Tag: Blue Oyster Cult
punk '77: the inclusive genre
Happy Sunday, folks. For the fifth and final Sunday of March, I'm taking a last look at chapter 3 of Stealing All Transmissions, and thinking about how inclusive the designation of "punk" was on the front end. I figure the criteria for deeming something punk included:
anti-virtuosic musical gestures
any mention of social class
weird hair or clothing
a sound people didn't know how else to categorize.
Here are a few of my favorites:
Bruce Springsteen is deemed "baroque-punk" by the New York Times (March 1978) because he sings about the working class (2).
Blue Oyster Cult is written up in the debut issue of Sniffin' Glue (4) and, due to the connection between' BOC's Allen Lanier and Patti Smith, The Patti Smith Group and The Ramones (!) appear on the same bill in February 1977.
Bands designated "punk" also ended up on some pretty amazing concert bills, including:
AC/DC doing an impromptu set after a performance by The Marbles (a pop-punk combo, and even that's a stretch) at CBGB.
Springsteen on acoustic guitar, opening for the New York Dolls at Max's, back in August 1972.
Big Star, 1974.
Big Star (okay, punk forebears) as the warm-up act for comedian (?) Ed Begley, Jr., at Max's, March 1974.
(And, apparently a combo called Sirius Trixon and the Motor City Bad Boys hit Max's in 1977, with The Dead Boys and The Cramps as opening acts, and Trixon's facebook page is under construction and has been for awhile. It'd be good to get some of their tunes online, if anyone can help.)
Sleepy LaBeef, opening up for The Cramps, at Max's in December '78.
At LA's Starwood, in April 1977, The Quick opening for The Damned, who were well out in from of every other UK act in terms of leading the next wave of the British invasion.
Okay. I've now been home for a night, and I think it's time I make some time for listening to some punk '77 to help usher in the warmth and joy of spring. Cheers!
Also: Did you see this?
Author Randal DoanePosted on March 28, 2015 March 30, 2015 Categories Captain Sensible, new book Clash, new wave, popular music history, punk, stealing all transmissions, The Damned, WesterbergTags AC/DC, Big Star, Blue Oyster Cult, Dead Boys, Max's Kansas City, New York Dolls, Patti Smith, Sirius Trixon, Sleepy LaBeef, springsteen, Starwood, The Cramps, The Quick, Tom PettyLeave a comment on punk '77: the inclusive genre
What a difference a year makes: '76 to '77
Good morning, K-SAT readers. It's month 3 on the calendar, so I'm mining chapter 3 of Stealing All Transmissions for a couple more gems that I hope you'll fancy. In "1977: Clamor, Exposure, and Camaraderie," I move through '76 and the formation of The Clash into 1977, and map what's happening in the new periodicals popping up in New York, including Punk and New York Rocker.
Short, sharp, and not too sweet. Brevity and vinyl rule! (April 1977) Photo by Kate Simon.
Robert Christgau reported that he and Richard Goldstein picked up The Clash's debut on import vinyl at Bleecker Bob's, put it on the turntable, and the response? "'This is fucking great!'" There is, of course, so much that is great about their eponymous debut (I love using the word "eponymous"), and I think about Simonon having just learned his parts, and the joy and the frustration and the catharsis in "Janie Jones," the (ironic) contempt of "Hate and War," and the beautiful treble-y-ness of it all. I also think about the question of duration. You've got 14 tracks here: four are up-and-done in under two minutes; five more take but 30 seconds more.
At the time, Christgau and his comrades at the Village Voice loved popular music, but they also liked to celebrate newcomers, too, as reflected in the Pazz and Jop polls of 1976 and 1977:
Stevie Wonder: Songs in the Key of Life (Tamla)
Graham Parker & the Rumour: Heat Treatment (Mercury)
Jackson Browne: The Pretender (Asylum)
Graham Parker & the Rumour: Howlin' Wind (Mercury)
Kate & Anna McGarrigle: Kate & Anna McGarrigle (Warner Bros.)
Steely Dan: The Royal Scam (ABC)
Joni Mitchell: Hejira (Asylum)
Ramones: Ramones (Sire)
Rod Stewart: A Night on the Town (Warner Bros.)
Blue Oyster Cult: Agents of Fortune (Columbia)
Sex Pistols: Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols (Warner Bros.)
Elvis Costello: My Aim Is True (Columbia)
Television: Marquee Moon (Elektra)
Fleetwood Mac: Rumours (Warner Bros.)
Steely Dan: Aja(ABC)
Ramones: Rocket to Russia (Sire)
Talking Heads: Talking Heads: 77 (Sire)
Randy Newman: Little Criminals (Warner Bros.)
Garland Jeffreys: Ghost Writer (A&M)
Cheap Trick: In Color (Epic)
Now there's a more scientific way to do this, of course, but let's just look at the #1s here: Stevie Wonder's Songs: 17 tracks, 85 minutes, and The Pistols' Bollocks: 11 tracks, 34 minutes. Certainly Graham Parker and The Ramones heralded a shift in median song duration, but wow: what a difference a year makes.
The Clash doesn't make the list, I believe, because the folks at the Voice, including Christgau, discovered the album in early 1978. (He would later claim it as his favorite Clash LP, and even his favorite punk LP, if I recall correctly.)
The name of this band is … Ramones. Image by Moshe Brakha.
You can find the full polls here and here. And, if you're paying close attention, you'll see that the LPs included here by the band "Ramones" did not include a definite article. Like "Talking Heads." Now, you might find the occasional book that identifies (correctly) "CBGB" rather than "CBGBs," but I've never seen a book refer to this band as "Ramones," without the "the." The iconic t-shirt, of course, notes "Ramones," but all the writers got it wrong. Pretty wild.
Author Randal DoanePosted on March 1, 2015 March 5, 2015 Categories Clash, Joe Strummer, John Lydon, Mick Jones, new book Clash, Paul Simonon, popular music history, punk, stealing all transmissions, The Modern Lovers, Tommy RamoneTags 77, A Night on the Town, Agents of Fortune, Aja, Bleecker Bob's, Blue Oyster Cult, Cheap Trick, Elvis Costello, Fleetwood Mac, Garland Jeffreys, Ghost Writer, Graham Parker & the Rumour, Heat Treatment, Hejira, Here's the Sex Pistols, Howlin' Wind, In Color, Jackson Browne, Joni Mitchell, Kate & Anna McGarrigle, Little Criminals, Marquee Moon, My Aim Is True, Never Mind the Bollocks, Ramones, Randy Newman, Richard Goldstein, Robert Christgau, Rocket to Russia, Rod Stewart, Rumours, Sex Pistols, Songs in the Key of Life, Steely Dan, Stevie Wonder, Talking Heads, Television, The Pretender, The Royal Scam, Village VoiceLeave a comment on What a difference a year makes: '76 to '77