Destiny Street Complete: An Interview With Richard Hell & Show # 868

Originally released in 1982 on the Red Star label, Destiny Street is the second and final album by Richard Hell & The Voidoids. It followed their classic debut released on Sire Records in 1977, Blank Generation.  In between this time, Richard Hell & The Voidoids toured the UK for 19 dates with The Clash. A single also came out in 1979, recorded and produced by Nick Lowe (The Kid With The Replaceable Head/I’m Your Man) on Jake Riviera’s Radar Records. However, Hell didn’t really like to tour. The Voidoids would still tour, but infrequently and only when they had to. Due to this, the band lineup would change often.  When it came time to record the follow up to Blank Generation, The Voidoids featured original members Richard Hell on bass/vocals and Robert Quine on guitar, Naux (Juan Maciel) on second guitar and Fred Maher on Drums. Destiny Street was recorded and mixed in about a three-week span in 1981. Richard Hell was also in a different state at this time, finding it difficult to go into the studio on some days. As stated in his autobiography I Dreamed I Was A Very Clean Tramp he was “Strung so tightly … couldn’t tolerate the thought of stepping outside.”

The album opens with “The Kid With The Replaceable Head." Attacking at a wilder pace than the 1979 single version, the song also has an undeniable swing to it. As the solos trade off and Hell’s bass drives in between, Fred Maher’s drums deliver an undeniable groove. With lyrics such as “They say he's dead, he's my three best friends/He's so honest that the dishonest dread” this song, Hell’s attempt to write a pop song, starts off Destiny Street questioning identity and being honest with yourself. “I Gotta Move” is a reinterpreted and energetic version of a song originally by The Kinks. It is also the second track on Destiny Street and the first of three covers. “Going Going Gone” a song originally by Bob Dylan follows.  The song brings down the tempo contrasting with the earlier up-tempo tracks. Everything about this track excels. The guitar work by Quine, the bass and vocals by Hell deliver an honesty and desperation that penetrates not only this track, but also all of Destiny Street. “Lowest Common Dominator” drives with pseudo disco rock grooves, the guitar work by Naux is scathing as it accelerates in the verses (he trades off solos with Quine later on in this track) and with the propelling drums and bass that really digs in with the vocals. Lyrically, with words such as “Acknowledging at all that you have had an effect/Well, that alone will make you feel so tough/Oh, we'll just leave you knowin'/Your worm insides are showin'/And that's a revenge enough,” “Lowest Common Dominator” delivers seething lyrics about the dominating, two face type of person. “Downtown At Dawn” flirts with 80s styled New York funk. The lyrics operate like a riddle with a poignancy as the listener wanders in and out of the late 70s/early 80s New York nightlife and themes of alienation, anxiety and despair paint themselves throughout the lyrics.  

“Time” is one of Richard Hell’s best songs. Both lyrically and musically this song sucks the listener into its vortex, not in an aggressive way, but more in a jangly, trance-like way. While there is an influence of The Byrds found here, the song is completely its own. The guitar work and solos on this song and on “Going Going Gone” by Robert Quine are in a class of their own. Lyrically, the song with its strong melodies and poetically honest lyrics such as “Only time can write a song that's really really real/The most a man can do is say the way its playing feels/And know he only knows as much as time to him reveals” are enduring and thought provoking. “I Can Only Give You Everything” is the third cover found on Destiny Street and it captures the spirit of “real gone rock and roll,” which is the sound that Hell wanted to achieve with Destiny Street. This on edge version of a song originally by Them is described in the CD linear notes to Destiny Street Complete as compelling, being reduced "To a marching song, strung out as if the guitars were razor wire threaded through the knotted strand of drums in cartoony shapes against the void." It ends in complete chaos. “Ignore That Door” continues the themes present on the album. It hustles with conviction, an anti-drug message, duelling guitar solos and plenty of ooh’s. 

“Staring In Her Eyes” surrenders itself to the lyrics and music. It is a mid-tempo love song that at one point states “Stare like a corpse in each's eyes/Till you never want to come alive and rise.” The final track of Destiny Street is the title track. It pulsates with funkier bass and drum rhythms. It was a collaboration that came to be in the studio as Hell intertwines a tale throughout about meeting a younger version of yourself and being seduced by that younger self. The song itself ties in many themes found on Destiny Street, but also operates as a cautionary tale about the temptations of the past and future as stated in the lyrics “Playing for the past or future/Is playing with a fool's paradise.”  

The new Destiny Street Complete version of this album released by Omnivore Recordings presents every version of the album available. It is a remastered, remixed and repaired reissue. It features the original 1982 Destiny Street remastered, the repaired version from 2009, which featured Hell doing new vocals over the bed tracks (of drums, rhythm guitar, bass), guitar contributions from Marc Ribot, Bill Frisell and Ivan Julian and the 2021 remixed version of Destiny Street. When the three of the original master tapes were found in 2019, the album was remixed by Richard Hell, Nick inner of the Yeah Yeah Yeah’s and engineered by Erin Tonkin. In addition to this, there are also demos, singles and some outtakes. There is a studio outtake version of the song “Don’t Die” which is a moment captured in time that has an urgency and focus that utterly captivating.  

When it was originally released, Richard Hell was dissatisfied with Destiny Street. The master tapes were said to have been lost and the album mix “was a morass of trebly multi-guitar sludge." When Destiny Street was released in 1982, it did receive some good critical reviews, but it never quite had the impact that it should have. Now in 2021, we can look at the album and its evolution. The remixed version of the album is great. It revitalizes Destiny Street, enhancing the best moments that were lost in the original 1982 mix. It gives the album and these songs a new life. You can even get a remixed 11-track version of the album on on its own vinyl via Omnivore or you can listen to the Destiny Street Complete version. But, you decide. There are many paths you can take to rediscover this underappreciated classic by Richard Hell & The Voidoids, but whatever path you take all roads lead to Destiny Street.  

Listen to an interview that Revolution Rock did with Richard Hell:

Destiny Street Complete Playlist (Originally Aired On February 6th, 2021):  

1.  Richard Hell & The Voidoids - The Kid With The Replaceable Head (Destiny Street Remaster) (Destiny Street Complete - Omnivore Recordings - 2021)
2.  Richard Hell & The Voidoids - Staring In Her Eyes (Destiny Street Repaired) (Destiny Street Complete - Omnivore Recordings - 2021)
3.  Richard Hell & The Voidoids - Time (Destiny Street Remixed) (Destiny Street Complete - Omnivore Recordings - 2021)
4.  Richard Hell & The Voidoids - Don't Die (Single Version) (Destiny Street Complete - Omnivore Recordings - 2021)

RICHARD HELL INTERVIEW PART ONE

5.  Richard Hell & The Voidoids - Love Comes In Spurts (Blank Generation - Sire Records - 1977)
6.  Richard Hell & The Voidoids - I'm Your Man (1977 Demo) (Time - Matador Records - 2002)
7.  Richard Hell - The Hunter Was Drowned (Time - Matador Records - 2002/R.I.P. - ROIR - 1984)
8.  Dim Stars - Baby Huey (Let's Dance) (Dim Stars - Caroline Records/New Rose Records - 1992/Spurts: The Richard Hell Story - Rhino - 2005)

RICHARD HELL INTERVIEW PART TWO

9.  Richard Hell & The Voidoids - You Gotta Lose (Another World EP - Ork Records - 1976)
10.  Neon Boys - That's All I Know (Right Now) (Spurts: The Richard Hell Story - Rhino - 2005)
11.  The Heartbreakers - Hurt Me (Demo) (Time - Matador Records - 2002/R.I.P. - ROIR - 1984)
12.  Television - Blank Generation (Live) (Spurts: The Richard Hell Story - Rhino - 2005)
13.  Richard Hell & The Voidoids - Ignore That Door (Live) (Funhunt: Live at CBGB's & Max's 1978 and 1979 - ROIR - 1990)
14.  Richard Hell & The Voidoids - Lowest Common Dominator (Destiny Street Remaster) (Destiny Street Complete - Omnivore Recordings - 2021)
15.  Richard Hell & The Voidoids - Going Going Gone (Demo) (Destiny Street Complete - Omnivore Recordings - 2021)
16.  Richard Hell & The Voidoids - Funhunt (Demo) (Destiny Street Complete - Omnivore Recordings - 2021)
17.  Richard Hell & The Voidoids - Destiny Street (Destiny Street Remixed) (Destiny Street Complete - Omnivore Recordings - 2021)

Download/listen to this episode here!