Rating: 
Summary: oh shut up
Review: It was bad enough when all the ex-hippies went on their nostalgia trips about fifteen years or so ago. Now it's the aging punkers who are getting all misty-eyed about the night they smashed some kid's head into the stage or got laid in the back of a smelly van. Rollins is a meathead and the poor writing displayed in this book proves it.
Rating: 
Summary: Get's better and better!
Review: My friend got this book ordered from Kentucky so he could read it , but i took it to read. This book is great I loved all of the pics especially the ones with Henry and Ian. This book gets better and better. I mean Henry's writing gets better and better! I could not put this book down.
Rating:
Summary: very disappointing
Review: Not much reportage of external reality in this. Mostly it is Rollins whining about how anguished he is about everything. None of Rollins descriptions of his anguish are particulary cogent or compelling. This book was a very self indulgent, narcissistic enterprise. Sometimes narcissism is redeemed if the mind in question is worth regarding in the first place. But that is not the case here. Rollins has nothing to say other than his insistence that he was the right and the will to say it. It's a lot like some musclebound pretty boy walking around the streets saying "Now hear this", "Now hear this", through a loud speak over and over again, but never saying anything else. This is not completely fair, since Rollins does make attempts to describe and reason about his pain and anguish about his life, it's just that Rollins' powers of description and reasoning are very feeble and ineffectual. He seems to know this, but he is comepletely without shame about it. He even goes so far as to encourage other people with similar lack of abilities to follow his example. He says in the "afterword", or whatever (I'm quoting form memory): "I am of average intelligence. If I can do the things described in this book and write about them, then so can you." (Note Rollin's manly and forthwright shunning of effete contractions, such as "I'm".) Anyway, he's right, anyone can talk rambling gibberish if they have the nerve to do so. But you won't catch me wasting my time listening to them.
Rating: 
Summary: ESSENTIAL ROLLINS TRAVEL COMPANION
Review: OK..granted Rollins is not trying to win the Pulitzer for this catalog of 'war' stories of Rock and Roll heroism while touring with his band Black Flag, it is tantalizing. It will make you wince more than once with some "bare-knucks" recollection of a life with one of punk rock's more infamous and influential bands. Hank drags us, bull-dog style, through the ravages of hunger, pain, sex, punk rock, caffeine and general ennui during several years with the unsung heros of punk's underworld. Watch Rollins grow from a sick and disturbed, ice-cream scooping high-school punk, to...well, basically the same thing (but he's since quit the ice cream shop). A good memoir for those times when you wish you lived a life less ordinary. Enjoy--but watch out, Hank's got a wicked left-hook.
Rating:
Summary: Rollins at his best
Review: Okay, I admit I am a huge fan of Henry's spoken word. I have all of his live discs, and I've listened to them so much I can almost repeat them in their entirety from memory. So this is not an objective view.I bought the CD first, and was totally blown away by the amazing history and vividness of Rollins' anecdotes of life on the road with Black Flag. And then, one day, I was in a bookstore and happened to see the book. I figured "what the hell, let's just check it out." HELLO! Pictures, and much MUCH more text than were on the two CDs make this book a must-purchase for anyone who wants the _full_ story of Black Flag. ...and that's why this book gets four stars instead of five. Frankly, I would have liked to see it all in one package... having the book contain more info than the CD means that die-hard fans like myself will shell out over sixty bucks after taxes to get the full deal. Smells an awful lot like market capitalization, something I would never have thought 2.13.61 would do. For that much money, you'd think Rollins could have made a third audio disk and included a pictorial book with the cd! But maybe I'm just being paranoid, and doing a separate book was the cheapest way to get the goods to us. In any case, this is an awesome glimpse into the day-to-day life of one of the hardest-working bands ever, as well as an often disturbing look at the inner workings of Henry Rollins' mind. All the tour stories are told with his typical sense of humor, down-to-earth perception, and often vitriolic dislike. I think you'll like it.
Rating:
Summary: amazing portrayal of life on the road, dev. of an artist
Review: Rollins' anecdotes of life on the road with Black Flag and back in "The Shed" are fascinating, but for me the most fascinating parts of Get in the Van are about Rollins' thought development and epiphanies that lead to his convictions about his artistic direction. It is fascinating to compare the "form" of Get in the Van, which is pretty much the memoir, to the form(s) of song lyrics; since Rollins is a poet/lyricist, the relations between raw notebook entries, memoirs, poems and song lyrics are intriguing. Another interesting aspect of Get in the Van is R's continuing struggle to articulate who he is in relation to other people--audience and band members, society, etc., and especially how he tried to deal with his ambivalence toward people. On another level, the book is about survival (Rollins' and others')and death (esp. his struggle to come to terms with the death of a good friend, who incidentally encouraged Rollins to begin keeping records of his life with Black Flag in the first place). The book also has a heavy amount of commentary on the state of America in the late 20th Century--where the creative vibrancy is, where the stagnant zombie gunk is--esp. as refracted through the eyes of someone living the hard core punk life. In the back of the book, Rollins includes a statement to the reader about what can/should be done to live a creative and courageous life, which for me dispels any doomsday soothsayers' assertions that the future looks bleak for anyone in America who aspires to be a creative artist.
Rating:
Summary: amazing portrayal of life on the road, dev. of an artist
Review: Rollins' anecdotes of life on the road with Black Flag and back in "The Shed" are fascinating, but for me the most fascinating parts of Get in the Van are about Rollins' thought development and epiphanies that lead to his convictions about his artistic direction. It is fascinating to compare the "form" of Get in the Van, which is pretty much the memoir, to the form(s) of song lyrics; since Rollins is a poet/lyricist, the relations between raw notebook entries, memoirs, poems and song lyrics are intriguing. Another interesting aspect of Get in the Van is R's continuing struggle to articulate who he is in relation to other people--audience and band members, society, etc., and especially how he tried to deal with his ambivalence toward people. On another level, the book is about survival (Rollins' and others')and death (esp. his struggle to come to terms with the death of a good friend, who incidentally encouraged Rollins to begin keeping records of his life with Black Flag in the first place). The book also has a heavy amount of commentary on the state of America in the late 20th Century--where the creative vibrancy is, where the stagnant zombie gunk is--esp. as refracted through the eyes of someone living the hard core punk life. In the back of the book, Rollins includes a statement to the reader about what can/should be done to live a creative and courageous life, which for me dispels any doomsday soothsayers' assertions that the future looks bleak for anyone in America who aspires to be a creative artist.
Rating:
Summary: About Time!!!!!!!!!!!
Review: Rollins' gives a bleak and hardened look at life on the road. It's about time! Not only is Henry on the road with a band, it's Black Flag. The punkest of the punk in that genre's truest form.Henry holds nothing back, from getting beat by the cops to beating up an annoying drunk at another show. Henry is being anything but vague when describing his day to day turmoils. Don't get the wrong idea, though. Henry's not a pompous, self-indulgent "RockStar". He's someone that wants to be respected for the same reason a mailman gets respected. FOR RESPECT! Great photos and old flyers are sporadically placed in the book which make the book even better. A great storyteller and one of the strongest (mentally) entertainers out there.
Rating:
Summary: The road can be hell-in case you're wondering
Review: Some might say..."Why should I read an account of a band and the day to day hell they lived through?" Personally, I took a look around after reading this book and determined how easy most of us really have it. Get in the van gave me a bit more personal strength and slightly different perspective on the weak people around me. Strong book from the man!
Rating: 
Summary: A mostly great book
Review: The parts of this book where Henry was on tour were a great read. The parts where he sat in the shed and b****** about his success were terrible. I just wish I had the success he did so I could complain so much. A mostly great book but not the best.
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