[audiobook] MDC: Memoir from a Damaged Civilization: Stories of Punk; Fear; and Redemption by Dave Dictor at Arts-Photography

Review

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful. This book is excellent. and left me wanting moreBy CustomerThis book is excellent. and left me wanting more. It is especially interesting to folks who grew up listening to music in the early and mid 80s. that was at that time. very much NOT of the mainstream. It is without question a testament to how things were at one time. and the book fills me with a sense of nostalgia that only Dave Dictor can supply or understand. I hope one day things can move in the direction they were moving when Daves MDC were hitting the streets and clubs. to attempt to educate the masses in regards to the dangers of right wing acceptance. which during the Reagan years. could be a dangerous angle to approach. I had the cassettes. and I formed a band. and MDC were one of the groups that we listened to. and talked about. Dave Dictors book is filled with tragedy. romance. excitement. and also contains the wisdom that only a man who has lived like Dave has. can properly convey.10 of 11 people found the following review helpful. Raging against the machine since the cradleBy BobdGUpdate:Currently on my third reading and now think of it as a classic heros journey. Its a punk version of the story of the journey of Odysseus.I love this book.What follows is a more feeble and earlier review.Full disclosure first: Ive known Dave casually since ca. 1969 when he showed up among my cohort of friends in high school. And since Ive never seen or heard the guy do or say a mean-spirited thing to anyone -in my experience he has always been cool- Im completely biased in his favor.That said. I loved reading this. The quality of the prose is erratic and often turbid with cliches (like a lot of my own writing) but not so much that it gets in the way of the content which if you are like me and dont know much about the history of punk. is likely to leave you alternately gasping for air and doing whatever you do when you are bewildered. And there are just as many moments where the story is so lucid it feels like a living thing bouncing around in your hands.Passages about touring in cold-war era Eastern Europe with their images of behind-the-iron-curtain punks are full of vibrant noise and images.At times I found myself laughing out loud when Dave writes about his relationships to other bands and their members. I mean. who with any sense of humor could resist a line like "We recommended The Dicks. DRI and the Crucifucks?"But the best that Daves book gave to me. was the story of his personal journey as it paralleled the birth and development of the idea of punk. It seems to me that at some point in the early days of their ontogeny Dave and a lot of punks realize that they are super-pissed off at everything that seems to be "imposed" on them i.e pop-cultural and sometimes family cultural stuff that they believe that they had no role in constructing. Why they chose to create the idiom of punk to tell the world how they feel is pretty obvious and frankly. retrospectively it seems like the most logical choice given that its antecedent (rock) had by then largely given up complaining about anything other than personal crap like sexual infidelity or having done too much or too little of one or another drug.That Dave and his cohort of Stains (and later. MDC) and Dead Kennedys. The Clash aw that "rock" was dead as form of protest. walked away from it. made up something if not entirely new (I mean. punk is a form of rock) then new enough to have a unique identity is more than inspiring to me. its humbling. I wish I could say whether or not the political agenda of Daves brand of punk has been effective. Id like to believe it has. but I can only begin to imagine how to prove it. Ah. screw it. I believe it.3 of 3 people found the following review helpful. They were Amazing. Energy plusBy CustomerThe first time I seen Dave on stage was 1981 Mabuhay Gardens I had only been living in San Francisco Since November 1980 so I had been there about 8 months. They were Amazing. Energy plus. I casually knew him from the scene and going to shows hanging out at the Vats. Dave is an amazing person with a heart bigger then life itself. MDC MEMOIR FROM A DAMAGED CIVILIZATION IS A MUST READ. If you were there in the beginning San Francisco early 80s the music the people the lifestyle or even if you werent. You need to read this book.It made me laugh at times made me cry brought back memories. Dave brings it all back to life for me within the pages of his book. The stories of traveling Through Europe playing behind the Iron curtain going where most bands did not dare to travel. And he tells it how it was before the current main stream exceptance that there is today the battles the fun the frustrations. Read for yourself you wont be disappointed.