| Under The Big Black Sun: A Personal History of L.A. Punk | |
| Author: | John Doe |
| Country: | United States |
| Language: | English |
| Subject: | Punk rock |
| Genre: | Music |
| Publisher: | Da Capo Press |
| Release Date: | 2016 |
| Isbn: | 978-0306824081 |
Under The Big Black Sun: A Personal History of L.A. Punk is a book by John Doe of the American punk rock band X and co-author Tom DeSavia. The book examines the evolution of Los Angeles punk rock between 1977-1982, covering the years between the emergence of punk as an underground phenomenon and ending as some of the musicians in the scene crossed over to mainstream success.[1] The book featured guest chapters by Exene Cervenka (Doe's ex-wife and co-lead vocalist in X); along with Jane Wiedlin and Charlotte Caffey of The Go-Go's, Mike Watt of Minutemen, and Henry Rollins of Black Flag.[2] Green Day's Billie Joe Armstrong penned a foreword for the book.[3]
The audiobook version received a Grammy Award nomination[4] in the "spoken word" category.[5]
Eric Noble-Marks of Exclaim! gave the book 7 out of 10 commented that although it is "flawed and incomplete," the book "is valuable for not only giving us a glimpse into what punk rock looked like and sounded like, but also what it felt like."[6] Ryan Bray of The A.V. Club gave the book a "B" rating and noted the potential difficulty of the "erratic structure of DeSavia and Doe’s narrative."[7] Jedd Beaudoin of PopMatters gave the book eight out of ten stars and said the memoirs allow the reader to "feel something akin to being there."[8]