NEW REVIEW
Review by Drew Tewksbury, Flaunt Magazine, February 2007

Long before T-shirts emblazoned with the sequined likenesses of Johnny Rottens appeared in Hot Topic stores, punk was as a reaction to the commodified rock-'n'-roll culture of which, ironically, it is now a part. In 1977, punk was anything but mall fodder, or at least that's what James Stark's book Punk'77 wants us to believe. Juxtaposing black-and-white photos with personal testimonies. Punk '77 is a lot like a yearbook, an open-faced memoir that lifts the safety-pinned tartan skirt on a San Francisco punk scene struggling with its identity at the convergence of aging hippies, lamé disco suits, and teen ennui. Stark's photographs illuminate the architecture of a developing scene in which torn denim, exposed clavicles, and padlocked chokers were de rigueur. Images of a young Debbie Harry, looking coy behind oversized sunglasses inside a dark, dilapidated club, Darby Crash, on stage, clenching a fist and holding a snarling note, and Joey Ramone's kneecaps peeking through ripped jeans, act as details of a larger picture of artistic revolt against an emerging empire of consumer culture. In the spirit of prototypic street photographers Mary Ellen Mark, Diane Arbus, and Weegee, these punk images show adolescence as that fleeting time of malleable identity and experimentation. "Hopefully", Stark writes "Punk '77 will give some insight as to why and how people create an identify for themselves and their time".

Puncture; Issue 25, October 1992

When the part of the past you feel you know turns out to be of general interest and, better yet, you've held on to a mass of striking photographs, you sit down and, make a book. James Stark was a photographer, poster-maker, and scene-person the year a certain club on San Francisco's tiny strip of night life began offering punk shows one night a week.
The photos themselves, a generous 115 of them, are richly satisfying. They're the kind of photos one wants to see, straight forwardly showing dramatic personages doing what they do, whether it's singing, playing, displaying their costumes, manifesting the effects of various substances, or just trying to talk their way in the door. Stark understood their theatrical beauty. And he knew when to press the shutter.
But the artistic ferment of the late '70s shows us that things of beauty, power, and inspiration can arise from within the walls of a couple of crummy clubs. Punk '77 is a testament to a grand moment occurring in an eyeblink of history. Kit Drumm

MAXIMUMROCKNROLL; Issue 114, November 1992

There are good insights into the origins of SF punk, the gathering together of misfits who were dissatisfied with the degenerating of 60/70's music culture, who gravitated together under a yet-as-unnamed umbrella to be self supporting and stimulated.
I would recommend this book not only for old-timers looking for nostalgia, but especially to young Punks who have no idea how this all got off the ground, who take today's Punk for granted, to see how precarious it was at birth, what a fluke it was, and to perhaps be able to get a fresh perspective on today s scene needs especially vis-a-vis major label intervention. The value in such a history lies not in bemoaning bygone days but in learning from that to improve things now. (TY)

Jersey Beat; Issue 47, Fall 1992

Although I didn't experience anything in this book firsthand, it brought back a lot of memories, since Frisco's earliest punk scene was a lot like New York's. It might surprise a lot of todays hardcore youth to learn that the original punkers weren't teenagers but bohemian artists and musicians in their mid-20's and early 30's. In New York, it seemed like everybody who liked punk in 1977 was either Jewish or Gay (or both) and from this book, San Francisco was pretty much the same deaI.
Anyway, Punk 77 is not another coffee-table mainstream media ripoff but an engrossing chronicle of what went down from somebody who was really there. Sure it's history, but if you're into punk rock, it's part of YOUR history, And that alone is a good reason to check it out. - Jim T.

Flipside; Issue 81, November 1992

I really like these books, you know the nostalgic look back... Ah the memories, and that is what makes me laugh. Anyway, the lunacy and retardedness of those days are brought back to life in a series of short stories and photos of the people that made it happen. Well done. - Al

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