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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!

YOU CAN’T WIN: WILLIAM S. BURROUGHS AND THE REAL JACK BLACK

Tony Mostrom·June 23, 2020

Jack Black was a burglar, rambler, jailbird and writer whose lone published memoir, You Can’t Win (1926), was an important early influence on William S. Burroughs and, through him, the other Beat writers. With a film adaptation of the book,...

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TORI AMOS ON RESISTANCE: CREATIVE OPPOSITION

Amy Haben·June 22, 2020

From her earliest days as a child piano prodigy and lounge player in Washington D.C. clubs, Tori Amos has met resistance but never backed down from it. Battling tirelessly and, ultimately, with success against the male-dominated music industry, she has...

All Please Kill Me Posts Amy Haben Books Cool People

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MEDIUM COOL: HASKELL WEXLER’S HOT PROPHECY

David Stewart·June 18, 2020

The Oscar-winning cinematographer (Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?) Haskell Wexler turned his hand to film direction with Medium Cool, set during the ‘Police Riot’ in Chicago at the Democratic National Convention in August 1968. Too hot for its own studio...

All Please Kill Me Posts David Stewart Film

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BEBE BUELL: MUSING ON MUSES AND OTHER FANS

Bebe Buell·June 17, 2020

Before embarking on a musical career of her own, Bebe Buell was a much in-demand model but was most often seen as the second fiddle to the famous rock musicians she was dating. She, however, saw herself as the Muse...

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WILLIAM S. BURROUGHS: A WORD FROM THE WISE GUY

Billy Hough·June 16, 2020

Billy Hough is a longtime fan of William S. Burroughs. He sees parallels between Burroughs’ writings and our present moment. We will let Billy explain it all to you. The country has been taken over by a fascist regime using...

All Please Kill Me Posts Billy Hough Cool People Things You Should Know VIDEO

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HOW HOLLYWOOD HANDLED THE HIPPIES

Jim Allen·June 11, 2020

By the late 1960s, Hollywood had been infiltrated by psychedelia as a recreational pastime (pot, LSD, peyote were already in wide use among the film set by the late 1950s). How that mindset translated to the screen was another story....

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THE STORY BEHIND DINO VALENTI’S HEY JOE AND LET’S GET TOGETHER

Alan Bisbort·June 10, 2020

This is a story about singer-songwriter Dino Valenti and two songs for which he has songwriting credit that defined the Sixties. It also stars Edie Sedgwick, Jimi Hendrix, The Kingston Trio and Folsom Prison. This is a story about two...

Alan Bisbort All Please Kill Me Posts Cool People History Musicians

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LETTER TO A FIRST-TIME THOMAS PYNCHON READER

Gary Lippman·June 9, 2020

Thomas Pynchon, the great American novelist, may be best known for being invisible. (Although he did do a voiceover on an episode of The Simpsons). Who is he? Where does he live? He is also known for being Too Damn...

All Please Kill Me Posts Books Cool People Gary Lippman

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SECOND FIDDLE TO NO MAN: BEVERLEY MARTYN AND LINDA THOMPSON

Fiona McQuarrie·June 8, 2020

The talented singer-songwriters Beverley Martyn and Linda Thompson faced an unfair hurdle in their careers: Though accomplished before meeting either of their husbands, they are best known for who they married and with whom they collaborated, John Martyn and Richard...

All Please Kill Me Posts Fiona McQuarrie Interviews Musicians

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KEITH RELF: WHEN A YARDBIRD FLEW SOLO

Richie Unterberger·June 4, 2020

Though the guitarists for The Yardbirds got all the ink, the band’s other four members—bassist Paul Samwell-Smith, drummer Jim McCarty, rhythm guitarist (and later bassist) Chris Dreja, and vocalist Keith Relf—stood on equal footing with Clapton, Page and Beck. Relf,...

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VISUALIZING ROKY & THE 13TH FLOOR ELEVATORS

Eric Davidson·June 3, 2020

The music of the Texas garage band 13th Floor Elevators needs little introduction to PKM readers. They were among the first bands to collectively hitch their wagon to LSD, even coining the term “psychedelic rock”. But there was a visual...

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FATHER’S DAY GIFT GUIDE

Alan Bisbort·June 1, 2020

All the mothers of the world are showered with bowers of flowers and other sweet-smelling powders on Mother’s Day. And, of course, as Abe Lincoln put it, it is altogether fitting and proper that we do this. But what do...

Alan Bisbort All Please Kill Me Posts Gift Guide

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PRIVATE SORROW: REMEMBERING PHIL MAY OF THE PRETTY THINGS

Valerie Simadis·May 28, 2020

Phil May was one of the originators of the British rock sound of the 1960s: equal parts R&B, psychedelia and hard-driving rock & roll. He fronted The Pretty Things, a band that, with a break here or there, could have...

All Please Kill Me Posts Cool People Musicians R.I.P.Valerie Simadis

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FRED WILLARD WAS FOREVER YOUNG: AND REALLY REALLY OLD

Burt Kearns·May 27, 2020

For 60 years, Fred Willard made us laugh playing the same character, from early comedy club gigs with Vic Greco and appearances on Steve Allen’s and Ed Sullivan’s shows to countless appearances on David Letterman’s and Jimmy Kimmel’s shows. And...

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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

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RUTH UNDERWOOD: A MOTHER OF INVENTION

VIN DIESEL, ARTHUR RUSSELL AND ME

TOM BAKER: DRINKING IT UP WITH JIM MORRISON

THE LONESOME DEATH OF DANNY RAPP: THE FRONT MAN FOR DANNY & THE JUNIORS

All Please Kill Me Posts

YOU CAN’T WIN: WILLIAM S. BURROUGHS AND THE REAL JACK BLACK

TORI AMOS ON RESISTANCE: CREATIVE OPPOSITION

MEDIUM COOL: HASKELL WEXLER’S HOT PROPHECY

BEBE BUELL: MUSING ON MUSES AND OTHER FANS

WILLIAM S. BURROUGHS: A WORD FROM THE WISE GUY

HOW HOLLYWOOD HANDLED THE HIPPIES

THE STORY BEHIND DINO VALENTI’S HEY JOE AND LET’S GET TOGETHER

LETTER TO A FIRST-TIME THOMAS PYNCHON READER

SECOND FIDDLE TO NO MAN: BEVERLEY MARTYN AND LINDA THOMPSON

KEITH RELF: WHEN A YARDBIRD FLEW SOLO

VISUALIZING ROKY & THE 13TH FLOOR ELEVATORS

FATHER’S DAY GIFT GUIDE

PRIVATE SORROW: REMEMBERING PHIL MAY OF THE PRETTY THINGS

FRED WILLARD WAS FOREVER YOUNG: AND REALLY REALLY OLD

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