Lexicon Devil: The Fast Times and Short Life of Darby Crash and the Germs

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Summary: Best Book Ever Written
Review: oh its great, soo great! Lexicon Devil is written historical commentary-style, about fifty different people spitting out little tidbits, paragraph by paragraph. Darby had a really interseting life, especially his high school years. he hung out at Joan Jett's house , he [was strongly influenced] ... scientologist ...at one of the first aternative schools... very strange... wait till you get to the part about the...oh I can't tell you! you have to read it! also gives a very good picture of how punk started in LA... oh wow its great, and awful sad.

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Summary: Living In The Past was written by J.Tull; stop doing it!
Review: Somewhere in my garage is an original pressing of "G.I." I was listening to Rodney Bingenheimer's show the night Darby gave out a satellite number so you could call long distance for free, and yes, it worked. But . . . and this is a big "but" . . . had Darby lived he would be 45 years old now! I loved the time, I loved the music, I think he had tremendous potential, but it should be like a high school yearbook, something buried in a box you which crosses your mind in passing maybe once a year. Time to let it all go. I see young punks in the street, dressed in black with chains, spikey hair and Clash/Germs/Sex Pistols/X t-shirts, and I want to walk up to them, wearing my suit and tie, and say, "I saw those bands. I spoke to them. That was over 20 years ago! Make your own history, stop wearing it."

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Summary: Not Enough Darby Info
Review: This is a book I've been waiting for...until I read it...it's ok. It's surprising at how many people (especially the females) haven't gone on with their lives...it's like the only thing they thought made them worth anything was their brushes with Darby C. It's even apparent with one of the reveiws how some people think they own the guy's memory. I read the book cuz I'm such a huge Germs fan but it got a little tiring...the same ol' story...I was really his closest friend...I really knew him better than anyone kinda feel I got from a lot of those interviewed. I did get some info I had never heard before, like his relationship with his mother, how death touched his life from very early on and wow that Jeffery Lee Pierce is deceased (I didn't know that!!) As far as his sexual orientation...DUH! I don't know...just watching "The Decline of Western Civilization" many many years ago...I just kinda assumed! The book is worth a read to anyone who is a fan of the Germs and the early L.A. scene. It also has a lot of info on the experimental high school Pat and Darby attended (I know someone who went there with them, and his accounts are about as bizarre as the ones in Lexicon Devil) I would like to see a more indepth bio on Paul Beahm/Bobby Pin/Darby Crash some day but until then, Lexicon Devil filled a void.