Jon Savage

Savage was born in Paddington, London. He read Classics at Magdalene College, Cambridge, graduating in 1975.Richie Unterberger, [https://www.allmusic.com/artist/jon-savage-mn0002295208 "Jon Savage: Biography"], AllMusic (accessed 18 July 2018)."Tripos: Mathematics, History, Art History, Classics", Times, 25 June 1975.

Becoming a music journalist at the dawn of British punk, he wrote articles on all of the major punk acts, publishing a fanzine called London's Outrage in 1976. A year later he began working as a journalist for Sounds, which was, at that time, one of the UK's three major music papers, along with the New Musical Express and Melody Maker. Savage interviewed punk, new wave and electronic music artists for Sounds. At that time, he also wrote for the West Coast fanzines Search & Destroy, Bomp! and Slash. In 1979 he moved to Melody Maker, and a year later to the newly founded pop culture magazine The Face. Throughout the decade, Savage wrote for The Observer and the New Statesman, providing high-brow commentary on popular culture.

His book England's Dreaming, a history of the rise of punk rock in the UK and the US in the mid- to late 1970s, was published by Faber and Faber in 1991.{{cite magazine|title=Smash the State|url=https://ew.com/article/1992/03/27/englands-dreaming-anarchy-sex-pistols-punk-rock-and-beyond/|magazine=Entertainment Weekly|date=27 March 1992}}{{Cite news |last=Hatherley |first=Owen |date=5 August 2014 |title=England's Dreaming introduced me to the power of urban, sprawling London |url=https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/aug/05/englands-dreaming-jon-savage-book-that-changed-me |access-date=18 August 2024 |work=The Guardian |language=en-GB |issn=0261-3077}}{{Cite web |first1=Scott|last1=King |first2=Jeremy|last2=Deller|date=3 June 2021 |title=How England's Dreaming told the definitive story of London punk |url=https://www.gq-magazine.co.uk/culture/article/englands-dreaming-jon-savage-punk |access-date=18 August 2024 |website=British GQ |language=en-GB}} It was used as the basis for a television programme, Punk and the Pistols, shown on BBC2 in 1995, and an updated edition in 2001 featured a new introduction which made mention of the Pistols' 1996 reunion and the release of the 2000 Pistols documentary film, The Filth and The Fury. A companion piece, The England's Dreaming Tapes, was published in 2009.

In July 1993, Kurt Cobain gave a dramatically candid interview to Jon Savage in which he freely discussed such controversial topics as Courtney Love, homosexuality, heroin and Cobain's relationship with his Nirvana bandmates.{{cn|date=August 2024}}

Savage's book, Teenage: The Prehistory of Youth Culture, was published in 2007. It is a history of the concept of teenagers, which begins in the 1870s and ends in 1945 and aims to tell the story of youth culture's prehistory, and dates the advent of today's form of "teenagers" to 1945.{{cite web|title=The Kids Are—Yawn—Alright|url=http://nymag.com/arts/books/reviews/30624/|year=2007 |work=New York}}{{Cite news |last=Beckett |first=Andy |date=14 April 2007 |title=The kids are all right |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2007/apr/14/society |access-date=18 August 2024 |work=The Guardian |language=en-GB |issn=0261-3077}}{{Cite news |last=Paglia |first=Camille |date=6 May 2007 |title=The Young and the Restless |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/06/books/review/Paglia.t.html |access-date=18 August 2024 |work=The New York Times |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331}} The book was adapted into a film by Matt Wolf.

In 2015, he published 1966, recalling the popular music and cultural turmoil of that year.{{Cite news |last=Stanley |first=Bob |date=20 November 2015 |title=1966: The Year the Decade Exploded by Jon Savage review - the year pop culture exploded |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/nov/20/1966-jon-savage-music-review |access-date=18 August 2024 |work=The Guardian |language=en-GB |issn=0261-3077}} He also compiled and wrote the liner notes for a two-disc companion CD, Jon Savage's 1966: The Year the Decade Exploded (Ace Records). As of 2023, he continues to write on punk and other genres in a variety of publications, most notably Mojo magazine and The Observer Music Monthly. He wrote the introduction to Mitch Ikeda's Forever Delayed (2002), an official photobook of the Manic Street Preachers. Savage has appeared in the documentaries Live Forever and NewOrderStory.

Several compilation CDs based on his track lists have also been released, including England's Dreaming (2004) and Meridian 1970 (2005), the latter of which puts forward the argument that 1970 was a high-point for popular music, contrary to critical opinion. He curated the compilation Queer Noises 1961–1978 (2006), a collection of largely overlooked pop songs from that period that carried overt or coded gay messages. His most recent compilations have included the now deleted Fame, Jon Savage's Secret History Of Post-Punk 78–81 on Caroline True Records. His latest curated{{When|date=May 2018}} release on the same label is Perfect Motion, Jon Savage's Secret History Of Second Wave Psychedelia 1988–1993. Also a limited double-vinyl release, this collection posited late eighties/early nineties "Baggy" music as a slight return to the ethos of 60s psychedelia.

• {{cite book |author=Savage, Jon |title=The Kinks: the official biography |url=https://archive.org/details/kinksofficialbio00sava |url-access=registration |location=London |publisher=Faber |year=1984}}
• England's Dreaming: Sex Pistols and Punk Rock. Faber and Faber, 1991. {{ISBN|978-0-571-13975-0}}.{{Cite web |last=Crawford |first=Anwen |date=26 September 2016 |title=Anwen Crawford reviews '1966: The year the decade exploded' and 'England's Dreaming: Sex Pistols and punk rock' by Jon Savage |url=https://www.australianbookreview.com.au/abr-online/archive/2016/186-october-2016-no-385/3608-anwen-crawford-reviews-1966-the-year-the-decade-exploded-and-england-s-dreaming-sex-pistols-and-punk-rock-by-jon-savage |access-date=18 August 2024 |website=Australian Book Review |language=en-gb}}{{Cite web |date=15 December 2010 |title=Who Owns Punk History? On Jon Savage's England's Dreaming |url=https://www.popmatters.com/jon-savage-englands-dreaming-1990 |access-date=18 August 2024 |website=www.popmatters.com |language=en-US}}
• Picture Post Idols. London: Collins & Brown, 1992. {{ISBN|978-1-85585-083-5}}.
• The Hacienda Must Be Built. International Music Publications, 1992, {{ISBN|978-0-86359-857-9}}.
• The Faber Book of Pop. Edited with Hanif Kureishi. Faber and Faber, 1995. {{ISBN|978-0-571-17980-0}}.
• Time Travel: From the Sex Pistols to Nirvana – Pop, Media and Sexuality, 1977–96. London: Chatto & Windus, 1996. {{ISBN|978-0-7011-6360-0}}.
• Teenage: The Creation of Youth Culture. Viking Books, 2007. {{ISBN|978-0-670-03837-4}}.{{Cite web|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/teenage-the-creation-of-youth-18751945-by-jon-savage-815132.html|title=Teenage: The Creation of Youth 1875-1945, By Jon Savage | The Independent | The Independent}}
• 1 Top Class Manager: The Notebooks of Joy Division's Manager, 1978–1980 (Anti-Archivists)
• The England's Dreaming Tapes (University of Minnesota Press, 2010)
• Jon Savage/Linder Sterling: The Secret Public (Boo-Hooray Gallery, 2010)
• Sex Pistols and Punk. Faber and Faber, 2012. {{ISBN|978-0-571-29654-5}}).
• {{cite book |author=Frohman, Jesse |author-link=Jesse Frohman |others=Contributions by Jon Savage and Glenn O'Brien |title=Kurt Cobain: The Last Session |location=London |publisher=Thames & Hudson |year=2014}}
• {{cite book|title=1966: The Year the Decade Exploded |location=London |publisher=Faber & Faber |year=2015 |isbn=978-0-571-27762-9}}{{Cite web |date=1 January 2018 |title=Framing 1966: Jon Savage on the Year the 1960s Exploded |url=https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/framing-1966-jon-savage-on-the-year-the-1960s-exploded/ |access-date=18 August 2024 |website=Los Angeles Review of Books}}
• This Searing Light, the Sun and Everything Else: Joy Division. Faber and Faber, 2019. {{ISBN|978-0-571-34537-3}}.

• {{cite magazine|first=Jon|last=Savage|title=Psychedelia: The 100 Greatest Classics|magazine=Mojo|date=June 1997|issue=43}}
• {{cite magazine|author=Savage, Jon |date=December 2014 |title=Kurt Cobain's Last Photo Session and Interview, 1993: Part 1 'Very like the Sex Pistols' |magazine=Mojo |issue=253 |pages=30–31}}

• Joy Division documentary film, screenwriter, 2008{{cite news|title=Unseen pleasures|url=http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/observermusic/2008/03/unseen_pleasures.html|work=The Guardian | location=London | first=Jon | last=Savage | date=16 March 2008 | access-date=7 May 2010}}

• England's Dreaming (Trikont, 2004)
• Meridian 1970 (Forever Heavenly, 2005)
• Queer Noises – From the Closet to the Charts (Trikont, 2006){{Cite web|url=https://newint.org/columns/media/music/2006/12/01/queer|title=Queer Noises: From the Closet to the Charts 1961-1978|date=2 December 2006|website=New Internationalist}}
• The Shadows of Love – Intense Tamla 1966–1968 (Commercial Marketing, 2006)
• Dreams Come True – Classic Wave Electro 1982–87 (Domino Records, 2008)
• Teenage – The Invention of Youth 1911–1945 (Trikont, 2009)
• Fame – Jon Savage's Secret History of Post Punk 1978–81 (Caroline True Records, 2012)
• Perfect Motion- Jon Savage's Secret History of Second-Wave Psychedelia 1988–93 (Caroline True Records, 2015)
• Punk 45: Sick on You! One Way Spit! (2014)
• Jon Savage's 1965: The Year the Sixties Ignited (Ace Records, 2018)
• Jon Savage's 1966: The Year the Decade Exploded (Ace Records, 2015)
• Jon Savage's 1967 ~ The Year Pop Divided (Ace Records, 2017)
• Jon Savage's 1968 ~ The Year the World Burned (Ace Records, 2018)
• Jon Savage's 1969–1971 ~ Rock Dreams on 45 (Ace Records, 2019)
• Do You Have The Force? Jon Savage's Alternate History Of Electronica 1978–82 (Caroline True Records, 2020)

{{reflist}}

• [http://www.3ammagazine.com/litarchives/2002_jun/interview_jon_savage.html 2002 interview]
• [http://www.3ammagazine.com/3am/juvenilia-and-other-delinquencies-an-interview-with-jon-savage/ 2007 interview]
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20070310204156/http://www.ljmu.ac.uk/lea/77472.htm England's Dreaming Archive Papers held at Liverpool John Moores University]

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Category:1953 births

Category:Alumni of Magdalene College, Cambridge

Category:British LGBTQ writers

Category:English male journalists

Category:English music critics

Category:English music journalists

Category:Living people

Category:Melody Maker writers

Category:Mojo (magazine) people

Category:People from Paddington

Category:Sex Pistols

Category:Writers from the City of Westminster