Coming of age in New York’s ’70s punk heyday

Coming of age in New York’s East Village during its bohemian heyday, Angela Jaeger was in the mix just as punk hit the streets, turning Bowery and St. Marks into the mecca of the city’s underground scene. ​“I grew up on 11^th Street and Second Avenue; it was very vibrant, electric, noisy, crazy kooks and artists walking around, and a lot of social activism,” she says. 

As the youngest sibling of three, Jaeger was hip to the ​’60s but ready to do her own thing, so she headed over to CBGB in 1976. The brash stylings of new bands like Blondie, Television, and The Talking Heads inspired her to take a chance on herself. The following year, Jaeger graduated high school and set a course for rock & roll stardom with a decidedly punk twist. 

Now Jaeger revisits the era in the new book, I Feel Famous: Punk Diaries 1977 – 1981 (Hat & Beard Press), a lyrical tale of youthful adventures across New York and London. The book weaves together Jaeger’s precious prose with a wealth of photographs, drawings, handwritten entries, club flyers, backstage passes, and personal ephemera to intoxicating effect, taking us back to the culture just before ​‘Video Killed the Radio Star’. 

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Embracing the DIY ethos of punk, fans and artists blurred boundaries as never before. Jaeger’s love of music brought her inside the scene, her encounters with luminaries like Lydia Lunch, Joe Strummer, and Sid Vicious giving way to her own dreams of stardom as a member of The Stare Kits. 

“I was always fascinated by the idea of fame,” says Jaeger, who remembers going to see legends like Bette Davis and Joan Crawford speak about the golden age of Hollywood. And though punk was gritty and raw, it was no less flamboyant and glamorous to Jaeger’s downtown sensibilities. ​“When punk happened, we were all running around, from ​’77 straight into the ​’80s,” Jaeger says. ​“All my friends lived down there, and a couple still do, which is always heartwarming to go back and say: ​‘We had a band and used to practice in your living room.’” 

Jaeger notes that with the exception of artist Duncan Hannah’s 2018 memoir, Twentieth Century Boy, there is a notable lack of diaries of New York’s legendary punk scene. With I Feel Famous, she faithfully channels the rebellious charm of youthful insouciance befitting a ​“perky punk”, as the Dead Boys’ Cheetah Chrome dubbed Jaeger one night at CBGB back in June ​’78. 

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The book also follows Jaeger as she embarked on her London era during the height of British punk. ​“London was always calling,” she says. ​“I saw pictures of The Slits on the White Riot Tour and Siouxsie and the Banshees in Louise’s Club, and I knew I had to go. I was 17 and questioning who I was. The energy was there in front of you, and you’re so excited to be a part of it.”

I Feel Famous: Punk Diaries 1977 – 1981 by Angela Jaeger is published by Hat & Beard Press.

Miss Rosen is a free­lance arts and pho­tog­ra­phy writer, fol­low her on X.

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