100 Books Like Punk Rock Blitzkrieg

When I got into the Ramones as a teenager in 1984, I already knew that despite seemingly sharing the same surname, they weren't actually brothers.

What I didn't know for a long time was how dysfunctional this ersatz family really was, as epitomised by the fact that the two most visible members – Joey and Johnny – couldn't have been any more different as people... and didn't even talk to each other.

This book adds another layer to an already incredible tale by also delving into the story of Joey's real-life family, as it was penned by Joey's brother Mickey, hence the title. It also adds something that is sorely missing from the books written by Johnny and Dee Dee: tenderness and warmth.

Monte Melnick was the band's tour manager for a staggering 22 years, but his book is not the first-person, behind-the-scenes account you might be expecting.

Oh, it does look behind the scenes – pulling only few punches in the process – and is written in the first person, or rather persons. See, Monte collected accounts and anecdotes from a great many people, not just band members. It makes for a very lively, fast-paced, and effortless read, like all the best oral-history books do.

Of course Monte nicked the concept from Please Kill Me (which in turn stole it from the baseball classic The Glory Of Their Times), but there's nothing wrong with borrowing a good idea. Ten years after this came out, I did my own oral-history book.

The first proper book about the Ramones came out in 1993 and was written by Jim Bessman.

It's not without merit, but as an authorized biography, produced in collaboration with the band, it fails to cut really deep. Ten years later, when the respected English journalist Everett True (not his real name, which lends a nice touch to this tale of four fake brothers) put pen to paper, things were very different.

The band had broken up and two founder members were dead. Maybe that's why it's such a harrowing read in parts – the details of Joey's death are particularly poignant, not least because True is clearly in his camp, not Johnny's. I think definitive is the unavoidable term here.

There are many more books about the Ramones than I have listed or mentioned, from a small tomé about Joey by a Finnish super fan called Heaven Needed a Lead Singer to a 630-page volume (that weighs 5.5 pounds!) by a German super fan. And still this biography took everyone by surprise when it suddenly landed in bookstores five years ago.

Despite playing more than five hundred shows as a Ramone, Richie "has remained a mystery, his tale untold", as the dust jacket has it. Well, not anymore, of course. Now we know who was the only Ramone who had the guts to stand up to Johnny.  

Having lived through the time featured in Laura’s memoir, I was able to relive fond memories and learn much more about the people and incredible music of that era, when these bands were “our little secret” before the world caught on. 

This memoir was written by Laura, the young drummer of the New York band Student Teachers in the late 1970s. Laura was Jimmy Destri's girlfriend (Blondie's drummer). She shares sometimes harrowing and many joyful tales of NYC’s downtown rock scene and the bands that would become legendary. 

I absolutely love this book. The main characters, two teenage girls, who are total opposites, develop a friendship based on peer counseling together. They learn from each other and give each other comfort, advice, and more help on how to resolve their problems. It’s a great insight into what goes on in young adults’ lives. 

I recommend this book because it pulls no punches. It’s not easy to get sober, and it’s not glamorous. Jack Grisham--lead singer of the punk band T.S.O.L., has 33 years of sobriety at the time of this writing. He shares that journey honestly with a heart for those needing to hear of his struggles. It’s a good read that teaches what’s behind the 12 steps of recovery. 

This book has been my bible for most of my adult life - reading it as a teenager changed everything. Rollins' diaries from the gruelling years of grunt level touring with arguably the most important punk band of them all (Black Flag), it has to be read to be believed, and will make you grateful for everything you have in life, whilst also tweaking your hunger for the road.

Loser girl turned punk rock superhero... Those six words should sell you on The Gospel According to St. Rage alone. But that still doesn't do this book any sort of justice because this isn't really a superhero book. Sure, Barbara may have the powers to cause flocks of birds to release their...um...payload onto her enemies with the simple flick of a finger, but she's not out to save the world, she's just out to finally live the life she's been hiding from.

Eisenbrey brought me back to my own high school days with this book that feels like a punk rock song. To those days of trying to make friends, of trying to define who I am. And she does so with rock star class.

I reread this book recently and was fascinated to see how accurate (if perhaps overly optimistic) Egan was about the rise of social media and its role in our lives.

Egan resisted calling this book either a novel or a short story collection; in a June 2010 interview in Salon, she said, “You might say that discontinuity is the book’s organizing principle.” One of the book’s most commented-on chapters, “Great Rock and Roll Pauses by Alison Blake,” is presented as slides in a PowerPoint presentation.

Though Alison Blake’s mother, Sasha, and her record company executive boss Bennie Salazar appear at various points in the book, the chapters, or stories, stand alone, moving back and forth in time from the 1970s to a near future.