Mr hell has an excellent new memoir i dreamed i was a very clean tramp that describes that wild reckless and important era in downtown manhattan with candor wit and reverence the observer charming and impossible hell is the first and best name in punk rock his insights are informed by the romance of running away to the mystery heard in the rowdy grooves of a dirty lp or . A rueful battle scarred darkly witty observer of his own life and times new york timesin his poetic memoir i dreamed i was a very clean tramp hell takes us on a tour of a lost world and stakes out his place in cultural historylos angeles timeshell brings to his new autobiography more literary experience than your typical rock memoirist. Like another reviewer i read i dreamed i was a very clean tramp on the heels of just kids by patti smith there are parallels between the two works to be sure smith and richard hell were contemporaries living in new york at the same time working at the same bookstores performing in the same scene both are considered punk rock pioneers. I dreamed i was a very clean tramp ultimately celebrates passion in all its complicated sometimes dangerous forms usa today hell is a fine writer and full of self knowledge and part of the pleasure of this randy drug addled memoir are his descriptions of new york during the bad old days when crime was rampant and the streets filthy. Mr hell has an excellent new memoir i dreamed i was a very clean tramp that describes that wild reckless and important era in downtown manhattan with candor wit and reverence the observer charming and impossible hell is the first and best name in punk rock his insights are informed by the romance of running away to the mystery heard in the rowdy grooves of a dirty lp or