This is a collection of the best of Victor Bockris’s interviews, notes, and observations on the stars of downtown Manhattan in the 1970s and 1980s. Personalities featured include the icons of a generation, including Allen Ginsberg, Richard Hell, Andy Warhol, Debbie Harry, William Burroughs, Patti Smith, Marianne Faithfull, Keith Richards, Joey Ramone, Nicholas Roeg and Muhammad Ali. The writer argues that Punk owed Beat a big debut and that the Beats were in turn re-animated by the Punks.