Evolution Of A Cro-Magnon
- April 6th, 2009
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On and off over the years I have heard rumors that John Joseph was in the process of writing a book about his life. When I have had the pleasure of talking to him in person, he has always sworn it was coming soon. Finally, last year it came out and I have to say it was one of the best books I read last year.
Joseph, the singer of the infamous New York City hardcore band the Cro-Mags, tells a tale of an awful, seriously heart breaking, childhood. By far this was the most compelling portion of the book; his stories of growing up bouncing from foster home to foster home and the abuse and alienation involved are both troubling and inspiring. I listened to Joseph’s audio book adaptation of this while running a lot last summer and it made me want to really push harder and harder and harder…
Many readers will want to skip ahead to his involvement with the eighties hardcore scene, and there is plenty of that. Stories about Bad Brains, trying to turn Ian Mackaye onto vegetarianism (people always forget Mackaye was pretty late on that…1985 I believe?), and hanging around people like Mackaye, Henry Rollins, and others are told well and offer some new insights plus a lot of material I already had heard before.
Joseph’s time in the Cro-Mags only takes up the end portion of the book. There have been so many conflicting stories/hearsay/etc about this band that it is hard to take anything without a large grain of salt. That said, I trust Joseph’s stories of being screwed over by managers, band members, and venues a lot more than, let’s say, other members of this band.
I listened to the audio version and according to others there is a lot more material in the printed version. Well worth your time.
