Undercover Punk

by **Carson Collins** on Sat Jul 16, 2011 3:43 am

Who do you think was the first Punk Rock band? Here is one candidate: Iggy Pop and the Stooges, from 1977, aka The Summer of Punk, doing The Passenger. Perhaps it's a bit too melodic to be considered Punk, and some of the guys can play their instruments. Is it Punk? You decide.

Here's another candidate Sheena Is A Punk Rocker by the Ramones, also 1977.

These are the first punk rock songs that I heard. But these were bands that were already signed. Surely there must have been a scene where this music developed, so the first, prototypical Punk Rock recording must have predated these. Obviously it did, because the term "punk rocker" already existed, although this was the first time I ever heard it. The Ramones were a great inspiration to a whole generation of aspiring rock performers, because they proved that you didn't have to know how to play more than 3 chords (and have a great drummer - the Ramones burned through 5 in their 20-year run) to be a great band. They're all dead now.

Here's another: now undeniably Punk, but from 5 years later, 1982, the Dead Kennedys from San Francisco, Too Drunk to Fuck. It's interesting to notice that this song was often played at a tempo of approximately 150 beats per minute (I was there). At that time, there was no machine gun on Earth that would fire at a sustained rate of 150 per minute. The thing would have melted down.

by **Jason Paul Claire** on Tue Jul 19, 2011 3:34 pm

Carson Collins wrote:Who do you think was the first Punk Rock band? Here is one candidate: Iggy Pop and the Stooges, from 1977, aka The Summer of Punk, doing The Passenger. Perhaps it's a bit too melodic to be considered Punk, and some of the guys can play their instruments. Is it Punk? You decide.

Here's another candidate Sheena Is A Punk Rocker by the Ramones, also 1977.

These are the first punk rock songs that I heard. But these were bands that were already signed. Surely there must have been a scene where this music developed, so the first, prototypical Punk Rock recording must have predated these. Obviously it did, because the term "punk rocker" already existed, although this was the first time I ever heard it. The Ramones were a great inspiration to a whole generation of aspiring rock performers, because they proved that you didn't have to know how to play more than 3 chords (and have a great drummer - the Ramones burned through 5 in their 20-year run) to be a great band. They're all dead now.

Here's another: now undeniably Punk, but from 5 years later, 1982, the Dead Kennedys from San Francisco, Too Drunk to Fuck. It's interesting to notice that this song was often played at a tempo of approximately 150 beats per minute (I was there). At that time, there was no machine gun on Earth that would fire at a sustained rate of 150 per minute. The thing would have melted down.

Hi Carson, I live in the UK and am 40 now. I remember my sister - who's 8 years older than me - being into PUNK in a big way. I remember listening as a kid in the 70's to loads of her stuff. Think that why I love guitar bands even now. I always like to think of the UK originating PUNK as we had bands like the Sex Pistols, The Clash, X-Ray Specs, Tubeway army, Generation X and so on, so on. This of course spawned a lot of movements like Goth.

Anyway, you mentioned that fine band the Ramones - sadly missed - and wanted to see if there were any bands pre-signed (you mentioned 77). Yes the scene was vibrant here way before 77 with loads of bands that did or didn't make it. Have a look at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sex_Pistols they were around in 75.

anyway I hope more people contribute to this as I love PUNK.

Regards
Jason

by **Carson Collins** on Tue Jul 19, 2011 4:19 pm

@Jason:
Yeah well I knew you would mention the Sex Pistols.

They were good too.

And Punk Rock did originate in the UK, didn't it? That was the bright and hollow sky, no?

Bye the bye, here's another one from The Clash:
London Calling

by **Jason Paul Claire** on Thu Jul 21, 2011 3:35 pm

Hi @Carson, I think anyone you talk to would say that punk originated from where they lived in the world. I just remember a happier and more simple time when musicians played their own instruments, albeit only 3 chords, and music was great.

It'll be interesting to see where others think punk started as I could be totally wrong about Britain; but then again I'm usually wrong about many, many things.

"Show me the man who is right about anything, and I'll show you a fool" - Source unkown

Take care
Jason

P.S. Love you're clash video

warmest regards
Jason

by **Carson Collins** on Tue Jul 26, 2011 3:16 pm

Well yes that's probably true, but I travel a lot so I know better. For example, there was already a Punk rock club in Honolulu HI, The Wave Waikiki, in the Spring of 1979.

By the way, I'm not talking about the disco on Kalakaua Avenue that just closed; there was another joint called The Wave a few blocks away by the Ala Wai canal that predated that one.

Here's one of the bands that I saw there; Bow Wow Wow

- although the incarnation of this band in this video (2 years later) is not quite Punk, now, is it? The production is too stagey (not to mention annoyingly cute), and it has elements of what would later be called Rap or Hip-Hop. It would have been disparaged as so-called "New Wave" by a real Punk Rocker.

Actually, the show that I saw was much more minimalist; the stage was tiny, and it was just a guitar, a bass, one drummer, and Annabella. Nobody had ever heard of them then - it's sad how so many bands get so much worse after they're signed by a big label, isn't it?

This was just the only band that played there back in the day that is remembered enough now to be on youtube. I guess they were never a real Punk band, they just weren't "ready for MTV" yet when I saw them, or else some big label signed the girl singer and dumped the guys... who cares, anyway?

Well, to get that taste out of your mouth, here's a real Punk rock band - Flipper, from San Francisco, 1980: