Punk Rock - Time seperated the wheat from the chaff....
Saturday, 24th May 2008, 16:42

ChangesPosted by Stuart McLean on 24-5-2008 16:42

Hving just received a Punk Rock Movies review disc (haven't watched it yet) it made me ruminate on how well punk has stood the test of time. In truth - I think the conclusion has to be: not that well!

Though The Sex Pistols still sound exciting listened to today, and maybe The Buzzcocks, very few Punk records have stood the test of time. Of course, 'The Clash' sound as fresh as a daisy, but really they transmogrified into a great all encompassing rock 'n roll band. The Damned never lived up to their early promise (with that blistering debut) revealing themselves to be spiritually aligned to the psyched our guitar thing of the late sixties. The Jam never quite fitted the mould, and The Stranglers turned into something very far removed from the punk ethos by their third album.

Bands like Sham 69, Generation X, The Adverts and countless others just don't cut the mustard when listened to today.

NY Punk (Ramones, Dead Boys, Stooges etc) still sound great but these pre-dated the strange Brit incarnation of 1976/77, and spawned a great wave of first class new wave acts that included Talking Heads, Blondie and many others.

So what's left after the dust settled? Maybe half a dozen songs that seemed to turn the music industry upside down - and changed thousands lof lives (mine included).

Discuss.

Comments on this Item

ChangesPosted by Jitendar Canth on 25-5-2008 10:32

I was three years old when Punk Rock was big. All I know is that the strange people scared me...

Not very constructive I know, but I'm one of the people who only really appreciated Punk from the effect that it had later down the years.

ChangesPosted by Si Wooldridge on 26-5-2008 20:14

I was just too young for punk, my musical education started properly in 1979 with Gary Numan and continued up until 1984 with the New Romantics and the rise of the synthesiser. Couldn't stand any punk until I probably hit my 30's and my tastes started to mellow out a bit more, but then I could say the same about The Jam, Iron Maiden, and a million other bands.

ChangesPosted by Stuart McLean on 26-5-2008 22:44

It's funny the difference a few years can make to musical opinion. I was 16 in 1977 and despite being stuck in the provinces got an early introduction to Punk via Rob Birch (yes - he of the Stereo MC's) who at that time had a cool band called 'The Blitz Kids' who supported a number of early punk acts. (I played guitar with his younger brother). Birch went on to join the Vibrators though curiously I never saw any reference to this after he formed teh Stereo MC's.

It's funny Si - without the bridge made by the original (John Foxx) Ultravox and bands like Wire from Punk to Electronic music, Tubeway Army would probably have never happened and you would never have started that lifetime passion for synth music. It's all linked somewhere!!

Also - I don't follow how 'mellowing out' would turn you on to Punk? But maybe I over-estimate the power that bands like The Sex Pistols and The Clash actually weild. It seemed pretty awesome at the time!

ChangesPosted by Si Wooldridge on 27-5-2008 13:48

You right about the likes of Ultravox, although I didn't discover Foxx-Vox until about 1982 after having already bought Vienna and Rage In Eden first. Numan always insisted that his transition to the synthesiser was inspired directly by Ultravox's Systems of Romance album, which is a great album.

'Mellowing out' is a bit of a misnomer, I don't mean that the like of the Pistols were a bit chilled or had a weak sound. More that I fell into the playground categorisation of music and never really left there, bar stadium rock. In my school, it was mods, metal heads or 'those poofs who plays synths' and never the twain shall meet. Therefore I refused to allow myself to like or listen to the likes of the Pistols, Clash, Maiden or anyone else. It was rare I ever bought a single that wan't by a synth band and I never bought a full album without synths on it. When I hit thirty or thereabouts, I actually realised that the Pistols were quite musical in their own way and it was just the racket I'd always dismissed it as. Same as Maiden and many others.

As an aside, I've always liked Malcolm McClaren's solo stuff. I never bought Duck Rock or whatever it was called, but the Operatic (Madame Butterfly) and Vogue-ish albums are superb, although their names escape me now...

ChangesPosted by Si Wooldridge on 27-5-2008 13:49

That should read 'wasn't the racket I'd always dismissed it as', obviously.

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