Penny Rimbaud

A wide cast of musicians and artists provide surprising and thought-provoking insights into punk rock from the lens of spirituality and liberation. Punk Spirit! is an oral history that examines this movement from many unique perspectives, bringing together well-known and cutting-edge bands including Sex Pistols, Minor Threat, Dead Kennedys, The Ramones, Gang of Four, Pussy Riot, Crass, Talking Heads, Propagandhi, The Slits, Bad Religion, Shelter, Rebel Riot, Blackfire, and many others. Punk Spirit! ventures into the emotional and personal experiences of punk artists and activists from around the world and highlights intelligent, thoughtful, and humorous discussions on liberation, spirituality, and living freely. They discuss a myriad of topics from creativity and anger to freedom from suffering and the ways that punk rock has opposed or embodied religious and moral tenets. Chapters dive deeply into a variety of interconnected realms of punk rock such as the subgenre of straight edge, Krishnacore and Taqwacore, evangelical punk concerts in southern California churches, illegal punk concerts in East German churches, anti-religious sentiment within punk rock, the vital connections between punk and self-expression, and the myriad ways punk rock has been combined with spiritual and religious traditions to illuminate ideas from science, atheism, Buddhism, Christianity, Judaism, Islam, and other ways of being in the world.

First published in 1982 as part of the Crass record album "Christ: The Album," Penny Rimbaud's "The Last of the Hippies" is a fiery anarchist polemic centered on the story of his friend, Phil Russell aka Wally Hope, who was murdered by the State while incarcerated in a mental institution. Wally Hope was a visionary and a freethinker, whose life had a profound influence on many in the culture of the UK Underground and beyond. He was an important figure in what may loosely be described as the organization of the Windsor Free Festival from 1972 to 1974, as well providing the impetus for the embryonic Stonehenge Free Festival. Wally was arrested and incarcerated in a mental institution after having been found in possession of a small amount of LSD. He was later released, and subsequently died. The official verdict was that Russell committed suicide, although Rimbaud uncovered strong evidence that he was murdered. "The Last of the Hippies" fast became the seminal text of what was then known as anarcho-punk and which later blossomed into the antiglobalization movement. This revised edition comes complete with a new introduction in which Rimbaud questions some of the premises that he laid down in the original.