By 1976, Richard Hell was already the lynchpin stabbed through the tattered rags of punk before the genre barely had a name. He’d already served in seminal groups The Neon Boys, The Heartbreakers, and Television. He’d popularized the spiked hair and torn clothing aesthetic that would be soon copied by The Sex Pistols (and a million more). And that year he formed Richard Hell And The Voidoids, which wasted no time in releasing its debut (under just Hell’s name), the Another World EP, on foundational punk label Ork Records. Hell had been performing its standout track, “Blank Generation,” in his other groups for at least a year, and it shows: Although the 1976 version is slower than the one that would break wide on The Voidoids’ self-titled, Sire rercords debut the next year, there’s nothing hesitant about Hell’s performance—a sneering, yelping, nihilist cry in which Hell expounds on the existential freedom of being born into an indifferent world. “Blank Generation” became an underground hit and instant rallying cry for an entire movement, lending its title to a 1976 documentary on New York’s burgeoning punk scene (not to be confused with the rambling, faux-Godardian romance starring Hell released in 1980), and laying the blueprint for countless punk acts and proud misfits to follow.
Blank Generation, the iconic and influential 1977 debut album from Richard Hell & the Voidoids, upgrade for its 40th anniversary, albeit a limited-edition one for the 9,000 or so people that have heard of it.
The 2-LP (4,500 copies) and 2-CD (5,250 copies) deluxe edition, released November. 24th as part of the Record Store Day Black Friday promotion, includes the original album remastered, along with a second CD/LP of alternate studio versions, out-of-print single tracks and live recordings from a pair of shows at CBGB in ’76 and ’77.
I Belong to The] Blank Generation · Richard Hell Ork Records: New York, New York ℗ 2015 Numero Group Released on: 2015-10-30
The Fat Angel Sings 