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England's Dreaming: Anarchy, Sex Pistols, Punk Rock and Beyond
by Jon Savage
Product Group: Book
Publisher: St Martins Pr (1992-01)
ISBN: 0312069634
EAN: 9780312069636
Dewy Decimal #: 306.484
Hardcover: 602 pages
SKU: V092DRSM
Condition: Used: Good
Comments: Clean unmarked pages. Clean unmarked cover. Has Dust Jacket. 100% satisfaction guaranteed. All orders include an e-Book about starting your own Internet Business in PDF format. FREE Domestic DELIVERY CONFIRMATION! We ship daily Mon-Sat and will let you know when your item has shipped along with your e/DC number. [HI, AK, PR, VI, GUAM, SAIPAN & West Coast customers, please use Expedited Shipping, otherwise it may take longer than the estimated 14 business days.] Items are from a smoke free and air conditioned environment.
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Editorial Reviews
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Product Description
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.
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Customer Reviews
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The UK havin' its say
Rating  (4)
Date: 2008-06-28
The information in this book is top notch, but I had to knock off a star for it's ABYSMAL index in the edition that I read. It's incredibly skimpy for a book of this length... leaving so many things out, that it's hard to find what you want by subject. Worse still, a few entries are misspelled or strangely labeled. Examples..."The Buzzcocks" are listed as "The Buzzcoats" and Iggy Pop is listed as "Stooge, Iggy" when he is consistently referring to as "Iggy Pop" in the text. The index is a HUGE blight on an otherwise extremely fine work.
Now that I've gotten the negative out of the way, the positives are stunning. This book is arranged using The Sex Pistol's, Malcolm McLaren, and Vivienne Westwood as the linchpin around which he weaves the tale of the UK and the NYC "punk" scenes from roughly 1975-1978. Considering the vast scope of the topic, the book is actually rather brief, IMHO. The extensive coverage of Westwood and McLaren really helped clarify so much for me. As someone who also loves fashion, it gave me insight into Westwood's ongoing aesthetic and what she hopes/hoped to achieve with it. Understanding Westwood and McLaren's backgrounds/obsessions really helped put the look and sound of UK punk into some context. In many ways, although much older, they shared the sense of urgency with these kids who came their way, channeled it, and had it suited and booted. The Manchester scene with the Buzzcocks (properly spelled in the text) as the linchpin is also given a nice amount of time (John Cooper Clarke isn't forgotten). I only wish the young Don Letts had been given a more thorough examination considering his extensive role in the early London scene.
This author had personal experience with the UK scene and many of its players as a teen, yet has an admirable sense of objectivity....unlike I've found in later books of this type, notably Legs McNeil's "Please Kill Me". I feel that this music genre deserves a scholarly treatment and I find nothing about this book pretentious in the least. While being scholarly in attempting to explain and recreate the socio-economic conditions giving birth to this music, it's an easy read and highly enjoyable.
The stance the author takes in this book is very much UK based/biased and of the "punk is dead" school. He feels that the scene evolved into other things or died out because it was the reflection of a society in constant flux. This, he feels, is a GOOD thing.....punk served it's original purpose and in doing so opened up possibilities that were unthinkable before. This author feels that it's temporary nature was the essence of it's revolution. The punk era produced no Rolling Stones, in other words.
Savage really highlights the differences between what was called "punk" in the UK vs the US in these years and why that was. The main difference presented here is age. The Americans were OLD and the Brits were very young. That, according to him, made the most difference in look, sound, aggression, coverage, and delusions of grandeur which divided the two. The Americans (ie the CBGB/Punk Magazine gang), by contrast, were on a big nostalgia trip. The bands and the people who covered NYC were seeking the 2:50 length song of paradise circa 1956 whereas the UK kids were BORN in 1956! The oft-stated CBGBs influences are stuff ranging from 5-20 years old (circa 1976) while their UK counterparts were mostly influenced by the recent past works of active artists (circa 1976) . In other words, even if they played very early Who stuff (circa 1964), The Who was very much an active band in '76. The role reggae played in the UK scene created a vast difference between these two scenes, helping to lend diverse sounds and social commentary almost completely lacking on the US scene. While the UK scene was somewhat influenced by the NYC current (circa 1976) scene (namely the Ramones), the vast majority lies with rather theatrical UK working artists (ie The Who, glam era Bowie/Boland/Roxy Music) or reggae. Unlike most "punk" books discussing this era, there's none of the obligatory "Influences" chapters that occur in book s about the NYC scene...ya know, the usual suspects: Velvets, Iggy, the MC5, The Dolls, Patti Smith, etc....I think this lack is NOT accidental.
The bulk of this book is dedicated to discussing the unique role youth cultures have and how they launched nationwide phenomena in the UK since WW2. The history of youth cults is really at the bottom of why UK punk got more media attention than it's musical output (quantity or quality) justified. Savage is interested what punk tapped into on a national level and what reactions came about as a result. In short, he puts it into a culturally specific context and does a fine job of it.
While I don't agree with all of his theories or conclusions, Savage argues them well and within reason. His knowledge of the US scene of this era is extensive as well, so his points of compare and contrast read true to me. I enjoyed the "nostalgia trip" while reading this, though all of this came before I started kindergarten. It's a look at a world and music scene which no longer exists. It highlighted just how much things have changed since the 70s and made me wonder if such things were still possible.
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Great book
Rating (4)
Date: 2008-02-15
This book had exactly what I needed to due my research paper on the Sex Pistols
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England's Dreaming
Rating (4)
Date: 2007-07-05
1 out of 1 customers found this reveiw helpful
I sought out this book because past reviews I'd read had said it accurately captured the feel of England in the late 1970s. This it does as well as provide an entertaining read, no mean feat for a 600-plus page tome on the birth of the English punk rock movement.
Irony abounds. The Sex Pistols, a ragtag group of petty criminals and anarchist wannabes, pressed just one album and five singles in their brief history yet gave rise to the punk movement and became national icons. The group was the spin-off of a clothing store and thus, a group nominally devoted to anarchy was in fact, a marketing ploy.
All the rest are here as well. Siouxsie and the Banshees. The Clash. Recommended. Holds your interest despite a length absurd for the subject at hand.
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A MUST READ
Rating  (5)
Date: 2007-03-08
1 out of 1 customers found this reveiw helpful
The definitive book on Punk history, placing it in an historical context, very informative and well-written - inspiring to read.
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Best Thing Since '77
Rating (4)
Date: 2006-06-29
1 out of 1 customers found this reveiw helpful
Nothing like opening a review by stealing a quote from Gene October of Chelsea (at least, as quoted by Henry Rollins).
Without a doubt a large part of this book is focused on the history of the Sex Pistols from formation to implosion. The other figures of punk are there, though overshadowed and in the background. The Clash, the Buzzcocks, the Ramones..... all treated as walk-on extras in this history of Malcolm McLaren and his ego, and John Lydon and his evil twin Johnny Rotten. To some degree I have to agree with Lydon in the death throes of that final concert in America, "Ever get the feeling you've been cheated?"
It is an intriguing story, thoroughly researched and well written. The listing of bands and tracks at the end of the book are a wonderful chance for those of us too young to remember the true first wave of punk to educate ourselves on the sound. All the same, the narrative itself gives a stilted view of the scene and the importance of one band. The rise and rapid fall of the Sex Pistols is an image of punk itself, and they were at the center of the maelstrom, but there were bands that outlived the summer of '78. The focus stays largely on England, with only passing nods to New York, Cleveland and LA. Out of LA, Salt Lake and DC would rise the second wave from the ashes, their fires stoked by the pioneers. And out of punk would splinter New Wave and Goth in the early eighties.
Despite the stilted view of the Pistols, the book is still an amazing piece of work. Trying to take a fairer view of the clash between Lydon and McLaren, and at last giving a fair nod to the talent of Paul Cook and Steve Jones, it seeks more to report that facts instead of the myths. It also goes a bit beyond that final concert and into the farce of Biggs and Tudor the half-price Rotten clone.
Give it a chance. At the same time, might I suggest some additional reading to flesh out its minor weak points. "Please Kill Me" by Legs McNeil fills in a few of the American gaps. For a bit more biased, but nonetheless entertaining, peek at the Pistols give a nod to Lydon's "Rotten : No Irish, No Blacks, No Dogs".
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