Blank Generation
Album by Richard Hell & the Voidoids
Released	1977
Recorded	1976 & 1977
Genre	Punk rock
Length	39:44
Label	Sire
Producer(s)	Richard Gottehrer Richard Hell
Professional reviews
All Music Guide link TwoWayMonologues link
Richard Hell & the Voidoids chronology
	Blank Generation (1977)	Destiny Street (1982)

Blank Generation is an early punk album by Richard Hell and the Voidoids, released in 1977 on Warner Brothers' Sire Records imprint. Image File history File links Hellandthevoidoidsblankgeneration. ... 33â…“ LP vinyl record for The Beatles Magical Mystery Tour album from the 1960s. ... Richard Hell (born October 2, 1949) is the stage name of Richard Meyers, an American singer, songwriter and writer, probably best-known as frontman for the early punk band The Voidoids. ... A music genre is a category (or genre) of pieces of music that share a certain style or basic musical language (van der Merwe 1989, p. ... Punk rock is an anti-establishment music movement beginning around 1976 (although precursors can be found several years earlier), exemplified and popularised by The Ramones, the Sex Pistols, The Clash and The Damned. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... Sire Records Company is an American record label, owned by Warner Music Group and distributed through Warner Brothers Records The label was founded in 1966 as Sire Productions by Seymour Stein and Richard Gottehrer. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... Richard Hell (born October 2, 1949) is the stage name of Richard Meyers, an American singer, songwriter and writer, probably best-known as frontman for the early punk band The Voidoids. ... The All Music Guide (AMG) is a metadata database about music, owned by All Media Guide. ... Image File history File links Description: Rating stars. ... Richard Hell (born October 2, 1949) is the stage name of Richard Meyers, an American singer, songwriter and writer, probably best-known as frontman for the early punk band The Voidoids. ... Punk rock is an anti-establishment music movement beginning around 1976 (although precursors can be found several years earlier), exemplified and popularised by The Ramones, the Sex Pistols, The Clash and The Damned. ... Richard Hell (born October 2, 1949) is the stage name of Richard Meyers, an American singer, songwriter and writer, probably best-known as frontman for the early punk band The Voidoids. ... The Voidoids, also known as Richard Hell and the Voidoids, were a New York City punk rock band of the late 1970s, fronted by Richard Hell, a former member of Television. ... Warner Bros. ... Sire Records Company is an American record label, owned by Warner Music Group and distributed through Warner Brothers Records The label was founded in 1966 as Sire Productions by Seymour Stein and Richard Gottehrer. ...

The lyrics on this album, in keeping with the late 1970s punk style that Hell helped to create when he co-founded Television, are nihilistic and self-consciously degenerate, but they are also very strong poetically. Nihilism is a philosophical position which argues that the world, and especially human existence, is without objective meaning, purpose, comprehensible truth, or essential value. ...

The off-kilter, high-energy music is driven largely by Robert Quine's rapid, complex, angular guitar licks, in particular on the lead song "Love Comes in Spurts", in which Hell rages against the impermanence of love in the real world compared to the imagination of his youth (the more vulgar connotations being perhaps a mere bonus): Robert Quine (December 30, 1942 - May 31, 2004), a native of Akron, Ohio, was a guitarist known for his innovative guitar solos. ...

Cuz love comes in spurts
in dangerous flirts
and it murders your heart--
They didn't tell you that part.

There's a minor controversy about the meaning of the title track "Blank Generation." Many people adopted the song as a nihilistic anthem of the 1970s, but an off-hand remark about how Hell meant it as a comment on "generation" songs (e.g. "My Generation", etc.) produced a long standing notion that it wasn't really about being blank, it was blank in the sense of fill-in-the-blank--free choice against the determinism of social labels. It is with some mix of irony and appropriateness then that "Blank Generation" became adopted as a label for the 1970s New York scene. This article is about the album. ...

More recently, in a letter to The Wire magazine, Hell has pointed out that there are other obvious resonances in the lyrics, e.g. in references to blank walls, vacant lots: The Wire is a British avant garde music magazine, often nicknamed the chinstrokers bible. It was founded in 1982 by jazz promoter Anthony Wood and journalist Chrissie Murray, and concentrated on contemporary jazz and improvised music. ...

it's fascinatin to observe what the mirror does
but when I dine it's for the wall that I set a place

...

To hold the TV to my lips the air so packed with cash
Then carry it up flights of stairs and drop it in the vacant lot

Not to mention in some rather stark nihilistic thoughts:

I was sayin let me out of here before I was
even born--it's such a gamble when you get a face

...

The nurse adjusted her garters as I breathed my first
The doctor grabbed my throat and yelled, "God's consolation prize!"

And finally, in the ultimate resignation of the chorus:

I belong to the blank generation
and I can take it or leave it each time

(alternately, and illustrating the different readings: "I belong to the _____ generation/and I can take it or leave it each time")

Song Credits

Seven of the ten songs on the original vinyl release were written solely by Hell, while "Liars Beware" and "Betrayal Takes Two" were co-written by Hell and band guitarist Ivan Julian, and "Walking On the Water" is a Creedence Clearwater Revival song written by John Fogerty. One of the two bonus tracks (not on the original vinyl release) on the CD, "All the Way" is also a cover version (see below). Ivan Julian, born June 26, 1955, is a guitarist and bassist who has performed with the Isley Brothers, Matthew Sweet, and Shriekback. ... ÷ Creedence Clearwater Revival, frequently referred to as CCR or simply Creedence, was an American swamp rock band, fronted by John Fogerty. ... John Fogerty in Stockholm Globe Arena 2005. ...

Compact disc edition

As was the case with the original issue on CD of the Velvet Underground's first LP, the 1990 CD reissue of Blank Generation differs in several ways from its original vinyl configuration. Firstly, it includes two bonus tracks: one is a version of the Sinatra tune, "All the Way"; and the other is "I'm Your Man", not the Leonard Cohen song, but rather an uptempo pop tune, like "All the Way" an outtake from the album sessions. The original LP ended with the long jam, "Another World", and was quite a bit shorter than, for example, Marquee Moon, as a result. Elsewhere, "Down at the Rock & Roll Club" is a noticeably different take than that which was first issued; this version features no drumming during most of the verses, and is rather more off-kilter as a result. Finally, the album cover is totally different; the original featured Hell standing against a white wall, opening his coat to reveal a bare chest with the words "YOU MAKE ME" written across it. The Velvet Underground and Nico (from left to right: John Cale, Nico, Lou Reed, Sterling Morrison, and Maureen Tucker) The Velvet Underground (Affectionately known as The Velvets, or V.U. for short) was an American rock and roll band of the late 1960s. ... Francis Albert Sinatra (December 12, 1915 – May 14, 1998) was an American singer who is considered one of the finest vocalists of all time, renowned for his impeccable phrasing and timing. ... Leonard Norman Cohen, CC (born September 21, 1934 in Montreal, Quebec) is a Canadian poet, novelist, and singer-songwriter. ... Marquee Moon was Televisions 1977 (see 1977 in music) debut album. ...

Track listing

1. "Love Comes in Spurts"
2. "Liars Beware"
3. "New Pleasure"
4. "Betrayal Takes Two"
5. "Down at the Rock & Roll Club"
6. "Who Says? (It's Good to Be Alive)"
7. "Blank Generation"
8. "Walking on the Water"
9. "The Plan"
10. "Another World"
11. "I'm Your Man"
12. "All the Way" (Sammy Cahn, James Van Heusen)