当 Richard Hell 离开 Television 和 Heartbreakers (Johnny Thunders 在离开 New York Dolls 后领导的团) 后，便找来曾经共事的好友 Robert 和 Ivan Julian、Marc Bell (后来变成 Ramones 的团员) 一起组成 Richard Hell & the Voidoids。 虽然 Richard Hell & the Voidoids 在 1977 出版划时代的首张专辑《Blank Generation》，但马上就因为盛名和毒品之累而形同解散。当 1982 年 Richard Hell 决定复出重组 Richard Hell & the Voidoids (这次还是一样，出版第二张专辑《Destination Street》后马上又消失...) ，Robert 已经在同时间成为另类乐坛最炙手可热的乐手之一了。 No one ever accused Richard Hell of being the hardest working man in rock & roll, and not only did it take him five years to get around to making a follow-up to his first album, the remarkable Blank Generation, but he didn't even bother to come up with a full LP's worth of new material for 1982's Destiny Street; the opening song, "The Kid With the Replaceable Head," first appeared as a B-side to a single in 1979, and three of the album's ten tunes are covers, which hardly speaks well of his productivity. But if it's hard to imagine why it took five years to come up with Destiny Street, there's little arguing that Hell's second album is nearly as strong as his first. While the covers might seem like padding, the interpretations of the Kinks' "You Gotta Move" and Them's "I Can Only Give You Everything" are wildly passionate and overflowing with ideas and energy, and Hell's dour, jagged take on Dylan's "Going, Going, Gone" nearly surpasses the original. Robert Quine's guitar work on Blank Generation staked his claim as one of the most interesting and intelligent guitarists to emerge from the New York underground scene, and if anything, he was in even stronger form on Destiny Street, while new members Naux (on guitar) and Fred Maher (on drums) give him all the support he needs. And though Blank Generation made it clear Hell was among the brainiest members of punk's first graduating class, the handful of new originals here show he'd actually grown since his debut; on "Downtown at Dawn" and "Ignore That Door," Hell subtly but implicitly rejects the dead end of night-life decadence, "Time" is a meditation on mortality that's unexpectedly compassionate, and the title cut proved Hell had not only begun to recognize his own faults, but had even learned to laugh at them. 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.