Savage Distortion

PUNK IS DEAD, LONG LIVE PUNK

The story goes something like this. Forty years ago, Lou Reed met John Cale (he already knew Sterling) and they formed a band unlike any other that we have seen before or since. When the Velvet Underground released their first record, something like ten people bought it (I know you all have it now) but those ten people went on to start bands. Thirty years ago the New York Dolls played the Mercer Arts Center and something like ten people showed up to see them, among them, the future Joey and Dee Dee Ramone, and a guy named Malcom Mclaren. Two years after that the Ramones played London. The shows were sold out, in the audience....Joe Strummer, Mick Jones, Steve Jones, Johnny Rotten, John Ritchie (Sid), and Malcom Mclaren. One year later the Sex Pistols played Manchester, in the auience of about twenty....well you've seen 'Twenty-Four Hour Party People" right? No? Well you should if you haven't. That night the manchester scene was born; Buzzcocks, Joy Division/New Order. Three years later, Sid was dead, Ian Curtis was dead, and by and large Punk was dead. By 1980 you had DC Hardcore (Black Flag, Minor Threat), LA Punk (X, Circle Jerks, Angry Somoans, Fear, the Germs) and....what's this? Minneapolis? Yep! Husker Du and the Replacements. Even in Akron things were getting interesting, i.e. DEVO. In fact the Punk disease was spreading all over, and that's the first law of musical dynamics, when it spreads past it's home base, it's done. Today we see and hear the influence of punk in the likes of Green Day and Good Charlotte, but they aren't punk bands. You see and hear it in Hardcore/Emo, but again it's not Punk. Punk rock died onstage at Winterland in 1978 when Johnny Rotten asked; "Ever feel like you've been cheated." The moment he broke character and leveled with us, it was over. The Ramones would go on to become the evangelists of Punk, spreading the gospel far and wide over two decades, and the Clash would go on to push the musical boundries of Punk with reggae, blues, hip hop, folk..you name it. But Punk, true Punk Rock did not outlive the seventies. That's not a bad thing. Music should always grow and move on. Without Punk you have no New Wave. No Gang Of Four, REM, U2, Bauhaus. You have no Sonic Youth, no Beastie Boys, no Nirvana. "This I tell you brother, you can't have one wothout the other."