'Touched'
There's a lady plays her fav'rite records/On the jukebox ev'ry day/All day long she plays the same old songs/And she believes the things that they say/She sings along with all the saddest songs/And she believes the stories are real/She lets the music dictate the way that she feels.
Maybe looking through today's narrow-vision punk glasses they weren't, but at the time? Definitely Punk!
As Verlaine himself said, "In the beginning of Punk every band was it's own strange little idea."
The idea that punk could be something homogenous or defined by The Ramones would've seemed ridiculous.
Someone once told me he considered Punk to consist of the Sex Pistols and other British bands involved in the UK punk scene in '76 and '77. And that was it.
Someone once told me he considered Punk to consist of the Sex Pistols and other British bands involved in the UK punk scene in '76 and '77. And that was it.
They're stupid and wrong. Any definition of Punk that doesn't include The Ramones is worthless. Any definition that would exclude Richard Hell and the Voidoids is worthless.
Someone once told me he considered Punk to consist of the Sex Pistols and other British bands involved in the UK punk scene in '76 and '77. And that was it.
That's pretty much exactly where I go when I think of punk.
That's pretty much exactly where I go when I think of punk.
billytea! Don't embrace the wrongheadedness!
billytea! Don't embrace the wrongheadedness!
Eh. I'm not trying to define the genre, that's just the punk with which I'm familiar. (Unlike New Wave, where I'm familiar with, and largely like, the American oeuvre, I just prefer the UK sound.)
Someone once told me he considered Punk to consist of the Sex Pistols and other British bands involved in the UK punk scene in '76 and '77. And that was it.
Except, of course, Estonian bands in 2013.
Interestingly, I was coming in here to ask y'all how to explain or describe Punk to Mal, and who to play for him. I tend to reach for Ramones and Dead Kennedys and Milkmen, but clearly Sex Pistols...
What makes something punk? Why do they throw themselves off the stage? Why do they dress like that? These are the questions I get.
(Also, "Why don't you like country music?" but that's another topic.)
What makes something punk?
It's the "No!" that means "Yes!" (rejecting false affirmatives, destruction as an aspect of creation, "turning away in disgust is not the same thing as apathy", if the game is rigged don't play by the rules)
Why do they throw themselves off the stage?
Because: (a) it's reckless; and (b) they know somebody will catch them. Two core tenets of punk. Risk and community.
Why do they dress like that?
It's cheap and it makes a statement (see above for "No!").
He should clearly join Duran Duran.
But that would make things confusing.