Dave's punk op-ed-us, part 3
Of this second era, there was no band better than The Replacements. They had all of the cock and balls of Led Zeppelin, the raw power of Iggy, and the depth of the Clash. While they ever reached any of the aforementioned in any category, their mash of the three (as well as others) was there drawing point. They were a tremendous band that could never be described as anything but punk by the fact that their entire model of music conduction was of de-evolutionary nature. The Mats furthered the songwriting genre for others after them, but to get to that point, they themselves had to refresh the genre. Their greatest album is usually cited as Let It Be. Even it’s titular replication of the Beatles lends to the effect of the musical changes on the album. There are songs of statutory attraction, adolescent pains, tonsil surgery, erectile issues, and (of all things!) a Kiss cover next to a song like Unsatisfied, which if the band had been more famous, would be as big of hit as Every Breath you Take; this music could only be punk.
Put the music of The Mats next to most of the canon of what is great rock and roll, and it fits in with the whole better than the subsections. It is a stretch to say that musically the band is similar to Led Zeppelin, but in thematics and construction, the bands are alike because of the way they simply were there for the music. The music was one of pain, but like Zeppelin, the bad still had a belief in the faith of rock and roll. For a video off Tim, all they had were speakers in a living room. No Band, no performance, just the image of what music is about to the fans.
The band never made it big because they were either A: too good for American listeners, B: were facing off against Madonna, Jacko, and (once again) Duran Duran. They could likely be too real for the go-go 80’s and not hard enough for the cultish groups. They stand with Sonic Youth as the great bands of the 80’s no one but critics and music elitists cared about.
But in all of the cyclical trends of music, the new generation of punk has come to view this satire in punk as punk itself.
From The Replacements Let it Be, there is the song Androgynous, which is all about a man and woman in love who like to wear the others clothing. It’s sounds like a love songs, but it is one more about blurred identity, people who judge themselves on their perception of other peoples ideas on fashion. They don’t cross dress because they like it per se, they simply like being anti everyone else. Naturally the song is cynical.
So to now, back to the kid with the girls pants on. This move to this androgenic era is akin to outward secularism to a straightforward faith. Mormonism to Old Testament. In mere terms of paradigm (pronounced pa-RA-dig-im) shifts, that is what this new punk feels like. Instead of the raw power (fire and brimstone) of 70’s punk, we now have the feel good family consumable punk (I mean smiling happy, functional loving Mormons).
One was a didactic text that was written by believers of a new thought. It was forged in contrast to everything else in the world going on and carried with it a “get in line or get away” dictum to it. The followers were pure, diligent, and angry. They fought for to maintain the word of the preaching, logic de damned. The latter incarnation was a rethinking that fit the moral spectrum of the creators. The faith was deep, but it was far more flexible and lent to far more to a dictum of “just as long as you are in good intention.” It wasn’t meant for to be fought by the warrior and on the battlefield, but to be taught by the patriarch and for the household.
You weren’t supposed to let your kids listen to punk. Now the new generation’s punk can fit into a child’s rebellious stage, and can be allowed by the parents. What once was a dirty, derogatory word is now an accepted and common term for rebelliousness.
If it wasn’t dead already, the 2000’s have put the nail in the coffin.
But that’s a ridiculous notion altogether. Punk is, and has been dead for years. And as much I have been writing the last thousand or so words about it, punk was a one time thing in rock and roll that spawned not just a real movement of 4 or so years, but gave birth to the underground.
1975 stands as the dividing point of rock and roll. It wasn’t that it was reborn, it was that rock and roll grew up, and divided into not just two sects, but thousands each with their own rules, followers, and mantras.
Punk was an offshoot forged by a challenge to the old guard. To the creator’s great dismay, it did not topple the old way. The old way got more powerful, more acceptable. The followers of the old way got richer, got older, and stopped caring like they used to, and managed to let the magic of new creation that got them hooked on music in the first place pass them by.
Those people (our parents) still listen to the same artists old work, and buy the new, boring, rehashed works of their old heroes. The music of this era dominates the radio airwaves, still playing the same 200 songs as they did 30 years ago.
Indie 103.1 is there for everyone else, the minority screaming at the mass for their ignorance and incompetence. For anyone who knew about the rest of the world. With the exception of kitch spins and the Furious Frank at 5, (a daily Frank Sinatra spin), the music they play is from every offshoot of the music world after CBGB’s.
It is the radio testament that the 1975 offshoot and collapse shortly after was not in vain, but that in it’s creation did more for the world in it’s short time than the old way had done it 5 fold the time span.
That, is punk.
Put the music of The Mats next to most of the canon of what is great rock and roll, and it fits in with the whole better than the subsections. It is a stretch to say that musically the band is similar to Led Zeppelin, but in thematics and construction, the bands are alike because of the way they simply were there for the music. The music was one of pain, but like Zeppelin, the bad still had a belief in the faith of rock and roll. For a video off Tim, all they had were speakers in a living room. No Band, no performance, just the image of what music is about to the fans.
The band never made it big because they were either A: too good for American listeners, B: were facing off against Madonna, Jacko, and (once again) Duran Duran. They could likely be too real for the go-go 80’s and not hard enough for the cultish groups. They stand with Sonic Youth as the great bands of the 80’s no one but critics and music elitists cared about.
But in all of the cyclical trends of music, the new generation of punk has come to view this satire in punk as punk itself.
From The Replacements Let it Be, there is the song Androgynous, which is all about a man and woman in love who like to wear the others clothing. It’s sounds like a love songs, but it is one more about blurred identity, people who judge themselves on their perception of other peoples ideas on fashion. They don’t cross dress because they like it per se, they simply like being anti everyone else. Naturally the song is cynical.
So to now, back to the kid with the girls pants on. This move to this androgenic era is akin to outward secularism to a straightforward faith. Mormonism to Old Testament. In mere terms of paradigm (pronounced pa-RA-dig-im) shifts, that is what this new punk feels like. Instead of the raw power (fire and brimstone) of 70’s punk, we now have the feel good family consumable punk (I mean smiling happy, functional loving Mormons).
One was a didactic text that was written by believers of a new thought. It was forged in contrast to everything else in the world going on and carried with it a “get in line or get away” dictum to it. The followers were pure, diligent, and angry. They fought for to maintain the word of the preaching, logic de damned. The latter incarnation was a rethinking that fit the moral spectrum of the creators. The faith was deep, but it was far more flexible and lent to far more to a dictum of “just as long as you are in good intention.” It wasn’t meant for to be fought by the warrior and on the battlefield, but to be taught by the patriarch and for the household.
You weren’t supposed to let your kids listen to punk. Now the new generation’s punk can fit into a child’s rebellious stage, and can be allowed by the parents. What once was a dirty, derogatory word is now an accepted and common term for rebelliousness.
If it wasn’t dead already, the 2000’s have put the nail in the coffin.
But that’s a ridiculous notion altogether. Punk is, and has been dead for years. And as much I have been writing the last thousand or so words about it, punk was a one time thing in rock and roll that spawned not just a real movement of 4 or so years, but gave birth to the underground.
1975 stands as the dividing point of rock and roll. It wasn’t that it was reborn, it was that rock and roll grew up, and divided into not just two sects, but thousands each with their own rules, followers, and mantras.
Punk was an offshoot forged by a challenge to the old guard. To the creator’s great dismay, it did not topple the old way. The old way got more powerful, more acceptable. The followers of the old way got richer, got older, and stopped caring like they used to, and managed to let the magic of new creation that got them hooked on music in the first place pass them by.
Those people (our parents) still listen to the same artists old work, and buy the new, boring, rehashed works of their old heroes. The music of this era dominates the radio airwaves, still playing the same 200 songs as they did 30 years ago.
Indie 103.1 is there for everyone else, the minority screaming at the mass for their ignorance and incompetence. For anyone who knew about the rest of the world. With the exception of kitch spins and the Furious Frank at 5, (a daily Frank Sinatra spin), the music they play is from every offshoot of the music world after CBGB’s.
It is the radio testament that the 1975 offshoot and collapse shortly after was not in vain, but that in it’s creation did more for the world in it’s short time than the old way had done it 5 fold the time span.
That, is punk.
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