Kenneth Anger’s book Hollywood Babylon made its first appearance in 1965. After less than a week, the book was banned and pulled from the shelves. A decade would pass before the book would be released again.

Anger’s underground classic trolls the back alleys and bedrooms of Hollywood during the first half of the 20th Century up through Sharon Tate’s bloody murder at the hands of the Manson Family. The book offers a combustible mix of wild speculation with a salacious style of scandal spreading that launched a thousand urban legends about silver screen giants like James Dean, Jean Harlow, Marilyn Monroe, Jane Mansfield, Rudolph Valentino and more.

This episode of Arena features Anger himself guiding viewers through the book’s most shocking chapters while also offering illuminating insights into his own films including Fireworks, The Invocation of My Demon Brother, Kustom Kar Kommandos, Scorpio Rising and Lucifer Rising.

Check out Kenneth Anger’s Hollywood Babylon below:

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London Calling is a great collection in a great looking package, but Marcus Gray’s new book  Route 19 Revisited: The Clash and London Calling is a different story. While the book’s cover – and its title – seem to imply that this volume is an examination of the band’s 1979 release and a critical analysis that would argue it’s place among rock’s best records, covers can be misleading.

This is actually much, much more.

Route’ is easily the most exhaustive volume ever produced on The Clash, let alone an almost-omniscient examination of the making-of London Calling. Before Gray even alludes to the project, he sets the stage for it and the entire career of the band. With colorful language and textured, layered details,  Gray takes the time to tell the story of every member of The Clash and to thoroughly describe the world that London Calling came crashing into.

Like other volumes, Gray’s book exposes the Clash’s contradictions: Joe Strummer was a diplomat’s son who had to learn to be a working-class-hero; Mick Jones cared more about fashion than politics. He also brings clear-minded analysis to the band’s myth, effectively interjecting likely-truth into threadbare “official stories”. Gray’s commitment to the whole story about his subjects and their masterpiece more than pays off, and this book puts you on the street, at the club and in the recording studio with the band in a way that few rock books even attempt.

The depth of detail that Gray achieves could be a drawback to readers simply interested in a straightforward account of how London Calling came to be. Gray literally spends half-a-page sifting through spurious stories to determine how much carpet-sound-proofing was on the walls of the Clash’s rehearsal space. However, if you’ve ever wanted a volume that represents the final word on the band, it’s likely that Gray has achieved exactly that.

This is far more than just the making-of one of rock’s best records. This is a passionate work of scholarship by a gifted, loving writer and it’s the book that this record and this band deserve.

Route 19 Revisited: The Clash and London Calling

By Marcus Gray

Soft Skull Press

October, 1, 2010

As a special treat, here is 90 minutes of black and white footage of The Clash in concert. As far as we can tell, this is in New Jersey in 1979:

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Joe Nolan <3