PM Press Stealing All Transmissions: A Secret History of The Clash

First and most important, this book chronicles the radio and the NYC punk club scene in the 1970's. The most important part of this book was the stories about the women DJs who risked their jobs and changed stations in order to get this music played in the NYC area. We would not have punk rock in America without those women. Jane Hamburger, Caroline Coon, Meg Griffin, Pam Merly and Carol Miller (who is still on the radio in NY!) These women took risks, got the bands gigs and got them airplay. We owe them a lot of respect.I thought I was getting a gossip book about The Clash? It's so much more than that! It's really a great book about how The Clash got to be so famous in the US. A lot of it is due to the way radio stations are programmed and the ways that they changed the structure of radio programming to include more punk artists that weren't really ready for the big arena bands of the day, like the Eagles, Fleetwood Mac or Foreigner. The punk and new wave records were often imports and too expensive for the average person. But radio stations could afford them and they did. They played them a lot. We heard things on the radio that other parts of the country didn't hear. But in the NYC area, they were on all the time. I'm a little too young to have caught this part, I caught it in the 1980's and college radio and WLIR were playing imports from Bleeker Bob's. I actually don't own a single Ramones record because they were on the radio that much!All of those bands owe their success to the women who got them airplay in the first place.If I could give this book 12 stars, I would. It looks like this little, pithy memoir? Oh no, not even close! Look at how many notes I have in the pages after reading it! It has 26 pages of sources. TWENTY SIX. This could easily by Randal Doane's Ph.D. thesis. I have marked off so many pages of "find that book" and "look up that movie". This looks like a short read but it isn't. It's very heavy on resources and background information. I strongly suggest reading it with some Post-Its and a pen nearby! An excellent book that moves at the speed of punk.

Not a bad book ,its as most of books by the clash ,,a bit of the same ,storyses ,

Awesome

Doane's book skillfully traverses the fine line between the formal study of culture (e.g., as a scholar) and the lived experience of culture (e.g., as a fan and participant in punk subculture. Stealing All Transmissions is thus a brilliant analysis of the synergistic forces of cultural production and audience reception, in which free-form FM radio deejays, critics, and fans coalesced to pave the way for the emergence of the Clash as a bona fide revolutionary phenomenon and an articulation of widespread discontent with the tired monoculture of mainstream American corporate rock (and radio) in the mid- to late-1970s. Doane brilliantly chronicles the inner workings of the music, radio, and rock media industries (social-structural factors), which combined to set the stage for the emergence of punk onto the American scene, and for the rise to prominence of the Clash in particular. But Doane's book is also inescapably cultural. It is a celebration of the Clash's music as an authentic expression of disaffection, rebellion, and empowerment that resonated with renegade deejays, critics, and fans alike. The book is thus a must-read for any serious fan of the Clash. At the same time, Stealing All Transmissions is a cogent and informative analysis of how a musical subculture emerges within a specific social-historical context, and thus constitutes a valuable contribution to the sociological study of popular music.

I can't give less than four stars ..because this is the clash..But...I'm in the UK...and got this ahead of publication in the UK.I guess the content will make more sense to US folks ..of a certain age...who knew the various DJ's and radio stations which are discussed.There isn't really a lot of Clash stuff in there...but a few pics worth having! in Black and White. It is a kind of disjointed text...easy to read...but a bit here and there...a bit more detail about the record company execs who wouldn't get behind the US tour....and got the cold shoulder from the band...Spotted one factual error....Joes last gig before he died wasn't the Acton gig...but a Liverpool show.One for the Complete Nutter Fan (Like me)Over and Out......