Lexicon Devil:  The Fast Times and Short Life of Darby Crash and the Germs
Since his heroin overdose in 1980, Darby Crash has become a  symbol of punk irreverence, but his posthumous fame has tended  to overshadow the seminal work of the punk band he fronted, the  Germs. Mullen (who coauthored We Got the Neutron Bomb: The  Untold Story of L.A. Punk), along with ex-Germs drummer Bolles  and writer Parfrey, quickly deconstructs the myth of Crash (n   Jan Paul Beahm) to reveal an embattled and confused soul who  struggled with drug use and his homosexuality. Featuring raw  quotations from Crash's peers in the burgeoning 1970s West Coast  punk scene, the book offers both positive and negative views of  the singer and the scene that raised him. Crash's fans were  known for their cultish reverence, and Crash himself is shown to  be a self-conscious misfit who used psychological ploys to  enlist followers. It is unlikely that this book will reach a  wide audience and thus imbue Crash's legacy with more humanity  and, in turn, the Germs with more respectability, but it does  strengthen the growing literature on American punk music.  Recommended for popular music collections, especially as a  complement to We Got the Neutron Bomb, which covers similar  ground and whose oral history format this book  replicates. Robert Morast, "Argus Leader," Sioux Falls, SDCopyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.