An oral history of the beginnings of Punk Rock in San Francisco from the people who made it happen with interviews by James Stark a early influential visual artist of the San Francisco Punk Scene. Interviews with V. Vale publisher ReSearch, Dirk Dirksen Mabuhay Promoter, Penelope Houston singer The Avengers, Tommy Gear The Screamers and Seventeen more from the people who were there,

His first photos of the band Crime were published in Rock Scene magazine in September 1977. His early photographs influenced a generation of Rock and Roll Photographers. A Search and Destroy contributing photographer These words from the past are as relevant today as they were in 1977

Autorentext

James Stark is known for the gritty street approach to photography he developed while living in New York City in the late 1960s. A decade later in San Francisco, James designed posters for the bands and shot photos of the people who made up the nascent punk rock scene. Contemporaneously, his photos were published in New York Rocker, Search & Destroy, and Slash, among others; more recently, his photos and posters were published in Hardcore California, Street Art, The Art of Rock, and Fucked Up and Photocopied. In October 2013, James participated in Punk: Chaos to Couture at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, which included his photographs in the exhibition and catalog. His posters for the band Crime are considered classics, and are highly-prized collector's items.

In 1992, James published Punk '77: An inside look at the San Francisco rock 'n roll scene, a history of the early days of the San Francisco punk scene and is still in print. Along with James' photos, the book relied on interviews conducted circa 1990 with punk's musicians and scene-makers, many of whom are no longer living. To complete the historical record, those interviews are published here in complete form.