Punk Rock Music

I feel as though I must clarify something here. Last night, my new 'friend', Tina, made a confession to me, that there is only one type of music that she dislikes, and that would be Punk Rock. I quickly recommended three songs to her, mainly for her listening edification, which were as follows: Fear; "Fuck Christmas"http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Zgol2NQhlM, mainly for the humor as well as the excellent Shock-Value (more on that later), The New York Dolls; "Pillhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ajIt6x9ubwAs"- (the best version I could find on-line), for the gut rocking cool of it all, plus the swagger. Who else could pull this off wearing a dress other than Punks?, and finally The Sex Pistols; "New York" (by the way, if ya don't know it, give it a quick listen>>>>> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=71lJWj03OUI), for the, well, for the fuck of it. I thought these would supply a quick primer to Punk. I hate to have people judge something without seeing or knowing the whole picture, ya know what I mean?

From what I have been able to cull from history, such as it is, Punk was risen from the ashes of the apathetic nothingness, the staid and barren state of things both culturally as well as socially in the U.K back in the 1960's. There was a garbage strike at the time, and it was literally piling up to unbelievable heights in the streets, as well as the lack of jobs available to youths in this country. The kids there were, musically, caught between the hippie music, and a great void of, well, nothing in particular. The Government, meaning the Queen and her minions, who were and still are, rich beyond belief, were, as always, calling all the shots, and the kids, albeit a small handful of them, were ready for Anarchy, which they were led into by such seminal bands as the Sex Pistols and (possibly, but not in my book, by any means The Clash), whom opened the doors for a pretty much 'any thing goes' attitude toward music, and held tight the line (Pistols) between revolution and evolution and anti-government status, such as glorifying apathy and the cultural-stale that was at the time, seemingly being force-fed down the throats of the poor to middle class English teen market.

Early proto-punk bands, from Amerikkka, such as The Kingsmen, and the whole Garage Band thing from the early to late 60's and beyond, mainly from the North-West of the U.S., I would have to say, pretty much set the precedent for the anything goes, mind numbing more or less free-form jam bands that would soon be all the main-stream rage from Seattle, such as Cobain's band (I forget the name) and their ilk, which only goes to show one of my favorite sayings, or quotes from my late father.. "Nothing Is New". Nope. It's pretty much all the same thing, packaged a bit differently, sure, put-forth differently as well, but still, everything is old, and nothing is really new. The whole Punk movement was originally put in place for one reason and one reason alone, and that was to shock the establishment. Sometimes the status-quo needs a good, violent ass-fucking to stop them in their tracks, and allow them to take notice of just how staid they have become. In the 1920's America, it was Jazz/Swing music and flappers to boot. In the late 1930's and 40's, it was Big Band and Swing music. The 1950's brought in an influx of Negro music, such as Little Richard Penniman (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QFL047fmsgg) and the like, which scared the Amerikkkan Governmnt so badly that they banned it from the airwaves, mainly due to man's fear of any cock that might be bigger than his own. For them (U.S. gov) to even have to think about losing their women folk to a band of sex-fueled, wildly dancing, uninhibited Negro's (hey, I capitalized it, so shut the fuck up) was beyond any normal thought pattern they might have, and thus, was almost stopped before it could flourish. Note that I said almost. Despite the fact that seminal rockers such as Little Richard, Chuck Berry and the like could not get any mainstream radio air play (Little Richard actually ended up selling his songs to Pat Boone, for $50.00 a piece. Please watch this-shudder-video, and see for yourself http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vv-LAbMbEn4), their music nevertheless did not stop the black rockers from kicking lots of white ass, and fucking even more white daughters than would have been the case had the F.C.C. not made such a big deal out of the whole thing in the first place. The Cleveland Ohio disc-jockey, Allen Freed was screwed over by the Gov'ment, not for his doing what everyone else in the music industry was doing, which was taking bribes (payola) for certain songs receiving air-play, but for his openly backing several black Rock and Soul acts, as well as putting on his now infamous Rock and Roll shows, for all the white and black kids to attend. I know this doesn't really have a lot to do with the subject here, which is Punk, but if you don't have a full understanding of just what Rock and Roll, which is what Punk is directly culled from, and all of it's strange history, you could never fully grasp the whole Punk movement, which, as I stated earlier, was not as much about the actual playing of the music, as it was the people, or the musicians, who (attempted to) performed it.

One did not really have to be a great, or even non-existent musician, to somewhat front a Punk band. A good example of this would be the late, great Syd Vicious. Syd couldn't really play the bass. But he could sneer with the best of them. Elvis Presley knew only a few, rudimentary chords on the guitar, yet one would have never known that, as he, at least in his early years, always had one slung around his neck. Along with that sneer. Musicians such as Vicious and Presley played their sneer much better than their instruments. They wielded their attitude with the same care-free, reckless abandon that they wielded their guitars, much more-so, if you really look at it. So it is the attitude that is the main, the key ingredient, in firstly, Rock and Roll, and ultimately, as it is what I am writing about here, the whole Punk Rock episode of musical history.

When I first heard Punk proper, which was around 1973, when I was 15 or 16 yeas old, I was simply delighted. It was a band called the New York Dolls, and I believe what I most liked about them was their seemingly uncaring attitude. They didn't seem to care if their guitars were tuned, or clean, or if their vocals were melodic. And they sure as shit did not care about what people thought about them. I think the word that best describes the way they probably thought might have been 'FUCK'. At least, that's the word that came to my mind when I heard them rocking out with such tunes as "Personality Crisis, or "Looking For A Kiss". If you haven't listened to these songs, and have been put in a position of judging music whatsoever, then all I can say is Shame on you! Coming from a musical background full of The Beatles, The Stones, and Elvis (now don't get me wrong. This type of artist is still first and foremost in my now, but not for long, non-existent musical catalouge) , whose polished studio-music was near perfection, with nary a hint of what might be considered a mistake, I was really very refreshed to hear this type of music blaring forth from my speakers. Yes. This is what Rock and Roll was really all about. Kicking ass and taking names. If you don't like what were doing, then get the fuck out, and make room for some new-thinkers. You might want to look at this video, before you box Punk Rock music. Before you judge a thing such as music just on it's sound alone..... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5CxyDX8kN6s...... Cab Calloway. What a concept!

I first began playing "Hard-Core Punk Music", because what I really wanted to do was kill a few people. And the more I scared myself with that sort of thinking, the louder I turned up the vocals and guitar amp. The more I wanted to see certain people bleed, the more anger I put into my songs' lyrics. In essence, had I not had Punk, I would probably be in prison. Thank You God For Punk Rock Music. For Expressionism. For Fucking Freedom! Let It Ring, Baby.