Richard Hell Repairs the Voidoids' 1982 Album "Destiny Street"

In 1982, Richard Hell & the Voidoids released their second and final album Destiny Street, the follow-up to the group's punk epic Blank Generation. Now, 27 years after Destiny Street's release, Richard Hell is revisiting the album and putting it out as Destiny Street Repaired — Hell rerecorded the entire album with the help of three guitarists: Tom Waits collaborator Marc Ribot, jazz guitarist Bill Frisell and original Voidoid Ivan Julian. The album, which features fresh vocals but the original rhythm track, will be released in multiple formats via Insound on September 1st.

"At the time of the original recording I was so debilitated by despair and drug-need that I was useless," Hell says in a press release. "The record ended up being a high-pitched sludge of guitar noise. It was a shame because the songs were clean, simple, and well-constructed, but those values were sabotaged by the inappropriate arrangements and production." Destiny Street has been unavailable since 2006, when Hell deliberately made the album out-of-print after regaining the rights to the LP. Upon finding the original rhythm tracks, Hell decided to remake the album as it was originally intended. "I couldn't resist trying to use them to fill and patch up the sinking feeling that the thought of the record had always produced in me," Hell adds.

Destiny Street Repaired will come in two formats: The standard CD and the limited-edition deluxe CD/vinyl/poster set. The CD and the vinyl will both carry the 10 repaired Destiny songs — which include covers of Bob Dylan and the Kinks — however the deluxe will feature a bonus CD sporting two songs: the unreleased 1979 demo "Smitten" and the demo for "Funhunt," which was previously only available in a hard-to-find live version. Plus, all 1,000 of the limited-edition Destiny sets come hand-numbered and signed by Hell himself. For more details on the album, check out Hell's Insound page.

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Song Stories

“All Along the Watchtower”

The Jimi Hendrix Experience | 1968

Jimi Hendrix got hold of Bob Dylan's early John Wesley Harding tapes and in late 1967 recorded a version of "All Along the Watchtower" with the Experience in London. Dissatisfied with that first development, Hendrix brought those tapes with him to New York in early 1968 when he began work on Electric Ladyland. Eddie Kramer, Hendrix's engineer at the time, told Rolling Stone that Hendrix "was still looked upon by his basically white audience as the mammoth black guitar hero. There was a constant fight within him to expand himself." Hendrix's successful take on Dylan's work has long been recognized by the songwriter. "I liked Jimi Hendrix's record of this and ever since he died I've been doing it that way," Dylan wrote in the liner notes to his Biograph box set. "Strange how when I sing it, I always feel it's a tribute to him in some kind of way."

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