Elvis featured on forthcoming release of ancient recordings of by Richard Hell
Billboard, 2001-11-15
- Troy Carpenter

 

Edited by Jonathan Cohen / November 15, 2001, 4:15 PM

Matador Readies Richard Hell Collection

Matador is planning an early 2002 release for a double-CD set collecting early material by founding Television, Heartbreakers, and Voidoids member Richard Hell. The currently untitled package will include songs already released on the 1984 compilation "R.I.P. -- The ROIR Sessions" (ROIR), as well as unreleased live material from 1977 and 1978.

Hell rose to fame as one of the most prominent figures in the late '70s New York punk scene, spending brief stints in Television with Tom Verlaine and the Heartbreakers with New York Dolls' guitarist Johnny Thunders before starting his own group, Richard Hell and the Voidoids, in 1976. That band's 1977 debut, "Blank Generation" (Sire), was considered one of the prototypical New York punk-rock documents.

The Matador release will feature one disc presenting a taste of Hell in five different settings -- the Heartbreakers in 1975; three different Voidoids lineups from 1977, 1979, and 1983; and Hell solo in New Orleans in 1984. The second disc will consist entirely of previously unreleased live recordings: a 12-song set recorded at London's Music Machine club 1977 and four songs taken from an FM broadcast of St. Mark's Church Poetry Project Benefit at New York's famed CBGB club in 1978.

In other Hell news, the artist has just released "Hot & Cold," a collection of his essays, poetry, song lyrics, and drawings, through PowerHouse books. He is offering signed copies of the book through his official Web site.

Here is the track list for the forthcoming double-CD set:

Disc One:

"Love Comes in Spurts"
"Chinese Rocks"
"Can't Keep My Eyes on You"
"Hurt Me"
"I'm Your Man"
"Betrayal Takes Two"
"Crack of Dawn"
"Ignore That Door"
"I Live My Life"
"Going Going Gone"
"Funhunt"
"I Can Only Give You Everything"
"I Been Sleepin' on It"
"Cruel Way To Go Drown"
"The Hunter Was Drowned"
"Hey Sweetheart"

Disc Two:

"Intro
"Love Comes in Spurts"
"Liars Beware"
"You Gotta Lose"
"Lose Yourself"
"New Pleasure"
"Walking on the Water"
"The Plan"
"Blank Generation"
"I Wanna Be Your Dog"
"Vacancy"
"Venilator Blues"
"Kid With the Replaceable Head"
"Don't Die"
"You Gotta Lose" (with Elvis Costello [Ed. Elvis sings lead])
"Shattered" [Ed. - with Elvis Costello on background vocals]

-- Troy Carpenter, N.Y.