Please Kill Me: The Uncensored Oral History of Punk

by Legs McNeil

MARY HARRON: We really didn’t have anything to be idealistic about, and I was so sick of hippie culture. People were trying to keep up those peace-and-love ideals, but it was so devalued. That was the era of real hip capitalism too, and you just didn’t buy it anymore. It was exhausted, but, because what hippies stood for was good, no one could let go and say “This is over.” It was like you were forced to be optimistic and caring and good. And believe in peace and love. And, even though I probably did, I resented everyone telling me what to believe. I disliked the hippie culture, I found it nauseating and prissy and sentimental, and smiley-faced. So Richard Hell just came over and said, “This is what we are, we’re the blank generation. It’s over.” It was very exciting. What was so thrilling about it was that we were moving forward into the future and I had no idea what that future was. I felt like everything was new. There were no definitions, or boundaries, it was just moving forward into the light, it was just the future—everything new, no rules, no nothings, no definitions. “What are we? We don’t know.” It wasn’t for years that I realized it was nihilism. Or whatever.