Punk Avenue: Inside the New York City Underground, 1972-1982

Phil Marcade

Three Rooms Press Softcover $15.95 (288pp) 978-1-941110-49-2 Marcade’s stories surprise and delight, reviving an influential, exciting moment in American culture.

The brief, insane explosion of the punk scene in 1970s New York has fascinated people ever since and left a lasting impression on art, culture, and music. Punk Avenue: Inside the New York City Underground, 1972–1982 is a first-person account by Phil Marcade that brings this savage decade to life.

Marcade, a long-haired, acid-dropping Parisian, comes to the United States at age eighteen to look for Jack Kerouac. In a sense, he’s chasing the American dream. The antiestablishment movement of the early 1970s was taking hold, and Marcade jumped in, looking for the most counter counterculture he could find. He ended up in New York City, smack in the middle of a scene defined by its cool rejection of mainstream values. He meets Debbie Harry, Lou Reed, Andy Warhol, Legs Mcneil, and Sid and Nancy, among others.

Marcade’s recollection of the New York underground is mostly lighthearted. Even an