spivs, saxophones, unlicensed speakeasies, and sharp suits

pdf scan (60 pages/55MB)

in the 70s it was a thriving thing - because there were strains of Rock'n'Roll - so you had the Teds, you had the Rockabillies, you had the normal people who liked Rock'n'Roll, you had the weirdoes who liked Rock'n'Roll, and gradually but surely, all those people left, and now you got left with the people that won't let anybody listen to it! So, when they got a club, they don't want anybody to come in. if you're weird - you can't come in! So, they've kind of centralised it, so then if you did get in, and you saw some guys standing there with jeans on, and, a white T-shirts, and you'd think 'Is this Rock'n'Roll??', or 'Am I in the wrong fucking place!!'

link the mad abandonment of fucking Jazz, with the structure of Blues

pdf scan (21 pages / 19MB)

Q: Is Sleaze dying?

J: Yeah, it has. Yeah, it has. Probably, yeah. There's only little pockets of it. And ... it's very hard to get it. It's very hard to get it. Y'know, it's not .... its goes with the little thing of not smoking, and y'know, most people who like sleaze have to go away on holiday, or y'know, have to venture to other parts of the world. But basically, in Europe it's dying, sleaze is dying. When I used to go Constantinople, years ago, that was fucking sleaze ridden beyond belief. Now you go there and it's like a Muslim state - it's like fucked. Same as Portugal - Lisbon was buzzing. Paris is still buzzing, it's still the same - the Parisians are fucking mad, they won't ... y'know, they gotta have a bit ... they got five miles of fucking sleaze ... They're trying to get rid of Amsterdam, but no-ones gonna go to Amsterdam if it's not sleazy ... y'know ... there's no point {laughs} New Orleans is still sleazy, yeah, fucking right!! {laughs} But London's lost it - probably twenty years ago. - An Interview with Jake, epub, mobi.

We were ghosts then and we are ghosts now

pdf scan [dead link, check comments](141 pages/193MB)

It was so grassroots. People were doing their own fashions. There was a street aesthetic going on where flyers were made and just slapped on to things. We were pretty wild. I remember making flyers for shows and going around town and slapping them on anything. At that time it was verboten to be putting flyers on buildings. There was lots of people involved creatively. A lot of photographers, a lot of graphic artists. It was a great atmosphere. People putting out fanzines and such. There were a lot of local fanzines we would just generate.

juvenile delinquents, dungaree dolls and roughneck carney workers

cbr (194MB) or pdf (20MB) scan, 178 pages

It was, after all, the look of the Halbstark, or "Half-Strong," as these types were also known, that attracted Weinberger's own attention in the first place; the way they adopted the kind of gear worn by American bikers and rockers of the conservative late 1950s and early 1960s and subjected it to wild improvisations. The Halbstark took keys big enough to open dungeon doors and made them into pendants. They suspended spent mortar shells around their necks on chains. They repurposed metal plates the size of hubcaps as belt buckles. They shredded their clothing, added fur trim, knotted kerchiefs at their knees, and scrawled the names of their idols down the legs of their trousers. Few have ever found more fashion inspiration in hardware stores than did the Halbstark. At any rate, they may have been the first to use nuts and bolts to fasten blue jeans.

"You don't have to go home, but you sure as hell got to leave here."

pdf scan (95 pages/142MB)

Wintertime, the Hawk howls up Indiana Avenue and folks quick-step from their rides, down the concrete stairs as fast as slick shoes and high heels allow, duck their hats under the low doorway into the smoky, loud basement bar where the blues live. In every season, one dollar lifts the chain and admits the patron to within smelling distance of blues as played no place else in the world. Junior Wells sits at the bar, or stands behind the bar, or dances in the wide aisle between bar and booths, flirts with the waitress, or the bartender, or you, argues, sulks, stops a fight, or starts one. He is at home. As is Sleepie the bartender, who is always there, on one side of the bar or the other, depending upon whether he's working or not.