Books About SF Punk and Hardcore

Punk ’77 (RESearch Publications) by James Stark, is not only a great-looking book with excellent photos, it is also a fantastic look at the golden age of San Francisco punk. I initially picked up this book while researching my now back-burnered Flipper book, but noticed it has some great pics of Will Shatter from when he was in Negative Trend and Grand Mal.

Gimme Something Better (Penguin Books) by Jack Boulware and Silke Tudor is an exhaustive look at the San Francisco underground scene from 1976 all the way up to the late ‘90s. There is included a chapter on Flipper and it is a very interesting book. Tons of information.

I would recommend both books for anyone interested in San Francisco underground music history. Both use a lot of quotes from people who were there. In fact, Gimme Something Better is virtually all quotes, while Punk ’77 uses both quotes and narration by Stark.