Tracks:
Love Comes in Spurts
Chinese Rocks - (previously unreleased)
Can't Keep My Eyes on You
Hurt Me
I'm Your Man
Betrayal Takes Two
Crack of Dawn
Ignore That Door
I Live My Life
Time
Going Going Gone
Funhunt
I Can Only Give You Everything
I Been Sleepin' on It
Cruel Way to Go Down
Hunter Was Drowned, The
Hey Sweetheart
Intro - (previously unreleased)
Love Comes in Spurts - (previously unreleased)
Liars Beware - (previously unreleased)
You Gotta Lose - (previously unreleased)
Lose Yourself - (previously unreleased)
New Pleasure - (previously unreleased)
Walking on the Water - (previously unreleased)
Plan, The - (previously unreleased)
Blank Generation - (previously unreleased)
I Wanna Be Your Dog - (previously unreleased)
Vacancy - (previously unreleased)
Ventilator Blues - (previously unreleased)
Kid With the Replaceable Head, The - (previously unreleased)
Don't Die - (previously unreleased)
You Gotta Lose - (previously unreleased)
Shattered - (previously unreleased)

Performer Notes:

• Personnel includes: Richard Hell (vocals, bass); Elvis Costello (vocals, guitar); Johnny Thunders, Walter Lure, Robert Quine, Ivan Julian, Mike Paumgardhen, Geoff Freeman, Pete LeBon, Gerald McCollam (guitar); Nick Sanzenbach (saxophone, piano, drums); Janh Xavier, Jerry Antonius (bass); Marc Bell, Nolan, James Morrison, Charles Wood, Ziggy Modeliste, Frank Mauro (drums).
• Recorded between 1975 and 1984. Includes liner notes by Richard Hell.
• All tracks have been digitally remastered.
• Personnel: Richard Hell (vocals); Elvis Costello (vocals, guitar); The Thunders, Gerald McCollam, Ivan Julian, Michael Paumgardhen, Pete Lebon, Robert Quine (guitar); Nick Sanzenbach (saxophone, piano, drums); Charles Wood , James Morrison , Frank Mauro, Nolan, Marc Bell, Ziggy Modeliste (drums).
• Liner Note Authors: Paul Rambali; Richard Hell.
• Recording information: 688 Club, Atlanta, GA (1975-1978); CBGB's, New York, NY (1975-1978); Heartbreakers (1975-1978); Music Machine, London, England (1975-1978); New Orleans, LA (1975-1978); Voidoids (1975-1978).
• Photographers: Chris Stein; Roberta Bayley.
• There's little arguing that Richard Hell was one of the most important figures in the early New York punk rock scene, and he left behind an impressive body of work that merged a distinctive and literate lyrical intelligence with the primal force of stripped-down rock & roll. However, by his own admission, the man lacked the ambition or inclination for a long-term career, and for the most part he pulled the plug on his life in music in the early '80s. But there's been enough lingering interest in Hell's music that he's periodically released collections of material from his archives, and this retrospective, Time, is essentially an upgraded and augmented version of his 1984 odds and ends compilation, R.I.P. In fact, disc one of Time contains R.I.P. in its entirety, with three additional tracks -- a unreleased demo of "Chinese Rocks" cut with Johnny Thunders and the Heartbreakers, and two tracks from a 1979 session with the Voidoids, "Time" and "Funhunt." The material has been remastered, and the audio is certainly an improvement over the ROIR cassette version (and the European CD), though the Heartbreakers demos still sound like they were dubbed from wobbly fifth-generation cassettes and some of the demo material is a bit thin (though Robert Quine's and Ivan Julian's guitars sound noticeably stronger). The real attraction for longtime fans is the live material on disc two. There are 11 songs from an absolutely ferocious performance at London's Music Machine in 1977, which Hell (in his intelligent and witty liner notes) describes as "one of the most aggressive sets we ever played"; while the recording quality is only fair, it's a flamethrower of a show that puts the material on the fine Funhunt collection to shame. And the set closes out with four strong if less incendiary tunes from a 1978 gig at CBGB, with noted Hell fan Elvis Costello lending guitar and vocals to two songs. Richard Hell was one of the few performer from punk's first wave who was able to express nihilism and compassion at the same time and, while his two studio albums (Blank Generation and Destiny Street) are a better introduction to his pungent genius, Time is a fascinating postscript to a brief but highly memorable career. ~ Mark Deming

Professional Reviews: Spin (May 2002, p.121) - "...A two-CD set of badly recorded, madly played bootleg booty from a guy who helped invent punk and postpunk simultaneously..."

Q (3/02, p.134) - 3 stars out of 5 - "...A fascinating collection..."

Mojo (Publisher) (3/02, p.119) - "...The unreleased '77 London gig argues that Hell should be remembered for more than just being the first to tear T-shirts...Hell and The Voidoids explode grenade-like in all directions..."

Format: CD (1 Disc); Stereo

Country: USA

Studio/Live: Mixed

Guest Artist: Elvis Costello; Johnny Thunders

Release Date: 1 March, 2002

Label: Matador Records

Dimensions: 12.7 x 14 x 1.3 centimeters (0.23 kg)