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Richard Hell: Bottom Line, New York NY

Toby Goldstein, Musician, November 1982

DURING NEW York City's early punk era. Richard Hell & the Voidoids were extremists bobbing on a sea of originals. Hell's agonized vocals whined his anthemic refrain, "I belong to the Blank Generation," and bore little resemblance to the witty conciseness of such CBGB's stable-mates as Blondie, Talking Heads or the Ramones. Assisted by Robert Quine and Ivan Julian's jarring, dissonant twin guitar leads and Mark Bell's (now Marky Ramone) undisciplined rat-a-tat drum beat, Hell pushed the studied alienation of his former Televison teammate, Tom Verlaine, to an authentically desperate overload.

Total word count of piece: 520

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