Rotten Johnny and the Queen of Shivers

Punk in the Holy Land

What role do subcultures play in Israeli society? What countercultural places of longing have emerged in the face of the country's permanently tense political situation? As Avi Pitchon's autobiographical journey through the subcultures of the Holy Land shows, youth cultures such as punk and New Wave develop very differently in this context than they do in America and Western Europe. The real threat to one's own life posed by events such as the 1982 Lebanon War instilled in the generation of Pitchon, born in 1968, a need to escape, at least imaginatively, from political reality – and punk provided a space for that escape.

In "Rotten Johnny and the Queen of Shivers", Pitchon describes the arrival of Western pop culture in Israel, the country's distinctive interpretation of punk, his own politicization and the vibrant local music scene. The productive misunderstandings that arose in the process of transferring Western pop culture to Israel gave the country's scene a very distinctive character.

Drawing on his own life story, which includes founding Noon Mem, Israel's first political punk band, Pitchon has written a vivid history of Israeli subculture from the late 1970s to the present day. The book not only introduces a scene that remains largely unknown in Germany, but also offers valuable insights into the State of Israel, its problems and its people.

Translated into German by Elisabeth Heinze and Gabriel Moses.