The Essential Punk...

[starry-eyed pirate]

What is it ??

[Valhalla]

Sex Pistols
The Misfits (but them I'm partial)
The Ramones

...waiting for Frod....

[Anonymous]

Stooges, baby!  You need some Velvet Underground, and some Ramones, too.   Fuck the Pistols, the Damned are a much better band who formed before they did,  releasewd a record before they did, and broke up before they did.  The Pistols are the Monkees of Punk Rock--a contrived band calculated to sell records.  The Damned are the genuine article.

After those, you might want to investigate certain local scenes---NY had CBGB's and Max's Kansas City (two influential punk clubs) DC had their harDCore thing going on,  LA had a punk scene (that was cool until Orange County assholes domionated it), SF had their scene, and Boston, Atlanta, Chicago, etc. all had bands come out of their local punk rock scenes.


rtp2k3

[Froderik]

Stooges, baby!  You need some Velvet Underground, and some Ramones, too.   Fuck the Pistols, the Damned are a much better band who formed before they did,  releasewd a record before they did, and broke up before they did.  The Pistols are the Monkees of Punk Rock--a contrived band calculated to sell records.  The Damned are the genuine article.

After those, you might want to investigate certain local scenes---NY had CBGB's and Max's Kansas City (two influential punk clubs) DC had their harDCore thing going on,  LA had a punk scene (that was cool until Orange County assholes domionated it), SF had their scene, and Boston, Atlanta, Chicago, etc. all had bands come out of their local punk rock scenes.rtp2k3

I wholeheartedly concur with The Stooges as well as The Ramones & The VU... All are quintessential American punk bands.

When normally a remark like that about The Sex Pistols might cause there to be broken bottles and some cuts and bruises, I'll go along with it to a point considering it's The Damned you're talking about. Fucking great band in their early days. Live Shepperton 1980 is a smokin' live album by them. Their cover of "Looking at You" on there (The MC5) is cool as shit!

I don't share the "Monkees" view of the Pistols; Never Mind The Bollocks is an undeniable punk masterpiece! Not contrived at all! It's the only thing they ever really did, but significant. But The Damned were a better band than the Pistols, all in all. The Clash are also good (mostly the early stuff).

The LA scene: Black Flag, Fear, The Germs, X, etc.
Rent "The Decline of Western Civilization" for a good exposé on this stuff. A good documentary as I recall; I saw it in 1981 or 82, but I think I'd like it almost as much today..

[Anonymous]

Yeah, Never Mind the Bullocks is a great record, but again, their Monkees-ishness seeps through in the fact that they fired Glen Matlock, who wrote all the songs, and replaced him with Sid Vicious, who was all image and no ability.

[Froderik]

Yeah, Never Mind the Bullocks is a great record, but again, their Monkees-ishness seeps through in the fact that they fired Glen Matlock, who wrote all the songs, and replaced him with Sid Vicious, who was all image and no ability.

This much is true.  :rofl:

Who played bass on the album? Was it Matlock? I seem to recall hearing that Steve Jones may have played on that too.

[Anonymous]

Don't go editing my posts, now, Mr. Moderator........

[Froderik]

D'OH!!!! Turns out I clicked edit instead of quote....sorry..

Even ~I didn't get to read the rest of that..... Fuck!!   :exclaim:

That's what I get for moderating while high..  ::ftard::

EDIT: The following post is something like the part I deleted:[/i]

[Anonymous]

I don't hate on the Pistols, they were kind of accessable as a punk band.....Never Mind went platinum, so how "punk" can they be, etc., but I really don't hate them, it's more that I am irked they get all the limelight, and they were a phenomenon in a way no other band was, no doubt, but it irks me that the Damned don't get their due.  Now that all my other problems have been solved, I can work on that one, getting the Damned the recognition they deserve.

[Froderik]

I don't hate on the Pistols, they were kind of accessable as a punk band.....Never Mind went platinum, so how "punk" can they be, etc., but I really don't hate them, it's more that I am irked they get all the limelight, and they were a phenomenon in a way no other band was, no doubt,

Didn't it go platinum later on, long after they were a band anymore? I think it was more of an after-the-fact kind of thing with that album. Most of those sales were probably over many (more recent) years...

Yeah, and they had shock value in spades, too!

[Anonymous]

Yeah, the Pistols did bother people.  They had that down.

[Anonymous]

I remember meeting Steve Jones about 1o years ago at a club in Boston while he played with Idol, some guy fom GNR, and some guy from Duran.  Hanging out wit those guys were as boring as it gets, but the show was okay.  It was at Aerosmith's former club, Mamamkin, which was a good place to see a show.  Hate those big arenas. Jones was in good shape, but the others seemed pretty blah, especially Idol.

[try another castle]

The Pistols are the Monkees of Punk Rock--a contrived band calculated to sell records.

Agreed. Majorly agreed.

[Ganja]

Sure, but they knew it & had a sense of humor about it -- "The Great Rock & Roll Swindle."

[Anonymous]

I met Steve Jones of the Pistols about 10 years ago, performing with Idol, Duff McKagan, some Taylor from DuranDuran, and let me tell you, "the essential punk" was gone. Plus Idol kept nodding off into oblivia. They seemed as bored as they were boring. The only one with any charisma as Steve Tyler, who was only there 'cause he owned the place. It definitely was the whole "meet your idols and you will be disappointed" scenario, though I've never been one to idolize the rock stars.  They were however, genuinely surprised that I didn't hook up with Jones after a backstage pass. He looked good and healthy, but the groupie gene bypassed me. He ended up calling me at 5 am to ask me to go to LA and my roommate got on the phone yelling, "I don't know who you think you are, and I don't care! But don't. fucking.call. at 5AM in the morning!!" The next day her boyfriend was stunned that she told off Steve Jones and begged me to call him back. (He is a true punk aficionado.)

Anyway, I don't put the pistols on the same level as some contrived boy band. Yes, McL put them together,but hardly by auditioning, giving them talent lessons, and sending them in for a makeover.  These kids were already a group of talentless malcontents hanging out who represented the sense of rage and disconnection that was percolating at the time... bucking the class system and pointless sense of propriety. They already were cutting up clothes and sticking selves with pins... and squatting, while hanging about wreaking havoc. McL and Westwood borrowed many ideas from them, not the other way around. They just "branded" an ideology that already existed.

 A good book is Johnny Rotten's No Irish, No Blacks, No Dogs.  It gives an authentic look at the times with the benefit of hindsight without over sentimentalizing it.  (I think he does in his way--but he'd never cop to it.)  Other people of the period also contribute.  It's decidely English though in terms of not giving a whip about American punk.

When I think of the NY scene at the time it seemed to me that it thrived on being degenerate without the cacophony of emotion. It seemed a bit more prententious.  Maybe I'm wrong.

There's a good book of oral testimony about that NY CBGB scene, called "Please Kill Me."   Ramones, Patti Smith, Lou Reed, some MC5 and Stooges stuff in there, too.

From a sociological perspectve, it's interesting.

Just don't give me a book on Disco.