Happy 70th birthday to poet, songwriter, actor, provocateur and fashion icon Richard Hell.
Born Richard Lester Meyers in Kentucky, Hell dropped out of high school and moved to New York City to become a poet.
Once in New York, he was joined by a former high school friend, Tom Miller (who had changed his last name to Verlaine after French poet Paul Verlaine) and they formed the band the Neon Boys in 1972. A couple years later the band would add guitarist Richard Lloyd to the band and they changed their name to Television.
Hell would quit Television in 1975 over creative differences and formed the Heartbreakers with ex-New York Dolls members Johnny Thunders and Jerry Nolan. In early 1976, he bailed from that band formed his own combo with him as the leader of Richard Hell and the Voidoids.
Tonight we're gonna hear the song that kicks off the first Voidoids album, 1977's Blank Generation, but in its original incarnation as it was recorded a few years before as a Neon Boys song.
What are you listening to tonight?
