Editing Richard Hell and the Voidoids (section)

== History ==
[[Kentucky]]-born [[Richard Hell|Richard Meyers]] moved to New York City after dropping out of high school in 1966, aspiring to become a poet. He and his best friend from high school, [[Tom Verlaine|Tom Miller]], founded the rock band the [[Neon Boys]] which became [[Television (band)|Television]] in 1973.{{sfn|Hannon|2010|p=98}} The pair adopted stage names; Miller called himself Verlaine after [[Paul Verlaine]], a French poet he admired, and Meyers became [[Richard Hell]] because, as he has said, it described his condition.{{citation needed|date=August 2015}}

The group was the first rock band to play the club [[CBGB]], which soon became a breeding ground for the early [[punk rock]] scene in New York.{{sfn|Hannon|2010|p=98}} Hell had an energetic stage presence and wore torn clothing held together with safety pins and his hair spiked, which was to be influential in punk fashion.{{sfn|Finney|2012|p=5}} In 1975, after a failed management deal with the [[New York Dolls]], impresario [[Malcolm McLaren]] claimed to have brought these ideas back with him to England and eventually incorporated them into the [[Sex Pistols]]' image,{{sfn|Finney|2012|pp=47–48}} a claim which Sex Pistols' front man [[John Lydon]]/Johnny Rotten disputes, citing his own existing use of safety pins and spiked hair (dyed green) prior to joining the Pistols.{{sfn|Lydon|Zimmerman|1994|p=352}}

Disputes with Verlaine led to Hell's departure from Television in April 1975, and he co-founded [[the Heartbreakers]] with [[New York Dolls]] guitarist [[Johnny Thunders]]. Hell did not last long with this band,{{sfn|Hannon|2010|p=99}} and he began recruiting members for a new band in early 1976.{{sfn|Hermes|2011|p=207}} For guitarists, Hell found [[Robert Quine]] and [[Ivan Julian]]—Quine had worked in a bookstore with Hell, and Julian responded to an advertisement in ''[[The Village Voice]]''. They lifted drummer [[Marky Ramone|Marc Bell]], later Marky Ramone, from [[Wayne County & the Electric Chairs|Wayne County]]. The band was named "the Voidoids" after a novel Hell had been writing.{{sfn|Hermes|2011|p=207}}

Musically, Hell drew inspiration from acts such as [[Bob Dylan]], [[the Rolling Stones]], [[the Beatles]], [[proto-punk|protopunk]] band [[the Stooges]] and fellow New Yorker group [[the Velvet Underground]], a group with a reputation for [[heroin]]-fueled rock and roll with poetic lyrics.{{sfn|Finney|2012|pp=24–29}} Quine's admiration of the Velvet Underground led him to make hours' worth of [[bootleg recording]]s of the band in the late 1960s.{{citation needed|date=December 2014}} Hell also drew from—and covered—[[garage rock]] bands such as [[the Seeds]] and the [[Count Five]] that were found on the ''[[Nuggets: Original Artyfacts from the First Psychedelic Era, 1965–1968|Nuggets]]'' compilation of 1972.{{sfn|Finney|2012|pp=25–26}} The Voidoids' music was also characterized as [[art punk]].<ref name="OL">«[http://www.outsideleft.com/main.php?updateID=856 Rebel Art]», Outsideleft</ref><ref name="Brookes">Brookes, Tim (2006) ''Guitar: An American Life'', Grove/Atlantic, {{ISBN|978-0-8021-4258-0}}</ref>

Hell had written the song "[[Blank Generation (song)|Blank Generation]]" while still in Television; he had played it regularly with the band since at least 1975, and later with the Heartbreakers.{{sfn|Finney|2012|p=30}} The Voidoids released a 7" ''Blank Generation'' [[Extended play|EP]] in 1976 on Ork Records{{sfn|Hermes|2011|p=207}} including "Blank Generation", "Another World" and "You Gotta Lose". The cover featured a black-and-white cover photo taken by Hell's former girlfriend [[Roberta Bayley]], depicting a bare-chested Hell with an open jeans zipper.{{sfn|Balls|2014|p=58}} It was an underground hit, and the band signed to [[Sire Records]] for its album debut.{{sfn|Balls|2014|p=59}}