Punk Rock. Prehistory. Walks on the Wild Side: From Bob Dylan to Captain Beefheart

Mikhail Kuzishchev is a music journalist, researcher, and blogger. He is the author of a number of interviews with foreign musicians, published in Russian outlets such as Zvuki.ru, InRock, Music Box, “SOYUZ” (Soyuz.Ru), and others. He is a laureate of the A. M. Zvereva prize from the journal “Foreign Literature” for material about Bob Dylan’s lyrics. For twenty years he has been co-host—together with Vladimir Ilyinsky—of the radio program “120 minutes of rock classics” on the station “Echo of Moscow.” He is the author of a radio series about the history of punk rock, “Walks on the Wild Side,” broadcast from 2006 to 2014. Mikhail Kuzishchev’s book “Punk Rock. Background Story. Walks on the Wild Side: from Bob Dylan to Captain Beefheart” is a story of the origins of American punk rock. It includes texts about bands and performers from the 1960s who stood at the beginning of this genre and challenged the popular music of that era—from the iconic and widely known—Bob Dylan and The Velvet Underground—to the little-known but uniquely unforgettable—The Shaggs. The author managed to talk personally with some musicians: with Ernie Brooks from The Modern Lovers and with John “Drambo” French, a close associate of Captain Beefheart.