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The latest articles on PleaseKillMe.com – music, art, culture, fashion, poetry and movies from the 60s through today. This Is What’s Cool!

ROBERT JOHNSON: THE LEGEND VS. THE MAN VS. THE DEVIL

Tony Mostrom·May 20, 2021

There’s Robert Johnson the country blues legend and Robert Johnson the man and somewhere in the mix is the devil. With the help of blues researchers and latter-day biographers, Anthony Mostrom makes a deep dive into the musical past to...

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NEW YORKERS: PHOTOGRAPHER SALLY DAVIES SNAPS THE LAST OF THE BOHEMIANS

James Marshall·May 19, 2021

Sally Davies made her mark in New York as a painter before abruptly switching to photography around 2000. Since then, her street photographs, with their vibrant, painterly colors and good humor, reflect her unique perspective on a city where she’s...

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DAVID WOJNAROWICZ: LIFE INSIDE HIS BURNING HOUSE

Eric Davidson·May 18, 2021

David Wojnarowicz (1954-1992), multimedia artist, musician, AIDS activist and provocateur, brought a punk sensibility to NYC’s downtown gallery world. Aligned with the transgressive art movement of the 1980s, Wojnarowicz collaborated with the likes of filmmaker Richard Kern, but he was...

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BAT OUT OF HELL: THE REAL JIM STEINMAN

Sylvie Simmons·May 17, 2021

When Jim Steinman died in April, the only thing most people knew about him was Meat Loaf. Specifically, his joined-at-the-hip relationship with the beefy singer that resulted in the Bat Out of Hell album. But Sylvie Simmons got to see...

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MISS PAMELA: BEATLEMANIAC

Pamela Des Barres·May 13, 2021

The Beatles had no greater fan than a 14-year-old from Reseda, California, named Pam Miller. Young Pam was so smitten, she invented weird rituals to gauge her fanaticism, wallpapered her room with Beatle posters, kept a photo of Paul by...

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MILES COPELAND: HIS LIFE IN THE MUSIC BUSINESS

Eric Davidson·May 12, 2021

Miles Copeland III was already a veteran music promoter and manager when the punk scene exploded in London. With an office in the same building as Malcolm McLaren, he found himself in a position to sign and/or promote a number...

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UNSANE: RENOWNED POWER TRIO GET A BELATED DEBUT

Jordan Mamone·May 11, 2021

Unsane, the noise-rock power trio, created music straight out of the abyss of NYC in the late 1980s and early 1990s. The city was in the last throes of decay before Giuliani’s gentrifying years when Unsane recorded a debut album,...

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THE ORIGINAL GANGSTA: LEAD BELLY AND HIS LEGACY

John Kruth·May 10, 2021

Huddie Ledbetter, better known as Lead Belly, was a folk-blues giant whose music and persona transformed American culture. He sang what he lived (poverty, prison, violence) in songs like ‘Gallow’s Pole’ and ‘Black Betty,’ but he also composed standards (‘Goodnight,...

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RELIEF AND RELEASE: REVISITING WENDY O. WILLIAMS & THE PLASMATICS

Adam Ganderson·May 6, 2021

The Plasmatics, fronted by the unmatchable Wendy O. Williams, may have been the most misunderstood rock ‘n’ roll band ever. Conceived as all of the following: performance art, social comment, consumer culture satirists, and rock ‘n’ roll band; the Plasmatics...

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OSSIE CLARK: THE KING OF KING’S ROAD

Ingrid Marie Jensen·May 5, 2021

When London was at its swinging-est, designer Ossie Clark (1942-1996) was the cock of the walk along King’s Road. Inspired by Nijinsky, Clark was among the first fashion designer to carry himself like a pop star and his clients were...

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PETER SINFIELD: BRINGING WORDS TO KING CRIMSON’S COURT

John Pietaro·May 4, 2021

King Crimson’s instrumental juggernaut was, in the first years of its existence, given balance by the band’s talented lyricist, Peter Sinfield. Even so, the poet, musician and producer (who later wrote lyrics for Emerson, Lake & Palmer, Procol Harum’s Gary...

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CREATION STORIES: ALAN MCGEE’S LIFE, LABEL, LEGACY COMES TO A THEATER NEAR YOU

Amy Haben·May 3, 2021

Glaswegian Alan McGee was the embodiment of the D.I.Y. spirit of the 1980s and 1990s, bringing Oasis, Primal Scream, Jesus and Mary Chain and the Libertines to the world’s attention through his Creation Records and as a band manager. A...

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SAM COOKE: EPITOME OF COOL

Benito Vila·April 29, 2021

Sam Cooke is back in the spotlight with the release One Night in Miami, a feature film set during in the wake of Cassius Clay’s victory over Sonny Liston. That heavyweight fight brought Cooke together with Malcolm X, Jim Brown...

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HEARTBREAKERS: THUNDERS VS. PETTY; OR, WHAT’S IN A NAME?

Roxanne Fontana·April 28, 2021

Johnny Thunders and Tom Petty would seem to have little in common other than the names of their bands. However, a recent Facebook debate about the origin of that name pulled singer songwriter Roxanne Fontana back into her own past,...

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Jack Kerouac based his muse/lover “Mardou Fox” in The Subterraneans on Alene Lee, a mixed race (Black/Cherokee) bohemian writer and intellectual who was a part of the NYC Beat circle of Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, Gregory Corso and Lucien Carr. Despite her intimate connection to these writers, the real Alene Lee is nowhere to be found in most accounts and biographies—partly due to her own reticence to speak. Erika Blair did some digging and presents a more rounded portrait of this fascinating woman. Read more!

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SAM CUTLER: LIFE WITH THE STONES, THE DEAD & OTHER WONDERFUL REPROBATES

ALL THE RAJ: HOW ‘NORWEGIAN WOOD’ UNLEASHED THE ‘INDIAN INVASION’

THE KNACK … AND HOW TO GET IT: AN INTERVIEW WITH PRESCOTT NILES

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PLEASE READ ME: THE BEST OF PKM FOR 2021, PART II

UTOPIA PARKWAY: THE ENDURING MYSTERY OF JOSEPH CORNELL

RUTH UNDERWOOD: A MOTHER OF INVENTION

VIN DIESEL, ARTHUR RUSSELL AND ME

BORDER RADIO: THE LONG RIDE OF AN L.A. CULT CLASSIC

THE HISTORY OF SAMUEL L. JACKSON’S FAVORITE WORD AND ITS IMPACT ON POPULAR CULTURE

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ROBERT JOHNSON: THE LEGEND VS. THE MAN VS. THE DEVIL

NEW YORKERS: PHOTOGRAPHER SALLY DAVIES SNAPS THE LAST OF THE BOHEMIANS

DAVID WOJNAROWICZ: LIFE INSIDE HIS BURNING HOUSE

BAT OUT OF HELL: THE REAL JIM STEINMAN

MISS PAMELA: BEATLEMANIAC

MILES COPELAND: HIS LIFE IN THE MUSIC BUSINESS

UNSANE: RENOWNED POWER TRIO GET A BELATED DEBUT

THE ORIGINAL GANGSTA: LEAD BELLY AND HIS LEGACY

RELIEF AND RELEASE: REVISITING WENDY O. WILLIAMS & THE PLASMATICS

OSSIE CLARK: THE KING OF KING’S ROAD

PETER SINFIELD: BRINGING WORDS TO KING CRIMSON’S COURT

CREATION STORIES: ALAN MCGEE’S LIFE, LABEL, LEGACY COMES TO A THEATER NEAR YOU

SAM COOKE: EPITOME OF COOL

HEARTBREAKERS: THUNDERS VS. PETTY; OR, WHAT’S IN A NAME?

SAM CUTLER: LIFE WITH THE STONES, THE DEAD & OTHER WONDERFUL REPROBATES

ALL THE RAJ: HOW ‘NORWEGIAN WOOD’ UNLEASHED THE ‘INDIAN INVASION’

THE KNACK … AND HOW TO GET IT: AN INTERVIEW WITH PRESCOTT NILES

POLY STYRENE: BREAKING DOWN THE BONDAGE

WE NEVER LEARN: GUNK PUNK IN THE 1990S