The
death of former Clash frontman Joe Strummer has reminded
us how original and influential the first punk rockers
were. The original punk music scene ran like the careers
of many of its stars - burning brightly for a short time
before crashing to the ground in flames. But its importance
can be judged by the echoes heard in music ever since,
as well as the legends and cliches that have grown up
around it. One cliché is that punk was less a musical
genre than a state of mind - but that was true in the
days before it became fashionable to become a punk fashion
victim.
Although
its origins can be traced back as far as you like, with
every generation having its own youth sub-culture that
shocks the established order (some say Elvis was a punk),
punk as we know it began in the early 1970s. Bands like
The Fugs, the MC5 and The Stooges all sowed the seeds,
but the first group to take on the recognisable attitude
and style were the New York Dolls and Television, who
both emerged from a small New York scene.
The
New York Dolls, befriended by future Sex Pistols manager
Malcolm McLaren, were outrageously dressed, and delighted
in disgusting people by doing Nazi salutes and vomiting
in front of photographers. McLaren saw something special
in Television too - especially their bassist, Richard
Hell, whose spiky hair and ripped clothes were taken back
to London by McLaren and have been seen on thousands of
punks since. On both sides of the Atlantic, more and more
young disillusioned white teenagers were looking for an
escape from the boredom and constraints of society, with
unemployment, racial tensions and social upheaval providing
fuel for their fires.
Punk
remained an underground scene until 1976, when two bands
- The Ramones and The Sex Pistols - made the outside world
take notice. Not only did they become hugely successful
in their own right, but they also provided an inspiration
to people who realised you did not need to be able to
play an instrument to be in a band - you just had to have
something to say. Legend has it that after seeing the
Sex Pistols support one of his old bands, Joe Strummer
was moved to form The Clash. Another story says The Clash's
Paul Simonon and Mick Jones told The Ramones that their
London gig gave the pair the courage to be in a band.
Whatever the truth, the Sex Pistols went on to cause tabloid
outrage - using some tricks McLaren had picked up in New
York - and the punk explosion disgusted as many as it
inspired.
Groups
like The Clash, The Buzzcocks, Joy Division and The Stranglers
followed, and the punk influence has carried through to
current rock bands like Green Day, Rancid and Blink 182.
And 25 years after the original scene developed, a new
US rock sound, using elements of the New York punk scene,
has thrown up bands like The Strokes and the Yeah Yeah
Yeahs - although cynics say their retro looks are more
important to them than their originality. As for the original
punks, they are now middle-aged and left largely irrelevant
by the passage of time. The ranting and raving of people
like John Lydon - formerly Johnny Rotten - which made
him a figurehead for a disillusioned generation in the
1970s, has now come to make him a figure of cartoon-style
ridicule. But the reaction to Joe Strummer's death has
proved that we do see the old punks as pioneers who kicked
down musical and social barriers, making anything seem
possible (Ian Jennings).
Punk
music and culture has had a great impact on many different
aspects of culture, both in its own right and by fundamentally
changing the social environment which other western cultures
share with it. Despite the wide variety of modern elements
of punk, it is generally agreed that the culture began
in England in the years 1976 to 1981, when the first and
simplest from of punk music began and ended.
There
was a recognisable progression in the kind of music being
created during this era. This is a progression which went
on to result in the pervading influence of punk in areas
of the culture where it could never have imagined being
influential back during its birth, when it was a youth
culture and an outsider culture.
Although
punk music, which called itself punk music, was a very
English thing until the early eighties, the bands which
led Malcolm McLaren to create a band called the Sex Pistols
in early 1976 were American, principally the New York
Dolls, for the image and attitude, and the Stooges, for
the basis of the music. Punk was a reaction against the
pretentiousness of the prevailing bands of the mid seventies,
progressive rock bands with songs so indulgent and inaccessible
to the youth of Britain that there was a palpable gap
in youth culture.
The
Sex Pistols, led by John Lydon, aka Johnny Rotten, were
one of the first wave of bands including the Clash and
the Damned that started playing around London in 1976.
They initially played in front of small and hostile crowds
but eventually gaining a burgeoning audience who were
easily distinguishable by their uniform of ripped clothing
and dyed hair. By the time a number of the London bands
and some early punks from the rest of Britain played at
the 100 Club in a legendary gig that cemented the existence
of this new genre of music, punk was a viable term. Almost
immediately after the 100 Club concert, the Damned released
New Rose, the first punk single, and although it failed
to sell, this was not a problem faced by the Sex Pistols
when they released Anarchy in the UK a month later. Aided
by the wilful controversy of the band's members and an
infamous television interview with Bill Grundy, the single
made the lower reaches of the UK charts, announcing punk
to a wider audience. The Damned released their album Damned
Damned Damned to an active culture in November of that
year.
In
1977 the Pistols sacked bass player Glen Matlock and brought
in Sid Vicious, a fan who could not play the bass but
had the image, reputation and heroin habit to court more
controversy. In a flurry of publicity, the Pistols signed
first to A+M records, where they were dropped after a
week and then to Virgin, where they released two more
excellent singles, God Save the Queen and Pretty Vacant.
Their album Never Mind the Bollocks Here's the Sex Pistols
came out later in the year to much acclaim.
Other
early punk bands were cashing in on the publicity with
records. Some, like The Clash's eponymous debut album,
were excellent, but the majority were terrible. The Damned
released their second album Music For Pleasure to widespread
derision, and as the year ended without any activity from
flagship band the Sex Pistols, punk seemed in a bad state
considering its ever-expanding and ever-diluting fanbase.
1978
was the year that the first wave of punk bands became
washed up, but a newer and more interesting generation
swept over their bodies. At the start of the year following
a strenuous tour of America Johnny Rotten left the Sex
Pistols onstage with the legendary question, 'Ever get
the feeling you've been cheated?' As back in Britain a
wave of talentless and characterless punk bands released
mediocre singles and albums the Pistols remained in America,
without a singer but living on the publicity of the film
based on their story, Malcolm McLaren's The Great Rock
and Roll Swindle. They released a single, Cosh the Driver,
with train robber Ronnie Briggs on vocals, but were otherwise
out of ideas. In October Sid Vicious' girlfriend Nancy
Spungen was found stabbed to death in their hotel room
and Sid was arrested on suspicion. However, while the
original punks learned the hard way that they could not
trade forever on attitude and image, there was a new generation
in the wings who adapted the primitivity of the music
to something with a purpose.
While
the demise of the old punks was signalled in the mediocrity
of bands like the UK Subs and the Clash's less popular
second effort, there were new bands like the Undertones,
who released the perenial classic Teenage Kicks and added
pop to punk, and then Joy Division, who ditched their
simple punk past as nonentities Warsaw and were signed
to Factory records.
1979
saw the death from a heroin overdose of Sid Vicious in
February, a death that effectively marked the end of the
initial punk momentum. The rest of the year was more encouraging,
as a wave of post punk bands released classic albums.
The Clash was one of the few original punk bands to escape
the decline, as they adapted their music to include reggae,
ska and pop elements on their London Calling double album.
The Undertones followed up Teenage Kicks with a re-release
and then an album of clever punk-pop, while punk was now
less centered in London then in the industrial towns,
particularly Manchester.
It
was here that a new punk scene sprung up and produced,
in Joy Division and The Fall, two of the great British
bands, whose music transcended any genre. Joy Division
released the angst filled paranoia of Unknown Pleasures
after some well recieved singles, and its singularly alienated
and modern sound of silences, white noise and sparsely
driving rock rhythms made it an instant classic. The Fall
released two albums in 1979, first the twisted punk of
Live At the Witch Trials and then the dark and decidedly
weird Dragnet, which marked a departure already from punk.
1980
was efectively the end of punk, as Ian Curtis of Joy Division
hung himself shortly before the release of their second
album Closer. In the light of his death it is a terrifyingly
intimate and despairing album, but still an absolute classic.
His death seemed to mark the end of punk's capacity for
inspiration, and the Clash released the terrible Sandanista
to effectively end their careers while the majority of
punk bands either gave up or carried on with no purpose.
Bands like the Fall and the Mekons left punk behind almost
totally as they continued to make significant music.
In
1981 even the Undertones left punk behind as an influence,
and punk as an entity was almost completely dead, but
its influence lived on in the whole of youth culture,
not present in itself but casting a shadow over everything.
The previous four years had had a priofound effect.
During the early '90s -- nearly a full 20 years after
punk happened -- the United States had its first punk
rock hit albums and singles, as a wave of bands raised
on '80s hardcore and '70s punk worked its way into the
American mainstream. Essentially, Punk Revival bands were
all traditionalists -- they kept alive the sounds and
styles of groups like the Sex Pistols, the Stooges, the
Jam, the Exploited, Black Flag, Dead Kennedys, the Descendents,
and countless other punk and hardcore bands. Since hardcore
mutated into speed metal in the late '80s, it wasn't surprising
that these punk traditionalists were heavier than their
initial influences, but that is partially what made the
music appealing to a mass audience in America -- it was
simpler and heavier, much like a faster, harder outgrowth
of grunge rock. The first punk revivalists to break into
the American mainstream were Green Day and the Offspring,
and their success helped solidify cult followings for
groups like Rancid, NOFX, Pennywise, and Pansy Division,
as well as bring the spotlight to neglected '80s punk
bands like Bad Religion and underground punk genres like
the third wave of ska revival.
