Richard Hell's sophomore album, Destiny Street, is being resurrected 27 years after its initial release, but some of Hell's fans aren't happy about the Frankenstein's monster he promises to unleash under the name.

Hell announced recently that he plans to re-release the album, but in a very different format. “At the time of the original recording I was so debilitated by despair and drug-need that I was useless," he said. "The record ended up being a high-pitched sludge of guitar noise. It was a shame because the songs were clean, simple, and well-constructed, but those values were sabotaged by the inappropriate arrangements and production.”

He acquired rights to the album in 2004, then let it go out of print. In 2006, he came across a two-track tape of the original rhythm parts and decided to use that as the basis for a re-recording. “I couldn’t resist trying to use them to fill and patch up the sinking feeling that the thought of the record had always produced in me,” he said.

Hell recorded new vocals and enlisted the help of guitarists Marc Ribot, Bill Frisell and original Voidoid Ivan Julian to redo the guitars. That move has rankled some fans, who wonder why the work of legendary Robert Quine, who died in 2004, needed to be erased. "No one appreciates Quine more than me -- in fact for many years I was just about the only one who fully appreciated him (with possible exception of Lester Bangs)," Hell responded on his message board. "But even Quine needed an appropriate showcase and he didn't get that on the original Destiny Street. My problem with that record wasn't Quine per se, but rather how he was used... If he were still around, he'd be a prominent soloist on this new record, but he isn't around."

Others questioned the wisdom of significantly changing an artifact that endeared itself to fans for nearly three decades. Hell said he isn't trying to permanently suppress the album, though he does say "I did intend to replace it for most purposes with this new one."

While the idea of Frisell and Ribot being let loose on music so different from their own is appealling, Hell does take a risk by tampering with the album. Though it pales in prominence when judged against its predecessor, Blank Generation, the debut of Hell and the Voidoids, it was well regarded and continues to draw fans. Robert Christgau in The Village Voice wrote at the time of its release that "this is no lowest-common-denominator job: it's fuller and jazzier than Blank Generation without any loss of concision," while All Music Guide more recently opined that "Destiny Street sounds looser and more spontaneous than Hell's debut, but it's just as smart and every bit as powerful, and it's a more than worthy follow-up."

Hell long has thought Destiny Street an album that didn't, well, fulfill its destiny. "Destiny St. could use some improving. (The twisting pitted street, the missing guardrails, blasted landscape, criminally cheap and rushed construction--all serve to waken the admiration of the elect among us. Leer.)," he wrote in the liner notes to a 1992 CD reissue. "I remember everyone's heroic patience with me (all the principals -- Naux, Quine, Fred, and Alan Betrock are good and talented people who deserved better)."

The new version of the album -- dubbed Destiny Street Repaired -- is getting the lavish reissue treatment. Insound.com steps out for a rare turn as record label, offering a deluxe vinyl package for $29.99 with a poster and a CD with the 10 original tracks and two never before released tracks: "Smitten" and "Funhunt." These will be in a signed, numbered edition of 1,000. A CD-only version for $16 also will be available that lacks the two extra tracks (which, when you think about it, means each bonus track is $7.50 if all you're after is the music).

It's an interesting experiment, and one we'll likely see more of, particularly from artists like Hell who don't seem interested in recording new material. Hell certainly stands behind his creation: "It's a better representation of the material," he said. "I believe most people will agree with me when they hear it, though doubtless there will be some who won't. Even I will grant that there are a few qualities of the original that this version couldn't better, but they are few, and on the whole the new one is clearly superior."

Labels: music, reissues