Richard Hell (born Richard Meyers; October 2, 1949 in Lexington, Kentucky) … Read Full Bio ↴Richard Hell (born Richard Meyers; October 2, 1949 in Lexington, Kentucky) is an American singer, songwriter, bass guitarist, and writer.

Hell was an originator of the punk fashion look, the first to spike his hair and wear torn, cut and drawn-on shirts, often held together with safety pins. Malcolm McLaren, manager of the Sex Pistols, has said Hell was an important inspiration for the Sex Pistols' look and attitude, as well as the safety-pin accessorized clothing McLaren sold in his London shop, Sex. (Some members of the Sex Pistols dispute this.)

Hell attended Sanford Preparatory in Delaware for one year (the 11th grade) where he became friends with Tom Miller (later Tom Verlaine). They ran away from school together and were arrested in Alabama for arson and vandalism a short time later.

Hell never finished high school but moved to New York City to make his way as a poet. In New York he bought a used table-top offset printing press and began publishing books and magazines under the imprints Genesis: Grasp and then Dot Books. Before he was twenty-one his own poems were published in numerous periodicals, ranging from Rolling Stone to the New Directions Annuals. Along with Tom Verlaine, in 1971 Hell also published under the pseudonym Theresa Stern, a female poet whose photo was actually a combination of both his and Verlaine's faces, in makeup and a female wig, superimposed over one another to create a new identity.

In 1969, Verlaine joined Hell in New York and they eventually formed the Neon Boys. Their 1973 demo tracks of "Love Comes in Spurts" and "That's All I Know (Right Now)", later released by Shake Records, were arguably the first punk recordings. In 1974 the band added a second guitar player and changed their name to Television.

Television's performances at CBGB helped kick-start the first wave of punk bands, inspiring a number of different artists including Patti Smith, who wrote the first press review of Television for the Soho Weekly News in June 1974. She had an affair with Tom Verlaine, and formed a highly successful band of her own (the Patti Smith Group). Television was the band that convinced CBGB owner Hilly Kristal to book rock bands at his club, and they built its first stage.

Hell started playing his song "Blank Generation" during his stint in Television. In 1975, Hell quit (or was fired from) Television after a dispute over creative control. Hell claimed that he and Verlaine had originally divided the songwriting evenly but later Verlaine favored his own songs. Verlaine remains characteristically silent on the subject.

Hell left Television the same week that Jerry Nolan and Johnny Thunders quit the New York Dolls and the three of them formed a band called The Heartbreakers in May 1975 (not to be confused with Tom Petty's band, which adopted the same name the following year). After a few shows Walter Lure joined The Heartbreakers as a second guitar player.

A year later, in early 1976, Hell quit The Heartbreakers and started Richard Hell & the Voidoids with Robert Quine, Ivan Julian and Marc Bell. The band released two albums, though the second, Destiny Street, was a less successful lineup that retained only Quine from the original group, and suffered from Hell's distractions, narcotics especially, during recording, as he himself has described. Hell's best known songs with the Voidoids were "Blank Generation" (the title track of the group's original album), "Love Comes in Spurts", "The Kid With the Replaceable Head" and "Time".

Hell was married to Scandal's Patty Smyth for two years, 1985–86, and they have a daughter, Ruby. Hell married Sheelagh Bevan in 2002 and lives with her in the East Village, New York City.

All The Way
Richard Hell Lyrics

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When somebody loves you
It's no good unless he loves you
All the way
Happy to be near you
When you need someone to cheer you
All the way

Taller than the tallest tree is

That's how it's got to feel
Deeper than the deep blue see is
That's how deep it goes, when it's real, when it's real

'Cause when somebody needs you
It's no good unless he needs you
All the way
Through the good or lean years
And for all the, all the in-between years
Come what may

Who know where the road will lead us
Only a fool would say
But if you'll let me love you
It's for sure I'm gonna love you
All the way
All the way

But if you'll let me love you
It's for sure I'm gonna love you

All the way
All the way

Overall Meaning

In Richard Hell's song All The Way, the lyrics revolve around the theme of love and the depth of it. The singer emphasizes that when somebody loves you, it's not enough unless they do it all the way. This line suggests that half-hearted love is not sufficient and one must be completely invested in a relationship for it to work. The next few lines highlight the importance of being there for someone when they need you, suggesting that love is not only about romance but also about emotional support. The comparison with a tall tree and a deep sea indicates that real love goes beyond surface level and reaches to the depths of our being.

The chorus again emphasizes the importance of being all in when it comes to love. The line "when somebody needs you it's no good unless he needs you all the way" suggests that being needed is not enough. It is essential that the love is mutual and both partners are completely invested in each other. The lyrics also highlight that love is not just a feeling reserved for good times but it is equally important during the tough times as well. The line "through the good or lean years and for all the, all the in-between years" suggests that love is a constant support system that lasts through every phase of life.

Line by Line Meaning

When somebody loves you
When you are loved by someone

It's no good unless he loves you
It's not worth it if they don't love you wholly

All the way
With all their love

Happy to be near you
Joyful to be around you

When you need someone to cheer you
When you require support

All the way
With all their love

Taller than the tallest tree is
The love is immense

That's how it's got to feel
That's how you should feel

Deeper than the deep blue see is
The love is boundless

That's how deep it goes, when it's real, when it's real
When it's genuine, love goes that far

'Cause when somebody needs you
Because if someone truly needs you