"Legs McNeil revisits his hard-knock adolescence and run-ins with Lou Reed, the Ramones, and Talking Heads with a finely honed sense of mischief. Essential reading for anyone who came along too late for CBGB--or arrived on time but can't quite recall what happened." --Graydon Carter, former editor of Vanity Fair and cofounder of Air Mail and Spy "Having read this propulsive, gasp-inducing mosh pit of memories, I'm not 100% sure that 100% of Legs lived to tell this tale. But what's left of him has written a knockout book." --Patton Oswalt, actor and comedian "Legs is a true original and he was THERE, baby. Personally, I can never get enough of this ." --John Taylor, musician and author of In the Pleasure Groove: Love, Death, and Duran Duran "Legs McNeil has made a profession out of inviting mockery. Few have been able to resist accepting, but among his admirers have been Sinead O'Connor, Norman Mailer, and a sexually disadvantaged elderly rich woman in the vicinity of Cheshire, Connecticut.

I did love finding out about his childhood. Eddie Haskell (look him up) was a kindred soul. Obsequious ineptitude, with a suburban-swamp dash of surly, as survival tactic and comedy engine. The Legs is still standing. You have to salute him. Viva Legs!" --Richard Hell, rock star and poet "Legs tells a story I remember well; through a haze of heroin and coke-soaked lenses told in utterances that stink of puke and stale beer, when Times Square was a real red-light district temple to vice and depravity and the Bowery had real 'dive-bars.' The music was as raw, violent, and dangerous as the streets. Literature came out of pulp paperbacks.

Politics came out of Screw Magazine . And art came out of underground comix and fanzines. It was a time when we were all innocent before our fall from paradise." --Joe Coleman, artist "Legs McNeil has always been the coolest guy in the room. He's also a brilliant writer. Resident Punk is a heartfelt, hilarious, hell-bent journey through a downtown NYC that's been lost forever. A fantastic memoir." --Elizabeth Hand, award-winning author of A Haunting on the Hill "The sordid story of a dissolute youth.

" --Roberta Bayley, photographer who shot the Ramones' first album "I have known Legs for half a century. Always thought he was a keeper. This funny, wise, autumnal yet still dukes-up autobiography proves it. Punk roots here!" --Mark Jacobson, author of The Lampshade: A Holocaust Detective Story from Buchenwald to New Orleans "I've been way too busy making a living, but I finally finished Legs McNeil's stupid book. Now I know way more about him than I would ever care to, so thanks for that! Despite the trauma, I really enjoyed it. I still can't believe Legs can form whole sentences, never mind put enough of them together to make a paragraph." --Elaine Aaronson, comedy writer for The Larry Sanders Show "Before there was punk, Legs McNeil was the prototype. When punk was a scene, he was the living embodiment.

When punk was a genre, he was the chronicler. Now that punk is an American subculture, Legs is the Godfather, a pop culture superhero who tells his origin story so intimately that you can smell the warm beer. This punk Pilgrim's Progress speeds by like a song by the Ramones, as stark as William S. Burrough's Junky and more hilarious than Will by G. Gordon Liddy." --Burt Kearns, author of Marlon Brando: Hollywood Rebel and SHEMP!.