Richard Lester Meyers (born October 2, 1949), better known by his stage name Richard Hell, is an American singer, songwriter, bass guitarist and writer.

Hell was in several important early punk rock bands, including Neon Boys, Television, and the Heartbreakers, after which he formed Richard Hell & the Voidoids. Their 1977 album Blank Generation influenced many other punk bands. Its title track was named "One of the 500 Songs That Shaped Rock" by music writers in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame listing and is ranked as one of the all-time Top 10 punk songs by a 2006 poll of original British punk figures, as reported in the Rough Guide to Punk.

Since the late 1980s, Hell has devoted himself primarily to writing, publishing two novels and several other books. He was the film critic for BlackBook magazine from 2004 to 2006.

Biography

thumb|The punk band Richard Hell and the Voidoids in a 1977 press photo. (L-R): Richard Hell, Ivan Julian, Marc Bell (Marky Ramone), and Robert Quine

Early life and career

Richard Lester Meyers was born in Lexington, Kentucky, in 1949. His father was Jewish, and an experimental psychologist researching animal behavior. He died when Hell was seven years old. Hell was then raised by his mother, Carolyn H. Rhodes, who came from Welsh and English ancestry. After her husband's death, she returned to school and became a professor.

Hell attended the Sanford School in Delaware for one year, where he became friends with Tom Miller, who later changed his name to Tom Verlaine. They ran away from school together and a short time later were arrested in Alabama for arson and vandalism.

Hell never finished high school, instead moving to New York City to make his way as a poet. In New York he met fellow young poet David Giannini, and moved to Santa Fe, New Mexico, for several months, where Giannini and Meyers co-founded Genesis:Grasp. They used an AM VariTyper with changeable fonts to publish the magazine. They began publishing books and magazines, but decided to go their separate ways in 1971, after which Hell created and published Dot Books.

Before he was 21, his own poems were published in numerous periodicals, ranging from Rolling Stone to the New Directions Annuals. In 1971, along with Verlaine, Hell also published under the pseudonym Theresa Stern, a fictional poet whose photo was actually a combination of both his and Verlaine's faces in drag, superimposed over one another to create a new identity. A book of poems credited to "Stern", Wanna Go Out?, was released by Dot in 1973.

The Neon Boys, Television, and the Heartbreakers

In 1972, Verlaine joined Hell in New York and formed the Neon Boys. Television was one of the early bands to play at CBGB because their manager, Terry Ork, persuaded owner Hilly Kristal to book them alongside the Ramones. They also built the club's first stage. Hell started playing his punk rock anthem "Blank Generation" during his time in Television. In early 1975, Hell parted ways with Television after a dispute over creative control. "Love Comes in Spurts", Also in 2009, Hell gave his blessing to the public access program Pancake Mountain to create an animated music video for "The Kid with the Replaceable Head". It was the Voidoids' first and only official music video. The cut used for the animation appears on Hell's 2005 retrospective album, Spurts, The Richard Hell Story.

Dim Stars and other collaborations

Hell's only other album release was as part of the band Dim Stars, for which he came out of retirement for a month in the early 1990s. Dim Stars featured guitarist Thurston Moore and drummer Steve Shelley from Sonic Youth, Gumball's guitarist Don Fleming, and Quine. They formed only to record a 1991 EP and a 1992 album, both titled Dim Stars, and played one show in public, a WFMU benefit at The Ritz in Manhattan. Hell played bass, sang lead vocals and wrote the lyrics for the album.

Hell also guested on the 1993 Roller Coaster album by Shotgun Rationale, and co-wrote and sang lead vocals on the song "Never Mind" by the Heads, a 1996 collaborative effort between three former members of Talking Heads.

Books

The Voidoid, a novella written in 1973, was finally published by CodeX in 1993. His early poetry collections include I Was a Spiral on the Floor (1988) and Across the Years (1992), both published by Soyo Publications. In 1996, Scribner published Hell's first full-length novel, Go Now, set in 1980 and drawn largely from his own experiences. Also published in 2005 was Rabbit Duck, a book of 13 poems written in collaboration with David Shapiro. More recent works include Psychopts (2008), a collaboration with artist Christopher Wool, as well as Disgusting (2010) and I Dreamed I Was a Very Clean Tramp (2013).

Hell's nonfiction has been widely anthologized, including a number of appearances in "best music writing" collections. The Toilet Paper Columns (2007) compiled his columns for the Colorado alternative magazine Toilet Paper, while Massive Pissed Love: Nonfiction 2001-2014 was issued by Soft Skull Press in 2015. Hell's archive of his manuscripts, tapes, correspondence (written and email), journals and other documents of his life was purchased for $50,000 by New York University's Fales Library in 2003.

A mural in Hell's hometown of Lexington, Kentucky, created by students from Lexington Montessori High School, was completed in June 2019. The mural, located in the city's North Limestone neighborhood, has three parts: two profiles of Hell, and a quote from his autobiography, I Dreamed I Was a Very Clean Tramp. "This was in Lexington, Ky. when everybody was a kid. I looked for caves and birds and ran away from home. My favorite thing to do was to run away. The words ‘let’s run away’ still sounds magical to me."

Films

Hell has appeared in several low-budget films, most notably Susan Seidelman's Smithereens.

Personal life

In 1968, Hell dated Patty Mucha (then Patty Oldenburg), the estranged wife of sculptor Claes Oldenburg, when he was nineteen and she was thirty-four. Their relationship lasted two years. Hell dated Nancy Spungen in 1976 for a few months before she moved to England.

Hell's relationship with Lizzy Mercier Descloux began during her first trip to New York City. She inspired his song "Another World" from the album Blank Generation. Hell also contributed to her artist's book, Desiderata, and co-translated the Rimbaud poem "The Drunken Boat" with her.

Hell was married to Scandal's Patty Smyth for two years during 1985–86, and they had a daughter, Ruby. He was married to museum curator Sheelagh Bevan from 2002 to 2016. In January 2020, it was mentioned on Hell's website that he was in a relationship with novelist Katherine Faw.

Discography

With the Heartbreakers

Compilation albums

  • L.A.M.F. Definitive Edition (2012, Jungle Records)

Live albums

  • What Goes Around... (1991, Bomp! Records)
  • Live at Mothers (1991)
  • Yonkers Demo 1976 (2019)

With Richard Hell and the Voidoids

Studio albums

  • Blank Generation (1977, Sire Records)
  • Destiny Street (1982, Red Star Records)

Compilation albums

  • Destiny Street Repaired (2009, Insound)
  • Destiny Street Remixed (2021, Omnivore Records)

Live albums

  • Funhunt: Live at CBGB's and Max's 1978 and 1979 (1990, ROIR)
  • Gone to Hell (2008, Vinyl Japan)

As Richard Hell

Compilation albums

  • R.I.P. (1984, ROIR)
  • Across the Years box set (1991, Soyo Records)
  • Time (2002, Matador Records)
  • Spurts: The Richard Hell Story (2005, Sire Records/Rhino Records)

EPs

  • Another World (1976, Ork/Stiff Records)
  • 3 New Songs (1992, Overground Records)
  • Go Now (1995, CodeX/Tim-Kerr Records)

With Dim Stars

Studio albums

  • Dim Stars (1992, Caroline Records)

EPs

  • Dim Stars (1991, Ecstatic Peace!)

Bibliography

  • Wanna Go Out? <small>with Tom Verlaine, as "Theresa Stern"</small> (1973, Dot Books)
  • I Was a Spiral on the Floor (1988, Soyo Publications)
  • Artifact: Notebooks from Hell 1974–1980. No. 37 (1990, Hanuman Books)
  • Across the Years (1992, Soyo Publications)
  • The Voidoid (1993, CodeX)
  • Go Now (1996, Scribner)
  • Weather (1998, CUZ Editions)
  • Hot and Cold (2001, powerHouse Books)
  • Rabbit Duck <small>with David Shapiro</small> (2005, Repair Books)
  • Godlike (2005, Akashic Books)
  • The Toilet Paper Columns (2007, CUZ Editions)
  • Psychopts <small>with Christopher Wool</small> (2008, JMc & GHB)
  • Disgusting (2010, 38th Street Publishers)
  • I Dreamed I Was a Very Clean Tramp (2013, Ecco)
  • Massive Pissed Love: Nonfiction 2001-2014 (2015, Soft Skull Press)

Filmography

  • Final Reward (1978)
  • Blank Generation (1980)
  • Smithereens (1982)
  • Geek Maggot Bingo (1983)
  • Desperately Seeking Susan (1985)
  • No Picnic (1987)
  • What About Me (1993)
  • Blind Light (1998)

References

Further reading

  • The Richard Hell Papers are located in the Fales Library at New York University. The Fales Library Guide to the Richard Hell Papers
  • Nathan Brackett. The New Rolling Stone Album Guide, Simon and Schuster (2004)<!--ISBN?-->
  • Mallory Curley. A Cookie Mueller Encyclopedia, Randy Press (2010)
  • Bernard Gendron. Between Montmartre and the Mudd Club: Popular Music and the Avant-Garde, University of Chicago Press (2002) <!--ISBN?-->
  • Clinton Heylin. From the Velvets to the Voidoids, Penguin Books (1993)
  • Legs McNeil and Gillian McCain. Please Kill Me, the Uncensored Oral History of Punk, Grove Press (1996)
  • Al Spicer. The Rough Guide to Punk, Rough Guides/Penguin (2006)
  • Richard Hell's official website
  • Richard Hell Papers at Fales Library and Special Collections at New York University
  • Interview with Richard Hell about Wikipedia and "what is truth" (2008)File:Richard Hell to David Shankbone on Wikipedia and truth.ogg

<!--======================== ============================

| PLEASE BE CAUTIOUS IN ADDING MORE LINKS TO THIS ARTICLE. Wikipedia |

| is not a collection of links nor should it be used for advertising. |

| |

| Excessive or inappropriate links WILL BE DELETED. |

| See Wikipedia:External links & Wikipedia:Spam for details. |

| |

| If there are already plentiful links, please propose additions or |

| replacements on this article's discussion page, or submit your link |

| to the relevant category at the Open Directory Project (dmoz.org) |

| and link back to that category using the template. |

======================= =============================-->