Punk Spirit! – An Oral History of Punk Rock, Spirituality, and Liberation, John Malkin
Bloomsbury Publishing, Ireland Limited, 29 Earlsfort Terrace, D02 AY28, Dublin 2, Ireland
In short, this is a compilation of mostly recycled interviews from more than 150 interviews conducted over the course of a quarter century, a oral history what people from the punk scene think about religion. My problem is, I’m not interested in religion, I don’t think any of the various religions have anything to do with punk and I’m not a big fan of this kind of oral history. So, in other words, reading this was a drag most of the time and it was impossible to read more than 10-20 pages at a session. You hear all kinds of opinions of people who think they can connect their religion beliefs to punk rock, be it christian, muslim, jewish, buddhism or hare crishna. And in fact, they do it, you can read about it here.
Most of them, of course, don’t understand that they want to create something new in order to satisfy their need for distinction, but of course none of them would ever admit that. In 2026 it should not be discussed how religion fits with punk, any religion was made out of the same need, thousands of years ago, by people who did not even know they have a need for distinction. Instead we should think about how human beings function, or not, since we are all intrinsically flawed creatures and what can be done to overcome that… as thousands of years of war proof, it is impossible. So, if you like to discuss religion, god and all this other bullshit, this is the right book. Of course there is a few people in here, who understand what is going on and are just not interested in religion or „their connection to punk“. Some offer good thoughts, some are godless and religions less just spiritual and there is a interesting part about church from below (Kirche von unten) about punks in the DDR, that was real interesting. Of course some of the quotes of 150 people are good to read, it is just the wrong topic and too much. Some of these people, I won’t name any names, are so full of bullshit, they might as well start a scene that connects conspiracy theory’s with punk. Then again, they are all just humans and do what works best for them – but for enlightened punks it is hard to bear. It seems some of the newer interview bits are more interesting, but drown in the lake of nonsense. Of course this is also a „problem“ of punk itself, since there are no rules, so anybody can walk up and connect it with whatever they feel in order to have something „new“ – lets see how far this goes out of hand – anything is possible. As you can tell by now, I don’t really want to recommend this book. Even if it has a foreword by Penny Rimbaud from Crass and has a ton of interesting people in it. It worked for me, when I was drinking beer and had nothing else to do, since the content is not of such an importance that I need to remember it, I just wish… to be more positive: The author has done a laborious task, he deserves respect for that and there is also some photos in here. Oh, and: the interviews have been by phone, in person or via e-mail, just so you know. 398 Pages, Hardcover, 27,99 Euro (dolf)
Isbn 979-8881802714
[Trust #239 August 2026]
