20th Century Boy: Notebooks of the Seventies: Duncan Hannah # 1 T.Rex

 

Given the notable death of the last week, I decided for myself that it was time to read this again. A less commented upon passing of the last few months but one that meant something to me. Duncan Hannah, New York based artist and very much face on the scene in the Seventies and afterwards in that city, which I still feel is the finest one on earth. At least among the cities that I've visited.

This book was published a couple of years ago and was my music related book of that year. I didn't know Duncan, though he graciously accepted my Facebook friend request, He posted pictures of his own favourite things on his homepage there. Pictures of records, of works of art, or favourite films. He was most of all an aesthete, an appreciator as well as a producer, of works of beauty. During the Seventies, he came of age in New York, and started hanging out on the CBGB's scene. He had one hell of a time and kept a series of illustrated notebooks to document his experiences which were later reassembled and published here.. It's all about living in the moment and not wanting that moment to slip away unrecorded. He later became an excellent artist himself. He writes wonderfully here. His style reminds me of Fitzgerald sometimes, though Kerouac apparently was his formative authorial influence.

In his preface Duncan writes about where he came from. A priviledged upbringing in Mineapolis.His father 'a dapper corporate lawyer, (think James Mason)' who suffered from depression all his life and wished he'd stayed in the navy. His mother a great beauty.They visited Europe several times a year, frequented Country Clubs, sent their children to elite Private Schools.

The late Sixties hit Duncan hard and he made the most of it. Experimenting heavily in drugs and embracing the Counter Culture. In his own words he 'was eager to move to New York and join the fray.' He did just that, and his journals cover that rites of passage experience. New York was pretty much dirt cheap then and it was possible to live the bohemian dream, immolate and re-invent yourself. At the end of the book, he does just that, at the age of 28 in 1979 where the story ends.