focuses on attention-getting impresario Malcolm McLaren, who opened a series of outrageous clothing shops including Let It Rock and Sex during the early '70s with companion Vivienne Westwood. McLaren's visits to New York City left him enamored of such iconoclastic American bands as the New York Dolls and Television, and, using the nervy, bored adolescents he met while selling punk fashion, he nurtured a group that would become the Sex Pistols. McLaren and the Pistols' shenanigans are set against a background of such seminal punk bands as Iggy and the Stooges, the Clash, the Damned and the Ramones. Savage also devotes attention to McLaren's flamboyant shop maven Jordan, Chrissie Hynde of the Pretenders and Siouxsie Sioux of Siouxsie and the Banshees as he chronicles the Pistols' ascent and decline. Even readers who consider this volume's length somewhat daunting will find it the definitive source of early-punk anecdotes. Photos. (Feb.)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

That a group of disaffected English teenagers should in the span of two years, five 45s, and one album become the vanguard of the punk rock movement exerting musical and social influence which persists today is an improbable and, in the hands of rock journalist/author Savage, a fascinating story. This is a lengthy and detailed treatise grounded by material derived from interviews with the principal participants and the author's own journal entries. The bibliography and 50-page Sex Pistol/punk rock discography appended to the text alone can justify purchase. The analysis is cogent, if at times academic, while the decidedly Anglophilic nature of the subject, politics, and language may intimidate readers more interested in fanzine material. This should become an important work on a seminal band and movement; the numerous Sex Pistol photo books and Glen Matlock and Peter Silverton's recent I Was a Teenage Sex Pistol ( LJ 11/15/91) pale in comparison. Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 9/15/91.--Barry Miller, Austin P.L., Tex.

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