All Ages: Reflections on Straight Edge

by Beth Lahickey

With All Ages, Beth Lahickey presents a comprehensive overview of an underground hardcore music scene. The book includes 29 interviews with people involved in the straight edge scene, some of whom are now in prominent bands.

Genres: Music, Punk, Nonfiction, Memoir, Biography

223 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1997

Reviews

[Alex Ankarr · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read it yonks ago, loved it. Basically bought it for Fugazi, but all the other interviews had something to offer and some insight into the scene. Little snapshots of lives being fully experienced, used up to the last drop. Nicely put together, great photos and flyers/posters, just insightful and smart and great. Life-enhancing, philosophically stimulating, inspiring.

[Gabe · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good book if you were ever into hardcore punk and or the straight edge movement. I was sad to find out that most of my childhood heroes are no longer straight edge.

[Scott · Rating 4 out of 5]

The title of this book is a bit misleading, since All Ages is really just about the late 80's East Coast straight edge hardcore scene and not, as the title might imply, about straight edge in general. However, this is actually a good thing since there have been a zillion books about the beginnings of the straight edge movement in the early 80's Washington D.C. hardcore scene, and this is the only book (that I know of, anyway) about the "second wave."

All Ages offers a well-edited collection of interviews, stories, and photos, providing a very clear picture of the key bands and timeline, and most importantly how straight edge had evolved and changed both musically and culturally from its early 80's roots. The author doesn't simply drop you in the middle of things and assume you know how you got there - a common shortcoming of books like this since they tend to be written with a select audience in mind and therefore assume a lot of prior knowledge - this book could probably be read by someone with no prior exposure to hardcore. Not that they'd want to, but you know. Anyway, it's the only book on this topic, and luckily for us it's good.

[brian · Rating 2 out of 5]

oral histories seem like an easy way out (as opposed to actually *writing* a book), and there are a lot of them these days, but at least Lahickey talks to key people from seminal sXe bands like Gorilla Biscuits, Youth of Today, Bold, etc. many of the stories told by the interviewees in "All Ages" read the same, but being that sXe started out as a very small scene created by middle class, suburban, white, teenage boys there's bound to be a common thread. most of the first wavers interviewed seemed to decry sXe's descent into pious, militant assholery, but nobody made any explanation as to why, or, more importantly, make any efforts to combat said assholery, the exception being Ian Mackaye. the lack of women in the hardcore & sXe scenes wasn't addressed as much i would've liked, which is interesting being that the editor of the book is a woman. most of the questions or comments about hardcore/sXe being one big boys club are met with a shoulder shrugging "yup, that's the way it was" kind of attitude. that doesn't make for much of an analysis on exclusion.

[Kate · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was definitely better when I read it in 1998.

[Corey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beth Lachickey, in this collection of interviews, documents the second wave of straight edge in a particular time and within particular places. The interviewees were prominent members in the hardcore community: promoters, band members, and general scene participants. Her intent was not to promote the intoxicant free, sober lifestyle, but rather to analyze the appeal of straight edge and look back on an important part in each of the interviewees young-adult life.
Demographically, the interviewees, speak to larger issues in the second wave of straight edge, which I contend starts around 1985 in the emergence of such bands as- Youth of Today, Judge, Bold, No For An Answer, and Gorilla Biscuits. Of the 29 individuals interviewed, only four were women and all were white. The women, particularly Glynis Hull-Rochelle, spoke of straight edge as a boys only club. She quotes, “the demographics of every single straight edge practitioner I knew were completely alien to me: they were, almost all young white wealthy suburban boys who were athletically and musically inclined, or tried to be” (pg. 73). This boys only club rhetoric emerged in the rise of youth crew (Youth of Today, Judge, Gorilla Biscuits, Brotherhood, and Unit Pride). Born in the quiet upper-middle class New York City suburbs of Astoria and Danbury, the youth crew movement transformed older and out-dated images of straight edge. Initially and made visible in the interview with Ian MacKaye- who is cited as coining the term- straight edge was a way to upset the status quo, while keeping a clear conscious within the punk community. Not only a response against the mainstream, but also other movements within punk that relied on escape through drug and sex experimentation, individualism paved the straight edge yellow-brick road. The youth crew movement upset this tone; straight edge became a particular style, attitude, and demographic.
What is notable in the explosion of this supposed second wave is the inherent class division. Young, punk, and outcast suburban boys wanted to belong. Straight edge allowed them to be ‘cool,’ but also provided a release from suburban discontent and frustration. Raybeez, singer of WarZone and street resident of the Lower East Side discusses his relationship with straight edge as something that can be jumped into and out of. He quotes, “sometimes it seems that a lot of kids just do it to fit into a trend or because of music. Back then, it was our life. Everyone stopped doing drugs cause we were scared that we were going to die. It wasn’t a joke. It wasn’t a music trend” (pg. 138). These encounters suggest class-distinctions within straight edge where young suburban boys longed for inclusion and were in awe of Ray Cappo’s on stage charisma and sheer energy. In the case of RayBeez and I would suggest the larger hardcore community in the Lower East Side, straight edge wasn’t about inclusion, but a necessity. However, older, original, New York hardcore bands such as: Agnostic Front, Sick of It All, the Cro Mags, and Murphy’s Law were, for the most part, not attracted to the straight edge. (See Richie Birkenhead quotes).
Conducted years after their on stage banter and constant touring, almost all of the interviewees have moved beyond straight edge. The reasons behind their disavowment speak to the very issues raised in this review. Ashamed of the monster they created, straight edge participants moved on to college to experiment with drugs, sex, and the tribulations of normalcy. Straight edge rebellion, allowed them- to momentarily- create spaces of sobriety. Though premised on individualism, the movement began to replicate the very structures they were trying eradicate. A new social center was created, whose crux was a particular style, attitude and mentality.

[Ricardo Guerreiro · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ok, nice reading if you're into knowing a bit more about straightedge and hardcore punk in general. Enjoyable content, nice stories to add to your musical culture. Not a deep book but do they always need to be?

[Scott Foster · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not bad but not great. Lots of almost patronizing reminiscing on a scene/subculture that brought the individuals in this book their "fame and notoriety". A good read but definitely not a true reflection of straight edge.

[Paul Maniscalco · Rating 5 out of 5]

for geeky punk rock types.

[Kent · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good book of interviews and insight into the straight edge scene of the mid 80's into the 90's. It's a pretty good book if your interested in the ideals and contradictions on the SxE scene.

[Sean · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was very glad that this wasn't just about the sXe movement... It was more a history of 80's east coast hardcore, which is the best.

[Niels Lodewijk]

Book with portrets and interviews of/with important people in straight edge hardcore. Worth reading if you're into hardcore bands.

[Lys · Rating 5 out of 5]

Interview formatted book on all views of straight edge, not restricted to only those who are and support it. Provides an insight of all sides instead of a preaching gospel.

[Valzebub · Rating 4 out of 5]

Probably a bit outdated now, but when it came out it was quite the insight into the early straight edge scene. I assume still worth a read but I haven't looked at it in over a decade.

[Siamese Twin Cobra · Rating 4 out of 5]

Books like this are great for young people exploring straight edge and hardcore, especially if you don't really know anyone better versed in these topics. The hardcore scene wasn't exactly front-and-center culturally when I read this book in post-9/11 suburban America, so this was a good place to start exploring the (sub)genre's origins and history. Is everyone highlighted/featured actually straight edge? No, but Peter Steele and Dan Lilker were both in the Grimoire Death Metal documentary at significant length without actually playing in death metal bands. At the end of the day, did their contributions help me understand the subject matter? Yes, and that's the most important thing.

[kyle · Rating 3 out of 5]

Learned a lot about Rev and the era, but it’s a very redundant read! Lots of the same experiences about touring, going to CB’s, talking about violence, thinking SXE is a clique, etc. over and over again. I would say this is a good coffee table book because reading it straight thru is exhausting. Would recommend chipping away at it on your own terms.

[Joe · Rating 5 out of 5]

Viele interessante Interviews mit Beteiligten und Beobachtern der Szene. Angenehm zu lesen und ist genau das, was es sein will. Für Menschen die sich für sXe oder Hardcore interessieren definitiv lesenswert!

[Don Books Brown · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm a fan of punk. I've also been straightedge (or straight edge) for twenty one years. I enjoyed reading the experience of various straightedge fans and members of pivotal bands from the youth crew era.

[Carl]

This books dates from the mid-90s. It is comprised of interviews with various people who participated in the straightedge punk scene in the mid-80s and early 90s. Various members of Gorilla Biscuits, Youth of Today, 7 Seconds, Bold, Warzone, Fugazi, etc. are interviewed, along with various others from fans to record label people etc. Pretty fun read. Would be interested in reading a more recent take on the history of straightedge punk music and ethos.

[Larry-bob Roberts · Rating 3 out of 5]

Wish it was deeper. Maybe some comparisons/contrasts with past temperance movements, for instance.

[Mary · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've used it for University level papers!