John Lurie's Memoir "The History of Bones" is great and talks about that time. You can definitely see why he never became as big as a lot of the other people he was associated with. Jarmusch comes off poorly, which maybe isnt entirely unexpected but you can easily forget how shitty everyone in show business really is no matter how much you love them and think they're "different".

Please Kill Me is a classic

All Hopped Up and Ready to Go by Tony Fletcher. It's a history of New York's music scenes from the twenties through the seventies. The whole book is fascinating but the later chapters on hip-hop, punk, disco, and glitter are particularly good and very evocative of that time and place Also I haven't read it but I've heard good things about Ladies and Gentlemen, the Bronx is Burning by Jonathan Mahler

meinkafka

1 month ago

i've heard buzz about the bronx is burning, i'll have to try to get my hands on it

1Reply

Not "about" but some fiction set in NYC in the 70's/80's off the top of my head: Running Dog/Great Jones Street by DeLillo Anniversaries by Uwe Johnson Money by Martin Amis - lotsa NYC sleaze in this one

meinkafka

1 month ago

the sleaziness of money calls out to me, thanks!

1Reply