Kentucky-born Richard Meyers moved to New York City after dropping out of high school in 1966 aspiring to become a poet. He and his best friend from high school, Tom Miller, founded the rock band the Neon Boys, which later became Television in 1973. They changed their names: Miller became Tom Verlaine, and Meyers became Richard Hell. The group were one of the first rock band’s to play the club CBGB, which soon became a breeding ground for the early punk rock scene in New York.
After a stint with Television and The Heartbreakers (both with essential early punk albums of their own), Richard Hell assembled a backing band called the Voidoids and released one of the era’s seminal albums. The title track has become a quintessential punk track and the entire album takes you through an entire checklist of what made the ‘70s New York music scene so exhilarating. “Blank Generation” has its fair share of volume and punch, but Richard Hell’s charismatic energetic stage presence vocal performances and wore torn clothing held together with safety pins and spiked his hair and the angular musicality of Robert Quine’s guitar playing make it a completely unique entry in the early punk catalogue.
Disputes with Verlaine led to Hell’s departure from Television in April 1975, and he co-founded the Heartbreakers with New York Dolls guitarist Johnny Thunders and drummer Jerry Nolan. Hell lasted less than a year with this band. Hell was influenced and also drew from and covered garage rock bands such as the Seeds and the Count Five, both found on the 1972 Nuggets compilation.
Richard Hell had written the song “Blank Generation” while still in Television; he had played it regularly with the band since at least 1974, and later with the Heartbreakers. The Voidoids released a 7″ Blank Generation EP in November 1976 on Ork Records containing “Blank Generation”, “Another World” and “You Gotta Lose”. The cover featured a black-and-white photo by Hell’s former girlfriend and unofficial CBGB photographer Roberta Bayley, depicting a bare-chested Hell with an open jeans zipper.
According to Hell, they recorded and mixed the entire album at Electric Lady Studios in New York City across three weeks beginning on March 1977. Two months later, they were informed that the album release would be delayed until September because their label, Sire Records, was changing distributors. “In the meantime, I had noticed a lot of things about the record that I thought we could have done better,” recalls Hell. He asked their label if they could re-record the album, and after getting their approval, they booked three weeks in late June and early July at Plaza Sound Studio, located on the eighth floor of Radio City Music Hall. The final LP would use the Plaza Sound recordings for every song except “Liars Beware,” “New Pleasure” and “Another World,” where the Electric Lady recordings were retained. Their rendition of John and Tom Fogerty’s “Walking on the Water” was also added to the LP during the Plaza Sound sessions; the song had been added to their repertoire after it debuted during a CBGB performance.
Famous rock critic Lester Bangs,reviwed the record labeling it “seminal” and “essential to any modern music collection”, and describing the music as “shattering assaults by a band that prophesied the later No Wave punk-jazz fusion”
released in September 1977 on Sire Records
The Fat Angel Sings 