Legs McNeil

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born

January 01, 1956 in Cheshire, Connecticut, The United States

gender

male

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Roderick Edward "Legs" McNeil (b. 1956 in Cheshire, Connecticut), is the co-founder and a writer for Punk Magazine. He is also a former senior editor at Spin Magazine, and the founder and editor of Nerve magazine (print only; 1992).

At the age of 18, disgusted with the hippie movement that seemed to be going nowhere, McNeil gathered with two high school friends, John Holmstrom and Ged Dunn, and decided to create "some sort of media thing" for a living. They settled upon a magazine, assuming that people would "think [they were] cool and hang out with [them]" as well as "give [them] free drinks". The name "Punk" was decided upon because "it seemed to sum up...everything...obnoxious, smart but not pretentious, absurd, ironic, and things that ap...more

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Books by Legs McNeil

Average rating: 4.16 · 7,349 ratings · 681 reviews · 9 distinct works

	Please Kill Me: The Uncensored Oral History of Punk (An Evergreen book) by Legs McNeil, Gillian McCain 4.21 avg rating — 6,375 ratings — published 1996 — 16 editions	My rating:
	The Other Hollywood: The Uncensored Oral History of the Porn Film Industry by Legs McNeil, Jennifer Osborne, Peter Pavia 3.82 avg rating — 382 ratings — published 2005 — 7 editions	My rating:
	Por Favor, Mátame: La Historia Oral Del Punk 4.00 avg rating — 1 rating — published 2008	My rating:
	El Otro Hollywood: Una Historia Oral Y Sin Censura De La Industria Del Cine Porno 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings — published 2008	My rating:
	Pop Culture: 100 Stories From Pepsi Cola's First 100 Years 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings	My rating:
	Lobotomy: Surviving the Ramones by Dee Dee Ramone, Legs McNeil (Introduction), Veronica Kofman 3.87 avg rating — 376 ratings — published 2000 — 5 editions	My rating:
	I Slept With Joey Ramone by Mickey Leigh, Legs McNeil (Contributor) 3.81 avg rating — 305 ratings — published 2009 — 5 editions	My rating:
	New York Dolls: Photographs by Bob Gruen by Bob Gruen (Photographer), Morrissey (Afterword), Legs McNeil (Commentaries by) 4.20 avg rating — 25 ratings — published 2008	My rating:
	Cheetah Chrome: A Dead Boy's Tale: From the Front Lines of Punk Rock by Cheetah Chrome, Legs McNeil (Foreword) 4.14 avg rating — 22 ratings — published 2010 — 2 editions	My rating:

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Quotes by Legs McNeil

“I remember my favorite nights were just getting drunk and walking around outside the East Village kicking over garbage cans. Just the night. Just that it would be night again. And you could go out, you know? It just seemed glorious. (Please Kill Me.)”
― Legs McNeil

4 people liked it

“Rock & Roll is so great, people should start dying for it. You don't understand. The music gave you back the beat so you could dream. A whole generation running with a Fender bass...

The people just have to die for the music. People are dying for everything else, so why not the music? Die for it. Isn't it pretty? Wouldn't you die for something pretty?

Perhaps I should die. After all, all the great blues singers did die. But life is getting better now.

I don't want to die. Do I? - Lou Reed (1965-1968)”
― Legs McNeil, Please Kill Me: The Uncensored Oral History of Punk

tags: lou-reed-music-rock

3 people liked it

“The old sound was alcoholic. The tradition was finally broken. The music is sex and drugs and happy. And happy is the joke the music understands best. Ultra sonic sounds on records to cause frontal lobotomies. Hey, don't be afraid. You'd better take drugs and learn to love PLASTIC. All diffrent kinds of plastic- pliable, rigid, colored, colorful, nonattached plastic. - Lou Reed (1965-1968)”
― Legs McNeil, Please Kill Me: The Uncensored Oral History of Punk

tags: lou-reed-music-plastic

2 people liked it

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