It took me a while to get around to it, but “Destroy All Movies” has to be one of the best books I’ve ever read on the well-worked-over subject of punk rock and its stylistic offshoots.
The editors went through what seems like an excruciating process of watching every single videotape that might have so much as a glimpse of a mohawk or a safety-pinned earlobe in it.
In the process, they make a surprisingly thought-provoking criticism both of Hollywood’s use as the ‘unruly punk’ as a stock character, and also of real punks’ own confusion as to their own agenda.
The book also takes a hilarious warts-‘n-all approach, reviewing “serious” documentaries like Decline of Western Civilization along with those infectiously dumbass teen movies like Thrashin’.
One of the hidden bonuses is the complete lyrics to the song “I Hate You” that was blasted by the bus-riding punk in “Star Trek IV”.
AWESOME!!!
Thanks for the heads up! This book (especially if it has a lot of photos) looks right up my alley.
DAMN! Guess I’ll be putting that one off for a while. Hang on to your copy, Tomazs. Looks like you should be able to Ebay it for a nice chunk of pocket dough.
[reply]One of the hidden bonuses is the complete lyrics to the song “I Hate You” that was blasted by the bus-riding punk in “Star Trek IV”.
Ha! I loved that part of the movie.[/reply]
Me too. I remember trying to see who actually performed the song once we got the internet. I couldn’t find anything. I let it go. I did hear rumors that the punk was shatner’s son though.
DAMN! Guess I’ll be putting that one off for a while. Hang on to your copy, Tomazs. Looks like you should be able to Ebay it for a nice chunk of pocket dough.
According to the movie credits, the song was performed by the obscure band Edge of Etiquette (so obscure, in fact, that it is rather difficult to find anything about them, except that they did this song). The punk on the bus who flipped Kirk “the bird” was played by Star Trek IV associate producer Kirk Thatcher.
The lyrics were also written by Kirk Thatcher, and arranged by Mark Mangini. A game card, from the Star Trek Customizable Card Game released by Decipher, excerpted the lyrics of the song. Thatcher had complained that the music previously selected would not have been an accurate representative to what a 1980s punk would listen to, and offered to write “I Hate You” instead.
The song was also heard in the 1987 Frankie Avalon/Annette Funicello beach party comedy Back To The Beach.
The reason Edge of Etiquette is so obscure is because they only existed for about a day and a half after the movie had gone into post-production. Thatcher provided the vocals as well as the lyrics for the song. The rest of the band was made up of a couple of guys from the sound department, including Mark Mangini, who turned the tune Thatcher had in mind for the song into something that could be played.
To achieve an “authentic” gritty punk sound they moved into the hallway of the sound studio where the post-production sound work was being done in order to record the song. They also used the lowest quality microphones and instruments they had available to enhance the illusion that the song had been recorded live at a punk club.
This was the only time Edge of Etiquette ever recorded anything or played anywhere. No royalties or licensing fees of any kind were ever paid to anyone for the use of the song “I Hate You” in Star Trek IV. Thatcher did get some royalties when the song was later used in the movie Back To The Beach, but the song was not included on the film’s soundtrack album. [1] The song remained unavailable for purchase until the soundtrack was re-released in late December 2011.
DAMN! Guess I’ll be putting that one off for a while. Hang on to your copy, Tomazs. Looks like you should be able to Ebay it for a nice chunk of pocket dough.
Daaaaamn I had no idea it was that pricy already. The one I have is a loaner which, in true ‘punk’ fashion, certainly won’t be re-selling as “mint” or “very good.”
The construction of it is such that they were charging a lot for it to begin with - it’s on Fantagraphics Books which had always been more of a ‘graphic novel’ or comix publisher, so they go very heavy on the full-color plates and slick visuals.
But yeah I would try to access the “freading” feature at your local library. I’m surprised at some of the stuff I’ve been able to find digitized (no luck with Jourgensen’s bio, though.)
I’m not gonna lie. I forgot how libraries even work. I live right next to one even. I’ve been inside it exactly 1 time in the 5 years I’ve lived here. And I can count on one hand how many times I’ve been inside a library since finishing college. I don’t know why it never occurs to me to actually look for books there instead of always spending $20+ for a book I’ll just read once and then eventually toss.