The Buddhist Third Class Junkmail. Peter wrote for
Creem, a gig he d scored not only with his writing chops but also through his friendship with the reigning bard of rock and roll journalism, Lester Bangs. To the air between us he offered up a pretty guitar with reverence, as if it were a holy artifact. A guitar with a rosewood neck, like Tom Verlaine s, he said proudly. Verlaine was the lead singer and guitarist in the band Television. I hadn t yet heard their music, which set Peter to shuffling through a pile of 45s as I continued inspecting the room. Above the stereo equipment was a black and white photograph nailed to the wall by a switchblade. A skeletal man. An Auschwitz inmate? It was Lou Reed in his Metal Machine Music phase. On another wall, he d stapled a slip of paper with a scrawl; It s so cold in Alaska. The Alaska line was from Lou s
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Writer and author Adele Bertei revisits the ghosts of Cleveland’s 1970s punk scene in her book “Peter and the Wolves,” which focuses on her time spent with the mythologized Peter Laughner.
Writer and author Adele Bertei revisits the ghosts of Cleveland’s 1970s punk scene in her book “Peter and the Wolves,” which focuses on her time spent with the mythologized Peter Laughner. Laughner was a founding member of the influential “avant-garage” band Pere Ubu and performed with members of The Dead Boys and Rocket From The Tombs. Before his untimely death in 1977, he and Bertei bonded as outsiders in a decaying Midwestern city.