NuDisc

Not exactly the kind of book that makes most people’s summer reading lists, PAUL COLLINS’ I Don’t Fit In: My Wild Ride Through the Punk & Power Pop Trenches with The Nerves & The Beat (co-written with Chuck Nolan) is, indeed, a wild ride through the rollercoaster rock ’n’ roll scene of the late ’70s/early ’80s. Not only is it that, it’s a pretty quick and exciting read that’s full of the kind of anecdotes that make you wonder why anyone, ever, wanted to get into the music business in the first place.

Paul Collins first met some fame – albeit on a small scale – as the drummer for The Nerves, a San Francisco-then-L.A. band that also featured Peter Case (later of The Plimsouls) and Jack Lee, the guy who wrote one of Blondie’s greatest songs (“Hanging on the Telephone”). That band didn’t so much implode as it just came to a slow, indeterminate stop. Collins ’n’ Case switched to guitars and tried a new version of the band, called The Breakaways, that didn’t go anywhere, and then each went his own separate way. Collins kept writing songs (The Nerves had already recorded his “Working Too Hard”) and quickly assembled The Beat, who were almost instantly signed to Columbia/CBS Records, given a big name producer (Bruce Botnick, who had worked with The Doors and Love), and started what they hoped would be a swift ascension into the ranks of the great rock bands. Well, you already know that didn’t happen, right? DESPITE a killer debut album, which included power pop classics like “Rock ’N’ Roll Girl,” the book’s title track, “Don’t Wait Up for Me,” – hell, just about every song on The Beat is a winner. But sometimes a great record can’t survive things like: record company politics, promotions mixups, band name issues (you remember The English Beat? Well, they’re called The Beat outside the USA), band member squabbles, lovelife issues, etc. etc.

Without giving too much of the book away – ’cause there are some real juicy stories in here, good, bad, ugly – one thing is true: Paul Collins is a fighter. He hasn’t always been right, hasn’t always been wrong, but boy, could he write a great song! I Don’t Fit In tells his story very well and is the best rock memoir I’ve read in a long time. It’s first printing of 500 copies has already sold out but it’s available in its second printing from HoZac Books and you can order it directly from them. Power pop fans will want to snap it up, pronto. If you wait too long and they’re gone, to recall one of Paul’s great songs, you won’t be happy. – Marsh Gooch

5/5 (HoZac Books HZB-009, 2020; available from their website)