![]() First edition | |
Author | John Doe Tom DeSavia |
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Language | English |
Subject | Punk rock |
Genre | Music |
Publisher | Da Capo Press |
Publication date | 2016 |
Publication place | United States |
ISBN | 978-0306824081 |
Under The Big Black Sun: A Personal History of L.A. Punk is a book by John Doe of the American punk rock band X and co-author Tom DeSavia. [1] The book examines the evolution of Los Angeles punk rock between 1977-1982, covering the years between the emergence of punk as an underground phenomenon and ending as some of the musicians in the scene crossed over to mainstream success. [2] The book featured guest chapters by Exene Cervenka (Doe's ex-wife and co-lead vocalist in X); along with Jane Wiedlin and Charlotte Caffey of The Go-Go's, Mike Watt of Minutemen, and Henry Rollins of Black Flag. [3] Green Day's Billie Joe Armstrong penned a foreword for the book. [1]
The audiobook version received a Grammy Award nomination [4] in the "spoken word" category. [5]
Eric Noble-Marks of Exclaim! gave the book 7 out of 10 commented that although it is "flawed and incomplete," the book "is valuable for not only giving us a glimpse into what punk rock looked like and sounded like, but also what it felt like." [6] Ryan Bray of The A.V. Club gave the book a "B" rating and noted the potential difficulty of the "erratic structure of DeSavia and Doe’s narrative." [7] Jedd Beaudoin of PopMatters gave the book eight out of ten stars and said the memoirs allow the reader to "feel something akin to being there." [8]