Time

by

Richard Hell & the Voidoids

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This quite good collection fills in all the holes in Richard Hell's short-lived, but nonetheless excellent foray into music. The collection covers a lot of ground over the more or less decade that Hell recorded. For fans, its a must. However, its not a "greatest hits" or "best of" package, so if you're new to Richard Hell and the Voidoids, I'd strongly suggest that you first try out his classic (and best) release, "Blank Generation." The first disc on "Time" is an expanded "RIP," which ROIR released originally many years ago. The recording quality varies greatly as does the general quality of the songs. Highlights include early and excellent versions of "Love Comes In Spurts," "Chinese Rocks" (both recorded when Hell was a member of the Heartbreakers), "I'm Your Man," and "Time," as well as the (pre-RIP) never-before-released "The Hunter Was Drowned." The disc perfectly displays Hell's wide and divergent take on music (which went way beyond just punk music, incorporating elements of blues, 1950's pop, and free jazz, among other influences). Again, not every track is a winner, but taken in total, it provides a very interesting retrospective of Hell's career. The second disc is all live material, and while the sound quality is a little rough (to say the least), the performance is outstanding: very energetic, with the aggression level amped up on a number of the songs, particularly the first few tracks -- "Love Comes In Spurts," "Liars' Beware," and "You Gotta Lose." Very good.

This fine collection of Mr. Hell's work is best exemplified, to me, by two sections: the Heartbreakers and New Orleans stuff. (I qualify this by saying I am a Heartbreakers fan from New Orleans.) Here we hear the lost verse from "Chinese Rocks," the pre-One-Track-Mind "Love Comes in Spurts," and other such arcana from the days when Johnny Thunders had long hair, Walter Lure was in his larval stage, Jerry Nolan was still perfecting perfection as the world's best drummer, and Richard Hell was being followed by a Malcolm McLaren taking notes. Then came the salad days of a record contract and inferior material and superior musicianship--as well as a drop off in interest. But the New Orleans recordings are most interesting. Ziggy Modeliste of the Meters provides the down-home drums that made him a recognized genius, Pete LeBon on guitar (a man whose band Wild Kingdom broke more walls in 1982 than we broke in war in 2001-02), and Nicky (All Key) Sazenbach on drums and sax make this good stuff. The live recordings are OK, though we who have read "Please Kill Me" forgive Mr. Hell if he doesn't sound his best on the 1977 English tour. Recommended for Hellions and the Thundersian heartbroken.