Richard Hell can certainly count himself among the founders of punk rock; if anyone can be credited with pioneering the spiky hair, ripped T-shirt and safety pin look that became the visual hallmark of punk, it is Richard Meyers, who most know and love – or hate, or love to hate, or hate to love – as Richard Hell.  Of course, there is much more to punk than the pose, and Richard Hell was in at the birth of the form, singing, writing songs, and playing bass with, first and foremost, Tom Verlaine (née Miller) in the original Television, as one of The Heartbreakers with legendary rock martyr Johnny Thunders, and, perhaps most importantly, fronting the Voidoids with guitar-master Robert Quine.  Between these two covers, we get his take on his punk years and more.  Richard Hell has been considering himself more of a writer than a musician for quite a while now, and not without reason:  he has developed a cogent and readable style that is easily several notches above that found in typical a rock memoir and that is pretty much guaranteed to be of interest to anyone with a yen to learn more about those halcyon punk days; but don't expect another Just Kids.