Entertainment

First off, when Richard Hell sports some shaggy, long locks he looks like Gene Simmons. That’s not good, bad or indifferent. It just is. And will remain amusing to me until the end of time.

Either way, after helping solidify the direction of Television alongside Tom Verlaine and subsequently an early line up of the Heartbreakers, Hell went off on his own to write one of the definitive songs of the initial wave of punk stuff. “Black Generation,” although endlessly interpreted in different ways, remains a readily identifiable landmark in the genre’s develop, both musically and lyrically. Basically, it’s just good stuff.