As much as I'd like to remain the Thomas Pynchon of punk, I'll honour your request. I'm a deposed duke of Catholic heritage, educated at the finest prep schools until the Blitz forced me to forgo my studies and enlist. Yes, I've aged, no, I'm not married, and children? Well, that's my little secret.

Serious answer, I'm a southern Jew from Atlanta, USA, of good Eastern European Jewish stock, with a bachelor's degree in English and a Master of Fine Arts in Writing (Fiction).

I'm 44, unmarried and without child -- though I do live with my gal who was enormously supportive throughout the writing process. Her name's Dany (helps fuel all those rumours that I'm gay just like every other artist on the planet - at least according to the know-it-alls of common sense).

How did you get involved in journalism?

A mixture of love and lack of options. Fiction has in many ways always been my first priority. However, I love getting knee deep in the big muddy of the world, and journalism has allowed me to do that (while also paying far better than fiction ever has).

I started out as the features editor of the largest alternative weekly in the Southeast, the ridiculously titled, but quite good (at least in those days) Creative Loafing. There I had column (Beeber's Town), created/edited assignments, and wrote hundreds of stories, many of them of the participatory variety: for instance, "Rich White Trash" (where I rode with garbage men on their route through Atlanta's wealthiest suburb); "I Was A Teenage Beauty Pageant Judge" (where I was able to go behind the scenes of the Miss Teen Georgia Pageant by volunteering as a judge), and "The Naked and the Nude" (where I visited a north Georgia nudist colony with the goal of ultimately disrobing myself before festivities began at its theme-party Las Vegas Night).

Later I returned to school to study fiction, and since then I've been a freelancer publishing both fiction and non-fiction in a variety of publications, including The New York Times, The Paris Review, Details, Maxim, Playboy.com, Spin, MOJO, Heeb, JEWCY, Fiction, and many others. I also am now associate editor for Conduit, the literary magazine that "risks annihilation" -- www.conduit.org.

What came first, the words for the book or the name of the book?

Ahh, as you probably suspected, the name. However, the idea for the book was already there. I just hadn't written any of the chapters.

Early in the book, while talking about Geddy Lee, you mention that heavy metal Jews could be another book. Will you be writing that book?

I may very well be: so long as you don't go and try to steal the idea from me first (you ********) -- [Just kidding, of course].

In Britain, the punk movement was linked to skinheads and fascism; do you think this spurred on Jews to become involved in the scene

If you mean did it spur British Jews to become involved in that scene, there's a bit of truth to that. [Jewish music journalist] Vivien Goldman told me that while she was already deeply involved in punk, she did get more actively involved in attacking the neo-Nazi skinheads who were helping to infiltrate it.

However, if you mean were Jews only attracted to the scene once the National Front started its dirty work, I don't think so. Punk naturally appealed to British Jews for many of the same reasons that it did to American Jews. It was about inclusiveness and democratic impulses and rebelling against the status quo. It was also fun and funny in a way that was classically Jewish; perhaps not nearly to the degree as in the states, but still, at least initially, most certainly. After all, to be like Shareef and not like it, was definitely not kosher.

Was Jewish punk an answer to the Holocaust? A show of rebellion by young Jews? Nazi imagery was also popular with the young punks, why did they choose it?

As I discuss in my book, Jewish punk was indeed an answer to the Holocaust. In many ways it was unconsciously so, but that doesn't make it any less an answer; in fact, it shows the issue went all the deeper.

Young Jews born after the Holocaust were aware of the horror that it represented both to them and to the world as a whole. They were tired of this horror and the detrimental effects they felt it had on their psyches. They wanted to have fun and mock the horror in the same way Mel Brooks had recently done in the "Springtime for Hitler" segment of The Producers. They wanted also to rob the Nazis of their power to frighten by turning their charged symbols into over the top camp jokes. Another way to put this is that they turned them into "Concentration Camp."

Two of the strongest strains in early punk were its emphasis on ironic humour and its glorification of twisted outcasts who were tough. These too were reactions to the Holocaust. As Andy Shernoff of The Dictators explained, he loved it when Israel won the Six Day War because it showed that Jews could be tough - and he and his fellow bandmates wore leather jackets and acted like Jewish Italians (Juidoes) because they too wanted to seem tough.

How willing were people to talk about their Judaism. Suicide's Martin Rev wouldn't talk to you and Alan Vega was a bit reticent, but on the whole were people open?

For the most part, yes, though there was definitely an initial reluctance by many to be identified as simply Jewish or to look at punk in those terms. As they explained, they loved the American ideal of equal opportunity for everyone and saw Punk as embodying the same principals. In many ways, that's how they defined DIY.

Once I explained that I agreed with them and that I wasn't interested in Jews as a religion or ethnicity (that is a people separated by a different relation to God or genetics), but as a culture with a distinct history and attitudes formed by circumstance, they were much more open. In fact, as I discuss in the book, the Jewish sensibility of punk was not limited to Jews by any means.

Since New York was - and still is (though to a lesser degree than in the '70s) - such a Jewish city, you didn't necessarily have to be born Jewish to be in some ways a Jewish punk. Or to put it otherwise, as Lenny Bruce said, "It doesn't matter if you're Catholic, if you live in New York you're Jewish."

You mention people like Beastie Boys, Pavement etc late on in the book. Is there scope for a separate book with the new wave of Jewish stars?

Perhaps. There is a great deal to be said about the Jewish involvement in rock 'n' roll in general. Indeed, there's even more to be said about the Jewish involvement in pop music and even more still to be said about the Jewish importance to American arts and entertainment as a whole. I'm definitely interested in pursuing various threads. It's not exactly an obsession with me, but it's pretty close. It feels like the story of my life beyond my immediate existence.

Who is the book aimed at -- Jews, non-Jews, music fans or all?

I guess I'd say all. I think Jews might have a slightly greater chance of understanding some of the Jewish references, and music fans a greater chance of doing the same with the musical references (there are a number of allusions to song lyrics throughout), but in the end I really wanted the book to be for everyone. I didn't want to lay claim to punk for Jews. I wanted to explore the issue for myself and anyone else who was interested. I think it's a fascinating topic and helps make the experience of punk all the richer.

What music do you listen to?

I despise music. All music. I think it should be banned. Ok, now that I've gotten that out of the way, I can answer honestly. I listen to a lot of different kinds of music, though I guess I still lean most heavily in the "rock" direction. I go through phases where I like certain things more than others, but generally I like the more dissonant extreme stuff.

Captain Beefheart might indeed be a genius. John Lennon has always been extremely important to me - "Everybody's Got Something to Hide Except Me and My Monkey" has been playing over and over in my head much of this week.

The Ramones are lords of the new temple and the downtown Knitting Factory guys like John Zorn, Marc Ribot, Gary Lucas are prophets to be sure. Check out Lucas' "Skeleton at the Feast" - one of my favourite albums. Then too there are the reworkings of Zorn's compositions on "Masada Guitars"; Ribot's Prosthetic Cubanos experiments and his wonderfully atmospheric album of interweaving guitars with Robert Quine, "Painted Desert".

And let's not forget the Velvet Underground, classic Stooges, Beethoven, Boulez, Mingus, Albert Ayler, etc. I also love power pop: stuff like Big Star, XTC, the Small Faces, and T Bone Burnett (his "Trap Door" album was for years a favourite: as was Nick Lowe's "Labor of Lust" though I haven't heard that now in years).

Oh yeah, classic country and new alt country are pretty great. George Jones "He Stopped Loving Her Today" is genius. Right up there with Roy Orbison's "In Dreams", though that's getting away from country. Not that we're ever that far away from country or blues or country blues or rhythm and blues or ...

Were any of the subjects you interviewed, your heroes?

Gosh, heroes is such a strong term. I've wondered that myself. I certainly admired a number of the folks I interviewed a great deal. Tommy Ramone, John Zorn, Gary Lucas, Chris Stein, Lenny Kaye. But heroes? I don't know that I really have heroes. I mean, if I ran into John Lennon on the street I'd probably get kind of tongue tied. There was something just so multi-faceted about his talents and personality during his prime. But punk wasn't really about heroes, or least I didn't think it was.

It was about tearing down that whole notion of superstars and Gods with mighty hammers. As a writer, I think there are people in that field who make me sweat when I meet them. I used to have trouble dealing with my thesis advisor John Edgar Wideman because I so respected his talent. I just couldn't relax around him.

Same goes for Valerie Martin, another "teacher" of mine who I had great respect for. However, even there I don't think they were my heroes. Let he who is without humanity strike the first super power pose - or something like that. In other words, I don't really think anyone has it so much more together than anyone else that they could function as a "hero." Or perhaps I just have too big an ego to see someone else as my hero. Or maybe I think the real heroes are the teachers in under funded public schools and single mothers trying to raise decent kids. Hell, I don't know.

Do you think people will be surprised by some of the names in the book?

Surprised that they're Jewish you mean? Absolutely. I was. I mean, I knew that Malcolm McLaren was Jewish, but not nearly to the extent I learned. And I had no idea that Tommy Ramone was Jewish, though his Hungarian background and position in The Ramones made me wonder.

Still, it wouldn't be an understatement to say I was definitely surprised. Same goes for the degree of Hilly (Hillel) Kristal's Jewish background (a socialist Jewish farming community), Chris Stein's Labour Jewish upbringing, and The Fugs Tuli (Naphtali) Kupferberg's deep immersion in old style "Jewish anarchism".

And there are many many others, half-Jews, full-Jews, and honorary Jews by the score. But I'm not going to give it all away here. People will have to buy the book.

Did you ever want to be a musician?

Sure, doesn't every person who writes about music? Actually, I remember sitting in fifth grade one day and saying to myself, "Ok, you've got to decide, music or writing. You can't really do either and not fully commit to it." So I went with writing. Why? It seemed to offer so many possibilities: images, stories, characters, sound. In fact, the words themselves are to me like music when they flow right. I'm all about rhythm and sound in my writing, especially the fictional variety.

Still, with all that said, I sometimes miss the musical career - especially the rock one - that I feel I was supposed to have. In fact, I often half-heartedly blame my Jewish upbringing for squelching those dreams.

When I was in second grade, I took up drums at my grammar school and was progressing rapidly. I especially liked the "mamma daddy, mamma daddy" method of practicing a roll - seemed very Freudian to be hitting those skins to those words. I was doing so well in fact that the leader of our school band wanted to move me up to actually working with it, something he said he'd never done for a student my age. I ran home and told my mother breathless with excitement - and what did she say? "Oh, I'm sorry honey, but you can't do that. Band practice is after your classes and you've got to start going to Hebrew School."

So you see, Jewish culture might have made all those punks rock stars, but Judaism the religion killed my rock 'n' roll dreams.

All joking aside, I love music and I love making what little sounds I can. I've played an extremely bad alto sax with bands - and my record collection - over the years. And I'm by far one of the greatest rush hour lead singers ever to shout over a CD player. Now if only I could find some backseat back-up singers to help support me, I'd be all set.

Is there anyone you had hoped to interview but didn't?

Absolutely. I wanted to talk to Bob Dylan, Lou Reed, Jonathan Richman, and Richard Hell, to name the most obvious unattainables. While I did somehow stumble on Lou Reed's phone number when trying to contact his management company and called unaware only to hear that most distinctive voice ("Is this Lou Reed?" -- "Don't ever call this number again"), that's about as close as I got to the pantheon.

Oh yes, I also met Jonathan Richman backstage after one of his concerts and got to chat with him about the weather and such before seeing him get up and walk away when I asked him if he'd like to be interviewed for my book.

But beyond that, it was a bust. There were also quite a few people I would have liked to have talked to if time had allowed, such as George Tabb, author of the great punk memoir "A Jew Grows in Connecticut"; Bebe Buell, girlfriend of Stiv Bators, Elvis Costello, Steven Tyler and Fat Mike of NOFX, but at some point my deadline finally made me stop.

Besides, I'd already interviewed close to 150 people, so there wasn't more I could fit into the book anyway. In fact, there's lots of good stuff that I had to leave out. I hope to release some of this gradually on the web extras page of my website www.jewpunk.com. And hopefully maybe to include it in either another book or a revised edition of this one.

Do you kvell when you find out that a musician is Jewish?

Hmm, I guess I do feel a certain pride by association, but on some level I try to avoid that. Ideally, I'd like to imagine there are no countries, a brotherhood of man, nothing to kill or die for, etc etc. Still, I'm proud of my culture and I'm glad to see that it has perhaps had a part in producing some of these musical greats. And I'm equally proud of Einstein and Freud and especially Marx (both Karl and Groucho). But there's always that danger of taking credit for something that's not my own. After all, how many Jews embrace murderers Leopold and Loeb? I have nothing to do with them and I certain wouldn't call them my people. So kvelling? Let's just say I feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

Were there any people you thought were Jewish but discovered weren't?

Interesting question. I guess I thought David Johansen might be Jewish. And Annie Golden of The Shirts. Of course, as Annie explained, both she and David grew up surrounded by other cultures: she by Italians and he by Jews. And later in life, she became extremely close to many Jewish New Yorkers and was surprised to find that almost all of her friends were of the tribe. So, in a way I was right. They were both honorary Jews (and thought of themselves that way).

Of course, I'm still kind of amazed that Marc Bell (Marky Ramone) isn't Jewish. Or least may not be. He would never say for sure when I interviewed him, and though I noticed a mezzuzah on his door after our gabfest, I could never pin him down. I've since heard from someone that Marky discussed with him growing up Jewish, but who knows. I'll leave it to Marky to clarify this issue in the future.

Are there any musicians you are embarrassed about them being Jewish ie Gene Simmons?

Yeah, Gene Simmons is kind of mixed bag, isn't he? All that macho arrogance and talk about money. Christ. I guess I'm also not thrilled about Barry Manilow and Neil Sedaka. Or, God forbid, Kenny G and that goofy dreadlocked guy in the Counting Crows. Of course, none of them are really musicians, are they? Though perhaps Neil Sedaka deserves a break. And Barry Manilow wrote "You Deserve a Break Today", the McDonald's theme, so he's not all bad either. I say live and let live.

What other books have you got planned?

Quite a few, though I can't talk about the big one. It's still in the shopping around stage. I can mention, however, that I've got another book coming out next spring, an anthology that I edited of poems, stories, paintings, comix, blog entries, faxes, and other miscellanea about insomnia. It's called "AWAKE! A Reader for the Sleepless" and is being published by super-cool Soft Skull Press in Brooklyn. Contributors include James Tate, Joyce Carol Oates, Charles Simic, Margaret Atwood, Nicholson Baker, John Sayles, Simon Armitage, Louise Bourgeois, Brian Evenson, Jonathan Ames, Aimee Bender, Neil Pollack, Steve Almond, Davy Rothbart, and even a couple of Suicide Girls. I've also got a short story collection, a murder mystery, a screenplay, and lots of other stuff stuffed in my desk should anyone like to publish them.

With the launch of Heeb magazine, and films like the Hebrew Hammer, it now seems to be cool to be Jewish. Surely in the 70s this wasn't the case which is why many of the punks changed their names?

There's some truth to that. Quite a few of the punks might have felt that their career chances were better without being so identified as Jewish. It just wasn't cool or sexy then. However, there was also something else at work - a desire to remake oneself as a kind of myth. Hence, Richard Myers became the frightening character Richard Hell and Jeffry (no 'e', his mother insists) Hyman metamorphisised into the pseudo-gang member Joey Ramone. It's all part of an effort to erase - or at least transform - the past. It's a kind of ground zero experience that Jewish Americans can trace back to their adoption of anglicised names at Ellis Island.

There doesn't seem to be a mention in the book about The Knack and My Sharona -- surely the ultimate Jewish punk song by a Jewish punk band.

Yeah, you got me there. I kind of wished I'd mentioned it now. Of course, it was seen (I remember) as kind of a new wave commercial sell out at the time. And it didn't come out of New York. But still, I feel like that's quibbling. All that sex and stuttering - and that name! Makes me lust for my eighth grade Hebrew teacher all over again!

------------

Punk was a reaction to Holocaust horror

YOUNG Jews embraced punk rock as a reaction to the Holocaust. Steven Lee Beeber, author of Heebie-Jeebies at CBGB's: A Secret History of Jewish Punk, explained: "It was indeed an answer to the Holocaust.

"In many ways it was unconsciously so, but that doesn't make it any less an answer; in fact, it shows the issue went all the deeper.

"Young Jews born after the Holocaust were aware of the horror that it represented both to them and the world as a whole. They were tired of this horror and the detrimental effect they felt it had on their psyches.

"They wanted to have fun and mock the horror in the same way Mel Brooks had recently done in the Springtime for Hitler segment of The Producers. They wanted also to rob the Nazis of their power to frighten by turning their charged symbols into over the top camp jokes."

Steven, 44, added: "Two of the strongest strains in early punk were its emphasis on ironic humour and its glorification of twisted outcasts who were tough. These too were reactions to the Holocaust.

"As Andy Shernoff of The Dictators explained, he loved it when Israel won the Six Day War because it showed that Jews could be tough - and he and his fellow bandmates wore leather jackets and acted like Jewish Italians (Juidoes) because they too wanted to seem tough."

The British punk scene of the late 1970s was hijacked by fascist skinheads which, Steven believes, spurred on British Jews to become involved in the movement.

"[Jewish music journalist] Vivien Goldman told me that while she was already deeply involved in punk, she did get more actively involved in attacking the neo-Nazi skinheads who were helping to infiltrate it," he said.

"But punk naturally appealed to British Jews for many of the same reasons that it did to American Jews. It was about inclusiveness and democratic impulses and rebelling against the status quo. It was also fun and funny in a way that was classically Jewish; perhaps not nearly to the degree as in the states, but still, at least initially, most certainly."

Steven, of Atlanta, USA, revealed that some of the subjects in his book were initially reluctant to be "identified as simply Jewish or to look at punk in those terms".

He added: "Once I explained that I wasn't interested in Jews as a religion or ethnicity - that is a people separated by a different relation to God or genetics - but as a culture with a distinct history and attitudes formed by circumstance, they were much more open.

"In fact, as I discuss in the book, the Jewish sensibility of punk was not limited to Jews by any means. Since New York was - and still is - such a Jewish city, you didn't necessarily have to be born Jewish to be in some ways a Jewish punk.

"Or as Lenny Bruce said, 'It doesn't matter if you're Catholic, if you live in New York you're Jewish'."

Steven, who lives with his girlfriend Dany in Massachusetts, also revealed that the title for the book came before he had written any of it.

"However, the idea for the book was already there," he said.

Heebie-Jeebies at CBGB's features interviews with more than 125 people including Tommy Ramone, Chris Stein (Blondie), Lenny Kaye (Patti Smith Group), Hilly Kristal (CBGB owner), and John Zorn.

It focuses on punk's origins in New York City to show that punk was the most Jewish of rock movements, in both make up and attitude.

Beginning with Lenny Bruce, the patron saint of punk, and following pre-punk progenitors such as Lou Reed, Jonathan Richman, Suicide, and The Dictators, this book delves into the lives of these and other Jewish punks - including Richard Hell and Joey Ramone - to create a fascinating historical overview of the scene.

Were any of the subjects he interviewed his heroes?

"Gosh, heroes is such a strong term. I've wondered that myself. I certainly admired a number of the folks I interviewed a great deal.

"Tommy Ramone, John Zorn, Gary Lucas, Chris Stein, Lenny Kaye. But heroes? I don't know that I really have heroes.

"I mean, if I ran into John Lennon on the street I'd probably get kind of tongue tied. There was something just so multi-faceted about his talents and personality during his prime.

"But punk wasn't really about heroes, or least I didn't think it was. It was about tearing down that whole notion of superstars and gods with mighty hammers."

He added: "As a writer, I think there are people in that field who make me sweat when I meet them. I used to have trouble dealing with my thesis advisor John Edgar Wideman because I so respected his talent. I just couldn't relax around him."

Steven also devotes a chapter of the book to more recent Jewish musicians including the Beastie Boys and Pavement. So is there scope for a separate book with the new wave of Jewish stars?

He replied: "There is a great deal to be said about the Jewish involvement in rock 'n' roll in general.

"Indeed, there's even more to be said about the Jewish involvement in pop music and even more still to be said about the Jewish importance to American arts and entertainment as a whole.

"I'm definitely interested in pursuing various threads. It's not exactly an obsession with me, but it's pretty close.

"It feels like the story of my life beyond my immediate existence."

He also feels there may be a book about the Jewish contribution to heavy metal.

Jewish readers might have a slightly greater chance of understanding some of the Jewish references in Heebie-Jeebies at CBGB's, but Steven feels the book is aimed at everyone.

He said: "I didn't want to lay claim to punk for Jews. I wanted to explore the issue for myself and anyone else who was interested. I think it's a fascinating topic and helps make the experience of punk all the richer."

Steven - who has written for The New York Times, The Paris Review, Details, Maxim, Playboy.com, Spin, MOJO, Heeb, JEWCY, Fiction, and many others - says he was surprised by some of the people in his book.

He said: "I knew that [Sex Pistols manager] Malcolm McLaren was Jewish, but not nearly to the extent I learned.

"And I had no idea that Tommy Ramone was Jewish, though his Hungarian background and position in The Ramones made me wonder.

"Still, it wouldn't be an understatement to say I was definitely surprised. Same goes for the degree of Hilly (Hillel) Kristal's Jewish background (a socialist Jewish farming community), Chris Stein's Labour Jewish upbringing, and The Fugs' Tuli (Naphtali) Kupferberg's deep immersion in old style 'Jewish anarchism'.

"And there are many many others, half-Jews, full-Jews, and honorary Jews by the score. But I'm not going to give it all away here. People will have to buy the book."

Steven, associate editor for literary magazine Conduit, had hoped to interview Bob Dylan, Lou Reed, Jonathan Richman, and Richard Hell for the book.

He managed to get a phone number for Reed and "called unaware only to hear that most distinctive voice - 'Is this Lou Reed?', 'Don't ever call this number again' - that's about as close as I got to the pantheon.

"I also met Jonathan Richman backstage after one of his concerts and got to chat with him about the weather and such before seeing him get up and walk away when I asked him if he'd like to be interviewed for my book."

He added: "There were also quite a few people I would have liked to have talked to if time had allowed, such as George Tabb, author of the great punk memoir A Jew Grows in Connecticut; Bebe Buell, girlfriend of Stiv Bators, Elvis Costello, Steven Tyler and Fat Mike of NOFX, but at some point my deadline finally made me stop.

"There's lots of good stuff that I had to leave out. I hope to release some of this gradually on my website www.jewpunk.com. And hopefully maybe to include it in either another book or a revised edition of this one."

Does Steven kvell when he discovers a musician is Jewish?

"I guess I do feel a certain pride by association, but on some level I try to avoid that," he said. "Ideally, I'd like to imagine there are no countries, a brotherhood of man, nothing to kill or die for, etc.

"Still, I'm proud of my culture and I'm glad to see that it has perhaps had a part in producing some of these musical greats.

"And I'm equally proud of Einstein and Freud and especially Marx - both Karl and Groucho. But there's always that danger of taking credit for something that's not my own.

After all, how many Jews embrace murderers Leopold and Loeb? I have nothing to do with them and I certainly wouldn't call them my people. So kvelling? Let's just say I feel all warm and fuzzy inside."

Were there any people Steven assumed were Jewish but discovered weren't?

"I thought David Johansen of The New York Dolls might be Jewish. And Annie Golden of The Shirts. Of course, as Annie explained, both she and David grew up surrounded by other cultures: she by Italians and he by Jews," she said.

"And later in life, she became extremely close to many Jewish New Yorkers and was surprised to find that almost all of her friends were of the tribe. So, in a way I was right. They were both honorary Jews - and thought of themselves that way.

"Of course, I'm still kind of amazed that Marc Bell (Marky Ramone) isn't Jewish. Or at least may not be. He would never say for sure when I interviewed him, and though I noticed a mezzuzah on his door after our gabfest, I could never pin him down.

"I've since heard from someone that Marky discussed with him growing up Jewish, but who knows. I'll leave it to Marky to clarify this issue in the future."

Steven says he isn't "thrilled" about some Jewish musicians.

He said: "Gene Simmons of Kiss is kind of a mixed bag, isn't he? All that macho arrogance and talk about money.

"I guess I'm also not thrilled about Barry Manilow and Neil Sedaka. Or, God forbid, Kenny G and that goofy dreadlocked guy in the Counting Crows.

"Though perhaps Neil Sedaka deserves a break. And Barry Manilow wrote You Deserve a Break Today, the McDonald's theme, so he's not all bad either. I say live and let live."

With the launch of Heeb magazine, and films like the Hebrew Hammer, it now seems to be cool to be Jewish.

But in the 70s, this wasn't the case and, as Steven says, "quite a few of the punks might have felt that their career chances were better without being so identified as Jewish.

"It just wasn't cool or sexy then. However, there was also something else at work - a desire to remake oneself as a kind of myth.

"Hence, Richard Myers became the frightening character Richard Hell and Jeffry - no 'e', his mother insists - Hyman metamorphisised into the pseudo-gang member Joey Ramone.

"It's all part of an effort to erase - or at least transform - the past. It's a kind of ground zero experience that Jewish Americans can trace back to their adoption of anglicised names at Ellis Island."

One name that could have been in the book if things had worked out differently is Steven Lee Beeber.

He explained: "I remember sitting in fifth grade one day and saying to myself, 'Ok, you've got to decide, music or writing. You can't really do either and not fully commit to it'. So I went with writing. Why? It seemed to offer so many possibilities: images, stories, characters, sound. In fact, the words themselves are to me like music when they flow right.

"I often half-heartedly blame my Jewish upbringing for squelching those dreams. When I was in second grade, I took up drums at my grammar school and was progressing rapidly.

"I was doing so well in fact that the leader of our school band wanted to move me up to actually working with it, something he said he'd never done for a student my age. I ran home and told my mother breathless with excitement - and what did she say?

" 'Oh, I'm sorry honey, but you can't do that. Band practice is after your classes and you've got to start going to Hebrew School'. So you see, Jewish culture might have made all those punks rock stars, but Judaism the religion killed my rock 'n' roll dreams."

Next year, Steven has a book - Awake! A Reader for the Sleepless (Soft Skull Press) - which he edited of poems, stories, paintings, comix, blog entries, faxes, and other miscellanea about insomnia.

He added: "I've also got a short story collection, a murder mystery, a screenplay, and lots of other stuff stuffed in my desk should anyone like to publish them."

Heebie-Jeebies at CBGB's: A Secret History of Jewish Punk is published by Chicago Review Press, priced £21.50