There are a surprising number of books on or by Sonic Youth, the most important of the East Coast bands to emerge in the wake of the first wave of US punk (1974-78). An excellent Spanish biography and an Italian potted history precede the three English language bios to date, while Thurston Moore’s ex-wife Kim Gordon published her own embittered memoir (Girl in a Band) in 2015. Seems Thurston had been a very naughty boy, and she was determined to tell the world all about it.
In fact he may well be the least naughty boy in the history of rock music. ‘Neither hardcore sex nor drug action figured very much in my world,’ he writes. ‘Boys have always wanted to be in rock bands to get laid, or so it’s said. But that was not a defining factor for me.’ The ‘other’ woman (Thurston’s second wife, Eva Prinz) whom Kim refused even to name, simply calling her ‘the user, the groupie, the nutcase’, does not even enter this densely packed memoir until four pages from the end.
This is because Thurston has a lot he wants to say, and almost all of it is about his coming to New York, his early days there and the first decade of the band.
Comments
Join the debate for just $5 for 3 months
Be part of the conversation with other Spectator readers by getting your first three months for $5.
UNLOCK ACCESS Just $5 for 3 monthsAlready a subscriber? Log in