Three New Coffee Table Books for People Who Love Old School Punk Rock

I'm a lucky mom when it comes to my 15 year old son's music sensibilities. In our house, there's no yelling to "...turn that noise down!" or lamenting over "kids today!" You see, my son listens to and loves the music I grew up on : The Ramones, The Cure, Sex Pistols, The Clash.

So, we have fun together finding CDs and LPs, vintage band T shirts, buttons, and the like. Lately, we've discovered some really great coffee table type books that are just sublime scores for anyone who loves punk rock music. I never thought I'd see the day that such images and sensibilities would grace the coffee tables of living rooms, yet here we are. If you are or know such a person, then check out these wonderful gift items.

The Punk Rock Encyclopedia

Brian Cogan, Sterling pub., 2008
ISBN 1402759606

This is my favorite of the lot. With a breathtaking 400 large format pages, it's chock full of photographs, (some rare and never-before-seen) and information about venues, personal histories and anecdotes. It's just what its title says it is-encyclopedia-like. I purchased this just-published tome for my son this past Christmas, and got lost in its little cool world before even wrapping.

Written by musician and writer Brian Cogan, he is anything but neutral in his commentary, and it is a very welcome dynamic-individual opinion and truth are simply proper manners in the punk rock world. Cogan has (dare I say it) scholarly knowledge of the punk rock era, hence the details, wonderment of the book.

Punk 365

Holly George-Warren, Abrams pub., 2007
ISBN: 0810994046

This is a lovely little coffee table book. A squat but sturdy thing at 744 pages, it is filled with beautiful and rare photographs. It includes figures from all aspects of the punk scene, (fashion designers for instance) and is simply a fascinating array of images and accompanying text. It's at once all inclusive, but stripped- down information. A sign of success in any book.

Here's what one insightful reviewer on Amazon had to say that sums it up:

"Despite being yet another book titled PUNK this-or-that (how boring) accompanied by yet another picture of the overexposed Pistols, what we have here is a rare and fine contribution to the small flock of top rate punk documentation...

This book is great and can be looked through over and over again without boredom. Highly recommended for every punk or jaded old rocker who has ever picked up a photobook on punk only to be bored to tears with 50 pages on Patti Smith/Talking Heads and another 50 pages of Sex Pistols/Clash and little else. :

--Dean Gragg, Amazon.com Punk 365, Customer Reviews

The Clash

Strummer, Jones, Simonon, Headon, 101 Distribution pub., 2009
ISBN: 1843547880

Copies of this book are selling like hotcakes, and for good reason. The members of punk rock's most beloved and revered (arguably, of course) band have compiled this gorgeous, even outrageous, huge coffee table sized tome-filled with their very own personal photographs, letters, and words.

No Clash fan (and aren't we all Clash fans?) should miss out on this. We checked this out from the library, and my son read it from cover to cover, like a novel. It's that compelling.

A note about the prices on these books--I cannot emphasize the great bargain these are. Perhaps because of their bestselling status, they are all on sale. The Encyclopedia of Punk is only 16.47 brand new from Amazon, and The Clash is slashed to a fraction of its $45.00 cover price at $29.70. Punk 365 is available new at Amazon for 17.37, down from its 29.95 cover price. A tip: We found our copy of Punk 365 in the bargain section at Barnes and Noble for only $7.98!