Richard Hell & The Voidoids: Blank Generation Deluxe Edition (2CD & 2LP)

I'm definitely going to burn my own Disc 2 that includes the rest of the Ork single and the CD bonus tracks. Just saying.

 

I'm going to nitpick this set until it gets released, but hard to overstate how excited I am for it. I guess that's how I show my love.

 

Is there a Richard Hell sessionography out there? I suspect not, but would be delighted to learn otherwise.

 

The Ork Records book is amazing, though. Hardcover, detailed, etc. Just sayin'.

 

So true. This was a great opportunity to gather everything released/recorded around this time period and put it all in one package. That said, I'll still get it of course; Hell had a small recorded output but an extraordinarily high quality level (imo) that even the scraps are good to have.

 

Ok, this is my first draft at a document to make sense of the album. Mostly derived from Clinton Heylin's book. I welcome corrections, please provide them.

Electric Lady Studios: March 1977

Plaza Sound Studio sessions: June 1977

Blank Generation: Original LP

1 Love Comes In Spurts [Plaza Sound Studios]

2 Liars Beware [Electric Lady Studios]

3 New Pleasure [Electric Lady Studios]

4 Betrayal Takes Two [Plaza Sound Studios]

5 Down At The Rock And Roll Club [Electric Lady Studios]

6 Who Says? [Plaza Sound Studios]

7 Blank Generation [Plaza Sound Studios]

8 Walking On The Water [Plaza Sound Studios]

9 The Plan [Plaza Sound Studios]

10 Another World [Electric Lady Studios]


Known Electric Lady outtakes:

I’m Your Man [1990 CD bonus track]

All The Way [1990 CD bonus track]

Love Comes In Spurts [New Wave; 1977 Sire sampler LP; 2017 Deluxe Edition]

You Gotta Lose [The Sire Machine Turns You On; 1978 Sire sampler LP; 2017 Deluxe Edition]

Blank Generation [2017 Deluxe Edition]

The Plan



Known Plaza Sound outtakes:

Down At The Rock And Roll Club [1990 CD substitution]

Who Says? [2017 Deluxe Edition]



Richard Hell: “My heart wasn’t really in the record’s re-recording and I didn't really sing as well as at Electric Lady, but we’re using most of it because the arrangements are so much better."

 

Get a physical copy of the ORK comp, worth it for the book alone. The photos and annotation are perfect, it's a history of NYC rock'n'roll circa the seventies.

 

You might have been the guy who egged him into the right direction.

 

Disappointed to see the exclusion of All the Way, I'm Your Man, & other version of Down at the Rock and Roll club.
Zen Mango wondered what would have happened if Verlaine and Hell remained together. I have a tape of Televison with Hell in the band recorded @ cbgb in 1975. I offered it to Richard around 2008. At that time he basically said, " he was still too bitter about how he was edged out of the band", and declined the offer.

 

I honestly think that if Hell and Verlaine had continued to play with each other they would've killed each other. In a scene full of ego maniacs, these two were at the top of the heap.

 

Glad that didn't happen.

 

The rehearsals in Terry Ork's loft circa 1974 are priceless.

 

Disappointed by the track list. I'll wait and hear how the mastering is before deciding to buy.

 

Still not clear why this is advertised as a "limited edition," except for cynical reasons. Given the production costs, I can understand this with vinyl. But it doesn't make sense for the CD set, does it?

Maybe it does. I mean, I'll be lining up very early at my local record store (though, as I said, I would have been there otherwise to nab the Tori Amos set for my wife). But I think they could present this set in a more fan-friendly way and still succeed with it. Who knows?

 

I don't KNOW this. But I mostly put that down on Richard. It seems to me that he is very miserly with his archival material.

 

Did you get around to this?

 

I don't know from the announcements for this set WHICH version of "Down at the Rock and Roll Club" we'll be getting. I THINK it'll be the original LP take, but absolutely not confident

Wish he took you up on that offer. Would love to hear that tape someday. I gave him a CD once, too (the Elvis Costello Live Stiffs tape where EC played "Love Comes In Spurts"). He seemed baffled. But I'm pretty sure he was in the audience for that particular show. Then again, when strangers hand you things, it's not always clear how you should react.

 

I know this wasn't directed at me but here's what I posted in another thread:

Has anyone checked these out yet - lossy or lossless?

I just loaded Generation and Spurts from the official youtube channel, which has these labeled as the 2013 remasters and I really hope the downloads aren't like this. Tons of actual clipping. Blank Generation is even a little louder than the CD. Spurts is an improvement, but still quite loud with plenty of compression and limiting and even actual clipping. I'm hoping this is just how these youtube uploads are.

 

I first tried downloading the lossy files from Amazon they listed as the 2013 remaster. Loud and compressed. I actually requested a refund and informed them that the artist was under the impression that newer files had been provided. Then I ordered the press on demand CD-R. It’s louder and more compressed than the original issue! Very disappointing.

 

Anyone know where to order the 40th cd and vinyl from? Only Spin list it in the UK and I really don't want to deal with them ever again.