WEBVTT - Selects: A Brief Overview of Punk Rock 0:00:00.040 --> 0:00:03.360 M Hey everybody, it's your old pal Josh. For this 0:00:03.480 --> 0:00:07.720 week's s Y s K Selects. I've chosen our two 0:00:07.760 --> 0:00:11.480 thousand nineteen episode a brief overview of punk rock. And 0:00:11.560 --> 0:00:14.720 it's just that. And I'd say we did a pretty 0:00:14.720 --> 0:00:17.439 good job for a couple of squares, a couple of 0:00:17.560 --> 0:00:20.120 uptight weirdos, you know what I mean. So I hope 0:00:20.160 --> 0:00:23.360 you enjoy this brief overview of punk rock because we 0:00:23.400 --> 0:00:33.680 did Welcome to Stuff You Should Know, a production of 0:00:33.720 --> 0:00:42.279 I Heart Radio. Hey, I'm welcome to the podcast. I'm 0:00:42.360 --> 0:00:48.000 Josh Clark. There's Charles W. Thrash Core back. I'm already 0:00:48.080 --> 0:00:52.600 regretting this. There's Chuck Bryan over there, Charles W. Chuck Bryan, 0:00:53.400 --> 0:00:58.120 There's Jerry drewome Roland and uh, like I said, I'm Josh. 0:00:58.440 --> 0:01:02.240 This is stuff you should know. Hey, ho, let's go exactly. 0:01:03.000 --> 0:01:05.040 I want to issue a c A off the top 0:01:05.120 --> 0:01:10.360 here too. Fans of punk music, get ready to be 0:01:10.400 --> 0:01:14.959 mad at us. Yeah, please don't beat this up though. Yeah, 0:01:15.000 --> 0:01:18.000 here's the thing. Punk It's sort of like the hip 0:01:18.040 --> 0:01:20.920 Hop episode. It's not just music, it's a culture. It's 0:01:20.920 --> 0:01:25.720 a movement, and it is so there are so many tentacles, 0:01:26.640 --> 0:01:31.479 alternative tentacles, so many subgenres, so many like the more 0:01:31.520 --> 0:01:33.320 I started getting into it, I was like, why are 0:01:33.360 --> 0:01:37.360 we even doing this in a single episode? I had 0:01:37.400 --> 0:01:40.160 the same feeling because it can only disappoint. But we're 0:01:40.160 --> 0:01:42.240 doing anything. There's a lot of people out there who 0:01:42.280 --> 0:01:44.679 don't know squad about punk. We're gonna be like, cool, 0:01:44.760 --> 0:01:47.560 I'm punk now, I get it, and the people who 0:01:47.640 --> 0:01:50.280 are punked now we're gonna love us for it. Well, 0:01:50.320 --> 0:01:53.720 I mean, you know, there are certainly podcast I'm sure 0:01:53.800 --> 0:01:57.000 that are dedicated to the history of punk right now, 0:01:57.000 --> 0:01:59.000 I know. And the thing is is with a big 0:01:59.040 --> 0:02:02.280 distinction here between the hip hop episode in this episode 0:02:02.880 --> 0:02:05.680 is that the hip hop episode doesn't beat you up 0:02:06.040 --> 0:02:09.120 if you show up to which there shows and you're 0:02:09.160 --> 0:02:12.480 not wearing the right thing. That's true. Punk's kind of 0:02:12.639 --> 0:02:17.320 protective of punk, which makes sense because that's pretty punk, 0:02:17.639 --> 0:02:21.600 right like you kinda you can't allow for commercialization of 0:02:21.639 --> 0:02:25.040 punk or else it stops being punk. So by definition 0:02:25.080 --> 0:02:30.200 it has to be vigilantly defended and protected. But the 0:02:30.240 --> 0:02:32.080 irony of the whole thing is when you do that, 0:02:32.360 --> 0:02:37.000 you actually strangle it from becoming anything ever, and you 0:02:37.160 --> 0:02:41.519 kind of killed punk, strangling in the cradle the End. Yeah, 0:02:41.560 --> 0:02:44.320 And I listened to a lot of music while researching this, 0:02:44.560 --> 0:02:48.720 and there's just so many things that could possibly fall 0:02:48.800 --> 0:02:51.600 under the banner of punk, and probably so many real 0:02:51.680 --> 0:02:55.400 punk fans that will fight you on any of them 0:02:55.440 --> 0:02:59.840 if you say, like, you know, the Talking Heads were punk, 0:03:00.080 --> 0:03:03.440 Television was punk, not really, but were a new wave 0:03:03.680 --> 0:03:07.160 I don't know. Yeah, the New York Dolls, I was 0:03:07.200 --> 0:03:10.560 listening to them proto punk. When you listen to them, though, 0:03:10.560 --> 0:03:13.359 they sound like sort of like dressed up rock and roll, 0:03:13.440 --> 0:03:16.880 like rocky horror picture show style, right, But make no 0:03:16.919 --> 0:03:19.680 bones about it, the New York Dolls were a direct 0:03:19.840 --> 0:03:22.680 predecessor of punk. Yeah. But then I started listening to 0:03:22.680 --> 0:03:24.800 things I never listened to growing up at all. Like 0:03:24.840 --> 0:03:27.440 I wasn't a punk kid, but I saw all the 0:03:27.520 --> 0:03:31.040 Jackets with Minor Threat and Circle Jerks and Dead Kennedy's 0:03:31.080 --> 0:03:33.560 on them, and I started listening to that stuff today 0:03:34.360 --> 0:03:36.360 and I liked a lot of it. Oh, it's good music, 0:03:36.400 --> 0:03:38.960 and some of it I didn't quite love, Okay, which 0:03:39.000 --> 0:03:41.280 one I think? You know? My deal is I like 0:03:41.440 --> 0:03:44.120 vocals and vocalists, and punk is not known for that. 0:03:45.040 --> 0:03:48.120 But stuff like that had a really unique bent and 0:03:48.160 --> 0:03:50.720 it wasn't just screaming. I liked a lot more so 0:03:50.840 --> 0:03:52.920 you like the Misfits a lot. I like the Misfits, 0:03:52.920 --> 0:03:56.520 I like the dann I like the Circle Jerks. Did 0:03:56.560 --> 0:03:59.080 not like the Germs. I was never into the Germans. 0:03:59.120 --> 0:04:01.920 What about the Cramps? Uh, didn't listen to the Cramps yet. 0:04:01.960 --> 0:04:05.480 They're like rockabilly punk. I'll probably like it. But stuff 0:04:05.480 --> 0:04:08.720 that had a little more melody, a little more vocal styling, 0:04:08.760 --> 0:04:12.080 I liked much more than the Germs, which you know, 0:04:12.160 --> 0:04:15.560 Darby Crash, just it's just screaming things that you can 0:04:15.600 --> 0:04:18.680 hardly understand. Didn't love Black Flag, What Little Life to 0:04:18.760 --> 0:04:22.280 listen to? Like the Henry Rawlins black Flag. I listened 0:04:22.279 --> 0:04:25.720 to a little bit of both. But it's all very 0:04:25.720 --> 0:04:28.320 interesting to me, and I dig the music for sure. Yeah, 0:04:28.360 --> 0:04:32.120 it's hard not to in some way, shape or form 0:04:32.160 --> 0:04:36.320 like punk when you hear it, like it's it's it's 0:04:36.360 --> 0:04:39.359 just too it just gets under your skin just too easily, 0:04:39.400 --> 0:04:41.960 really quickly, and you might not even realize, like you're 0:04:42.080 --> 0:04:45.200 like your head's like kind of nodding in your knees, 0:04:45.320 --> 0:04:48.360 like shaking or whatever. But like no matter who you are, 0:04:48.480 --> 0:04:50.960 punk and get to you like that. Now, whether you're 0:04:51.000 --> 0:04:54.800 like I'm gonna start buying punk records and like get 0:04:54.800 --> 0:04:57.520 a mohawk or something like that, that's that's maybe a 0:04:57.520 --> 0:05:00.640 couple of steps down the road. Most people probably we wouldn't, 0:05:00.680 --> 0:05:03.960 but I think everybody can appreciate punk on some level. 0:05:04.120 --> 0:05:06.800 Especially to me. The greatest punk band of all time, 0:05:07.040 --> 0:05:09.200 and what I would argue would be the first punk 0:05:09.240 --> 0:05:13.279 band is the Remotes. If you like melody and you 0:05:13.400 --> 0:05:16.480 like singing, but you also like punk, they've got everything 0:05:16.480 --> 0:05:18.320 you need. Yeah, And if you like songs that are 0:05:18.880 --> 0:05:21.280 seconds long, sure, well that was a big thing. Like 0:05:21.560 --> 0:05:25.120 punk grew out of this idea that led Zeppelin had 0:05:25.200 --> 0:05:27.960 like eleven minutes songs you're playing on the radio, and 0:05:28.120 --> 0:05:31.440 guys like the Ramones were like shut up. So they 0:05:32.240 --> 0:05:35.479 purposefully and deliberately went the opposite way and they started 0:05:35.520 --> 0:05:39.040 making songs or sometimes less than a minute, like one 0:05:39.080 --> 0:05:41.200 of the greatest punk songs of all time in my opinion, 0:05:41.400 --> 0:05:45.320 Circle Jerk's Wasted is like fifty fifty two seconds long, 0:05:45.520 --> 0:05:48.040 getting get out. It's all you need. He gets the 0:05:48.080 --> 0:05:50.120 point across. He talks about all the drugs he's on 0:05:50.440 --> 0:05:52.280 she talks about all the stuff he does when he's 0:05:52.279 --> 0:05:54.960 on drugs. Unless a minute. Yeah, but I think you 0:05:54.960 --> 0:05:58.039 bring up an important point is punk was a reaction. 0:05:58.800 --> 0:06:02.640 It was a reaction to the bloated money and the 0:06:02.640 --> 0:06:08.080 bloated song links and the arena rock, Cucumber in the pants, 0:06:08.960 --> 0:06:14.480 hard rock mckeismo getting the ladies. Like this great quote 0:06:14.520 --> 0:06:17.160 from one of the Ramons, These were kids on the 0:06:17.240 --> 0:06:21.000 outside and he said, uh, Johnny Ramon in V six 0:06:21.000 --> 0:06:25.000 and Rolling Stones said, you know, they got together because 0:06:25.279 --> 0:06:27.120 none of them could get girls, so they all found 0:06:27.120 --> 0:06:29.440 solace in each other. And he said girls always wanted 0:06:29.440 --> 0:06:31.280 to go with guys who had corvettes, so we had 0:06:31.320 --> 0:06:33.960 nothing to do but climb on rooftops and sniff glue. 0:06:34.880 --> 0:06:36.840 The Rams in the nutshell. But if you look at 0:06:36.920 --> 0:06:39.400 nineteen seventy seven, like the albums that came out in 0:06:39.440 --> 0:06:42.560 nineteen seventy seven, Um, you know you've got the sex 0:06:42.560 --> 0:06:45.880 Pistols and the Ramons and stuff like that, but you've 0:06:45.880 --> 0:06:51.240 got Eric Clapton, Slowhand, Fleetwood, Max Rumors, Point of No 0:06:51.360 --> 0:06:56.760 Return from Kansas, Uh, The Stranger from Billy Joel, which 0:06:56.760 --> 0:06:59.120 one was that it was one of the great ones, 0:06:59.480 --> 0:07:03.560 but they all work right right, uh Asia from Uh 0:07:03.760 --> 0:07:08.159 Steely Dan and like these are like the big chart toppers. 0:07:08.640 --> 0:07:11.360 And so punk came along and was just like, no, 0:07:12.120 --> 0:07:15.400 screw all that to heck with you guys. Yeah, that's 0:07:15.400 --> 0:07:17.480 what it says. So it was an ethos and a 0:07:18.200 --> 0:07:21.080 spirit even as much as it was music. Yeah, And 0:07:21.120 --> 0:07:23.520 I think, um, one of the other things that commonly 0:07:23.600 --> 0:07:27.480 ran across and researching this was that, um, it was 0:07:28.120 --> 0:07:31.200 not just kind of like rock sucks because it's getting 0:07:31.240 --> 0:07:34.160 so you know, eleven minutes long per song and there's 0:07:34.240 --> 0:07:36.800 lots of guitar solos and stuff like that, but also 0:07:37.120 --> 0:07:41.200 that it was hopelessly commercialized. And so punk was like, 0:07:41.920 --> 0:07:45.360 there's nothing inherently wrong with rock, it's just gone on 0:07:45.400 --> 0:07:47.200 this path that it's been on for so long that 0:07:47.280 --> 0:07:50.880 it's it's just become I think, like you said, bloated, Um, 0:07:51.080 --> 0:07:54.720 let's take rock back and scrape away all the all 0:07:54.760 --> 0:07:57.200 the blow and just get back to like the core 0:07:57.360 --> 0:08:01.520 and the point of it originally, which was rebellion, which 0:08:01.520 --> 0:08:04.000 is that was what punk was built on in the 0:08:04.520 --> 0:08:08.000 in the late seventies and the Ramans again, I will 0:08:08.040 --> 0:08:10.679 go to my grave saying they were officially the first 0:08:10.680 --> 0:08:13.920 punk band that ever existed, but there were there was 0:08:14.080 --> 0:08:18.040 music that's that led up to that, immediately before it, 0:08:18.160 --> 0:08:21.600 and even a decade or so before it that really 0:08:21.680 --> 0:08:24.600 laid the foundation in the groundwork for for bands like 0:08:24.640 --> 0:08:27.280 the Ramon and this the punk that that um, the 0:08:27.280 --> 0:08:30.280 punk music that took off right afterwards. Yeah, and uh, 0:08:30.560 --> 0:08:32.720 you also got to remember that coming into the early 0:08:32.760 --> 0:08:35.680 seventies where some of these proto punk bands started, this 0:08:35.720 --> 0:08:39.280 was coming off of the late sixties and the hippie 0:08:39.280 --> 0:08:42.600 movement and Nixon and Vietnam, which so all that had 0:08:42.800 --> 0:08:46.079 proved a failure. Yeah, and and flower power and the 0:08:46.200 --> 0:08:49.200 peace and love and all that stuff. Uh. There there's 0:08:49.200 --> 0:08:52.320 still Crisy Stills and Nash and stuff hanging around, but 0:08:53.160 --> 0:08:56.040 there's also a younger generation that thumb their nose or 0:08:56.080 --> 0:09:00.280 more specifically their middle finger at that whole generation, right, 0:09:00.880 --> 0:09:04.439 and that's what sort of birth the punk movement, in 0:09:04.480 --> 0:09:08.000 the proto punk movement at least, so I saw the 0:09:08.080 --> 0:09:11.640 earliest proto punk band I could find, um that you 0:09:11.640 --> 0:09:15.400 could trace a direct line too, is actually from Peru. Okay. 0:09:15.760 --> 0:09:20.200 They were around in nineteen starting in Los Sakos, s A. I. C. O. 0:09:20.480 --> 0:09:23.160 S and if you go listen to a Los Sakos song, 0:09:23.880 --> 0:09:27.480 you will it's quite clear that this was proto punk. 0:09:27.640 --> 0:09:30.080 Did it have the speed a little bit? Because I 0:09:30.080 --> 0:09:31.960 think that's a bit of the distinction, Like there was 0:09:32.880 --> 0:09:37.240 that whole uh Nuggets era garage rock of the sixties. 0:09:37.720 --> 0:09:39.079 You can hear a little bit of that, but it 0:09:39.160 --> 0:09:41.920 still didn't have that chugga chugga chugg a speed that 0:09:41.960 --> 0:09:46.080 punk rock would be known for. You know it did. Yeah, no, um, 0:09:46.120 --> 0:09:50.760 like another proto punk band that's more garage rock, but 0:09:51.000 --> 0:09:52.880 kind of some of the sentiments they came up with. 0:09:52.920 --> 0:09:56.240 The Chocolate Watch band had this anthem called like I'm 0:09:56.280 --> 0:10:00.840 not like everybody else and it's like real kind of um, 0:10:00.880 --> 0:10:03.800 it's groovy, but if you listen to the words, it's 0:10:03.840 --> 0:10:06.199 like those guy's talking about being a punk but it's 0:10:06.280 --> 0:10:09.680 long before punk. But they're musically they were not punk 0:10:09.720 --> 0:10:13.560 at all. Losakos was punk like their's Their sound is 0:10:13.600 --> 0:10:16.800 definitely punk and they were around the same time. Yeah, 0:10:16.840 --> 0:10:20.040 and the and the specifics of what you're doing musically 0:10:20.080 --> 0:10:23.320 on a guitar with punk is important, is the down stroke. 0:10:23.920 --> 0:10:27.000 So you know, it's hard to talk about it without 0:10:27.040 --> 0:10:29.839 showing you. But if you're playing like a an Eric 0:10:29.880 --> 0:10:33.800 Clapton rhythm part, it's like, you know, you're stroking down 0:10:33.880 --> 0:10:36.640 and up ching ching, ching ching. If you're playing punk, 0:10:36.679 --> 0:10:38.839 you're just going down that ching ching ching ching ching 0:10:38.920 --> 0:10:42.440 ching ching. Uh. And that's a really, really great impression. 0:10:42.640 --> 0:10:45.920 And the Ramans made a career out of two or 0:10:45.920 --> 0:10:50.160 three chords played fast, playing that same rhythm and down 0:10:50.200 --> 0:10:53.240 stroke over and over and over and over. Like I'm 0:10:53.320 --> 0:10:57.880 convinced you just did two seconds snippet of a misfit song. 0:10:57.960 --> 0:11:00.640 I could hear it like playing his day. It's great. Though, 0:11:00.640 --> 0:11:02.000 I was listening to the stuff that I was like, man, 0:11:02.040 --> 0:11:03.840 I really like a lot of this and I missed out. 0:11:04.240 --> 0:11:07.600 So I see myself diving into it again, or diving 0:11:07.640 --> 0:11:10.040 in for the first time rather. I mean, I know 0:11:10.080 --> 0:11:12.040 about the Clash and the Ramones and stuff like that 0:11:12.080 --> 0:11:14.920 for sure, but oh there's like I mean, as you know, 0:11:15.280 --> 0:11:18.520 a whole world, the whole world. And then the thing 0:11:18.559 --> 0:11:20.800 about punk is the more like you find, oh I 0:11:20.840 --> 0:11:22.640 like this band, and then oh that it turns out 0:11:22.679 --> 0:11:24.480 this guy was used to be in this other band 0:11:25.080 --> 0:11:27.120 there from the same scene as this other band. It 0:11:27.200 --> 0:11:30.280 just keeps going and going and going, because one of 0:11:30.320 --> 0:11:34.200 the through lines of punk is that anybody could be 0:11:34.320 --> 0:11:38.520 in a punk band. It was super democratized, and the 0:11:38.640 --> 0:11:43.080 d I Y ethos um was was basically the foundation 0:11:43.200 --> 0:11:46.360 of punk music. All right, well, let's take a break. 0:11:46.800 --> 0:11:48.720 We'll go back in time a little bit and talk 0:11:48.760 --> 0:11:52.160 about New York and London, and then we'll get to that. 0:11:52.240 --> 0:11:53.720 What I think is kind of the coolest part of 0:11:53.720 --> 0:12:05.839 this whole thing is that d I Y aesthetic. Okay, 0:12:08.160 --> 0:12:10.959 all right, so I mentioned London in New York. H 0:12:11.120 --> 0:12:13.320 I sourced this from a bunch of articles. I can't 0:12:13.320 --> 0:12:15.840 remember if this was the Pitchfork one or not, but 0:12:15.960 --> 0:12:18.079 the headline of this part is the Tale of two Cities, 0:12:18.920 --> 0:12:21.040 New York and l A. I'm sorry New York in London, 0:12:21.720 --> 0:12:24.440 but l A would come along a bit later with 0:12:24.559 --> 0:12:27.840 its own scene. And also London gets mentioned here at 0:12:27.840 --> 0:12:30.000 the expense of Manchester, which I would say is like, 0:12:30.600 --> 0:12:35.040 that's ground zero next to New York. Right. Also ground zero, 0:12:35.840 --> 0:12:38.839 which doesn't get nearly enough press is Australia. Oh yeah, 0:12:39.080 --> 0:12:42.000 these things were going on in parallel all over the world. 0:12:42.120 --> 0:12:45.320 That's really interesting to think, like this stuff is happening 0:12:45.840 --> 0:12:49.280 like almost independently and it was because it's not like 0:12:49.400 --> 0:12:52.000 someone in Australia heard someone on the internet in nine. 0:12:53.280 --> 0:12:54.920 But there are a couple of bands, one called Cheap 0:12:55.000 --> 0:12:57.640 Nasties on the Western I think in Perth, and then 0:12:57.640 --> 0:13:00.120 The Saints, probably the biggest punk band to come out 0:13:00.120 --> 0:13:03.600 of Australia. This is at the same time that CBGB's 0:13:04.040 --> 0:13:07.040 uh and the Stooges were like getting big. It's crazy. Yeah, 0:13:07.160 --> 0:13:10.040 So the Stooges would technically qualify as proto punk too, 0:13:10.720 --> 0:13:13.679 but they came from Michigan along with m C five 0:13:14.360 --> 0:13:17.600 and Death Death is an even earlier proto punk band 0:13:17.600 --> 0:13:21.280 than the Stages. That documentary is great. I actually I 0:13:21.280 --> 0:13:23.120 haven't seen that one. Yeah, there's one on death it's 0:13:23.160 --> 0:13:25.280 just called like a band called death right. Yeah. Yeah, 0:13:25.400 --> 0:13:28.080 it's very like they're amazing and they were, um I 0:13:28.120 --> 0:13:32.320 think three three African American brothers from Detroit just killing it. 0:13:32.640 --> 0:13:36.280 Who in like a punk band? Yeah yeah, and this 0:13:36.360 --> 0:13:38.680 is before the Studges. I think this is before MC five, 0:13:38.760 --> 0:13:41.880 before Bad Brains for sure for sure. Um, So all 0:13:41.920 --> 0:13:43.680 of these bands are starting to kind of lay the 0:13:43.720 --> 0:13:47.560 groundwork and then it's almost like it just kind of ignites, 0:13:47.679 --> 0:13:51.280 like we're saying in different parts of the world virtually 0:13:51.320 --> 0:13:55.079 at the same time, which I just find endlessly fascinating. Yeah, 0:13:55.080 --> 0:13:56.960 and I think that's what really lends a lot of 0:13:57.000 --> 0:13:59.320 credence to the fact that it was a movement. It 0:13:59.440 --> 0:14:02.280 was a feeling people were rebelling against more than anything 0:14:03.360 --> 0:14:05.839 which can happen parallel in different parts of the country 0:14:05.880 --> 0:14:08.120 in world. You know, if there's anything that can bring 0:14:08.160 --> 0:14:12.120 the whole world together, it's disdained for hippies, you know, 0:14:12.760 --> 0:14:15.280 I think really bring that out. And everybody, did you 0:14:15.280 --> 0:14:18.800 see the Tarantino movie Yet Once upon a Time, And yes, 0:14:19.120 --> 0:14:21.080 there's a lot of the anti hippies stuffing. It was 0:14:21.080 --> 0:14:23.600 pretty funny. Yeah, a little some of them are beaten 0:14:23.600 --> 0:14:26.640 to death literally. Well, I just mean all the DiCaprio 0:14:26.680 --> 0:14:30.680 stuff was really funny. He did the hippies. But but 0:14:30.760 --> 0:14:33.880 Tarantino really like pointed out, like you know, the mans 0:14:33.920 --> 0:14:39.640 and family has been celebrated in romanticized at least in 0:14:39.720 --> 0:14:43.400 some weird ways. Um, and they should not be. And 0:14:43.480 --> 0:14:44.920 this is why I think he did a really good 0:14:45.000 --> 0:14:48.520 job of doing that. Uh So sorry, we're talking about 0:14:48.520 --> 0:14:50.920 the Stooges in MC five in Michigan. Uh in New 0:14:50.960 --> 0:14:53.600 York Cities where things really crystallized with the club CBGB, 0:14:54.600 --> 0:15:00.160 owned by Hilly Crystal. Crystal Crystal, is it crystal? I 0:15:00.200 --> 0:15:03.920 think so, like Billy Crystal right by Hilly Uh. And 0:15:03.920 --> 0:15:06.800 originally you know that stands for a country, blue, blue 0:15:06.840 --> 0:15:10.120 grass and blues, and that was what it was supposed 0:15:10.120 --> 0:15:12.480 to be when it opened in nineteen seventy. Yeah. But 0:15:12.560 --> 0:15:15.560 then in about two years the Ramones started playing their 0:15:15.760 --> 0:15:18.640 talking Heads started playing their in nineteen seventy five, Blondie, 0:15:19.280 --> 0:15:24.000 Um Television, I think television. I'm okay with them, Like 0:15:24.040 --> 0:15:27.200 I don't love them, they don't, I don't hate them, 0:15:27.240 --> 0:15:30.880 but um, they were they were essential to that scene 0:15:30.920 --> 0:15:34.520 happening um and a lot of people kind of overlook them. 0:15:34.520 --> 0:15:38.160 I think is like one of the the foundation bands 0:15:38.240 --> 0:15:41.480 for punk. Yeah, which is interesting, like I mentioned earlier, 0:15:41.560 --> 0:15:44.280 like it's such different kinds of music, Like I love 0:15:44.360 --> 0:15:47.480 talking Heads and television and Blondie and the Go Goes 0:15:48.240 --> 0:15:49.960 and they were all on that early scene. But I 0:15:49.960 --> 0:15:52.640 don't think it's that's anything like the Misfits or the 0:15:52.720 --> 0:15:56.800 Damned or the Ramons. No, but the Misfits uh and 0:15:56.840 --> 0:16:00.520 the Ramones both started their careers at cbgby so it 0:16:00.560 --> 0:16:04.720 was like the place where punk began in the United States. Yeah, 0:16:04.520 --> 0:16:07.440 but also at Max's Kanzie, Kansas City and New York 0:16:07.800 --> 0:16:11.040 Legendary Club. This is where like Patti Smith is hanging out, 0:16:11.080 --> 0:16:13.960 the Velbot Underground is hanging out. Again, they're not punk 0:16:14.000 --> 0:16:17.560 at all, but they were in that scene, right. And 0:16:17.800 --> 0:16:20.640 one thing that we're kind of not really mentioning that 0:16:20.760 --> 0:16:23.680 is a common thread to all these bands, not necessarily music, 0:16:23.720 --> 0:16:27.560 but heroin was a huge thread. They shared their deep, 0:16:27.680 --> 0:16:31.560 deep deep love of heroin um in common and that 0:16:31.720 --> 0:16:35.480 definitely bound them together at CBGB for sure. And that 0:16:35.600 --> 0:16:39.560 was a huge factor on the early punk scene was heroin, 0:16:40.720 --> 0:16:43.400 which I mean this is you know, if you remember 0:16:43.440 --> 0:16:46.760 back just a few years ago, for oxy Cotton turned 0:16:46.760 --> 0:16:50.520 everybody into junkies in the world. Um, heroin was not 0:16:50.680 --> 0:16:54.720 a big drug at all, and back then especially it 0:16:54.800 --> 0:16:57.640 was like you were a total burnout if you were 0:16:57.680 --> 0:17:00.560 doing heroin, like it was not done. So the fact 0:17:00.600 --> 0:17:04.200 that these people were like shooting heroin like in the clubs, 0:17:05.000 --> 0:17:08.440 that was a that was a another kind of badge 0:17:08.520 --> 0:17:13.520 that they took on. Um that separated them from everybody else. Yeah, 0:17:13.720 --> 0:17:17.040 you know, even their preference of drugs was super hardcore, Yeah, 0:17:17.040 --> 0:17:21.480 for sure. Another interesting thing happened early on in ninety 0:17:21.520 --> 0:17:24.879 seven when these two scenes sort of exported one of 0:17:24.920 --> 0:17:30.000 their um early UM big bands to play in the 0:17:30.040 --> 0:17:34.159 other city. Uh. In venty seven, the Damned played in 0:17:34.200 --> 0:17:37.760 the United States, and less than a year before that, 0:17:37.800 --> 0:17:40.080 the Ramons had gone to the UK to play shows 0:17:40.080 --> 0:17:42.840 in London. And that was a big deal because all 0:17:42.840 --> 0:17:46.280 of a sudden you had these two different scenes swapping bands. 0:17:46.359 --> 0:17:49.080 Of course, it wasn't anything they planned, but they got 0:17:49.080 --> 0:17:50.600 a taste of New York City in London with the 0:17:50.680 --> 0:17:53.920 Ramons in a big, big way, and the same can 0:17:53.960 --> 0:17:56.600 be said in New York City with the Damned very British. 0:17:56.640 --> 0:18:00.359 And then a month before the Ramons played in London, 0:18:01.000 --> 0:18:06.920 in Manchester on June, the sex Pistols had their first show. 0:18:07.400 --> 0:18:09.240 And a lot of people point to this is this 0:18:09.280 --> 0:18:12.679 is when UK punk happened. It was this one show 0:18:12.800 --> 0:18:17.439 at the Lesser Free Trade Hall, which is like a 0:18:17.560 --> 0:18:20.200 hall might as well be a VFW basically, and that's 0:18:20.200 --> 0:18:22.159 where the sex Pistols are there first show. But some 0:18:22.240 --> 0:18:25.880 of the people who were there were so influential, including 0:18:25.880 --> 0:18:28.600 a seventeen year old Morrissey who went to cover the 0:18:28.640 --> 0:18:33.280 thing for New Music Express um that that it just 0:18:33.640 --> 0:18:36.560 spread out like a germ, Like it was the single 0:18:36.720 --> 0:18:39.960 point that that UK punk spread out from. And this 0:18:40.080 --> 0:18:46.639 was uh June of ninety and within six months, the 0:18:46.760 --> 0:18:50.080 major record labels were lining up to sign any and 0:18:50.200 --> 0:18:53.040 every punk act they could get their hands on. Six 0:18:53.119 --> 0:18:55.960 months Like That's so not only did it spread and 0:18:56.280 --> 0:18:59.359 grow in parallel around the world at the same time 0:19:00.280 --> 0:19:04.520 when it hit the scene, It's hard to overstate how 0:19:04.600 --> 0:19:08.720 quickly it just blew up, like just from nothing to 0:19:09.520 --> 0:19:13.920 it in six months. Yeah. I mean, if there's one 0:19:13.920 --> 0:19:15.320 thing I mean, I don't I don't know about the 0:19:15.400 --> 0:19:18.919 music industry today, but previous to you know, digital content, 0:19:19.480 --> 0:19:23.480 the music industry was always there waiting to commodify the 0:19:23.520 --> 0:19:25.360 next big thing. Yeah, and they did it to punk 0:19:25.400 --> 0:19:27.439 big time. Yeah. So let's talk about this d I 0:19:27.560 --> 0:19:30.120 Y thing for a little bit. It was really cool 0:19:30.240 --> 0:19:35.080 this article about these um, these d I Y origins 0:19:35.080 --> 0:19:39.400 in punk music. What happened was when punk started coming 0:19:39.400 --> 0:19:42.639 around in the mid nineties seventies. This coincided with a 0:19:42.680 --> 0:19:47.320 big shift in UH equipment and recording gear and modernizing 0:19:47.440 --> 0:19:50.840 recording gear among the big labels. Yeah sure, um, and 0:19:50.880 --> 0:19:52.680 so all of a sudden there was all of this, 0:19:52.920 --> 0:19:55.880 these rooms and this gear that you could either rent 0:19:55.960 --> 0:19:58.320 cheap or buy cheap. Yeah, they're old stuff that they 0:19:58.320 --> 0:20:01.800 didn't need anymore. Yeah, and so punks came along and 0:20:02.160 --> 0:20:05.560 uh started using it, and the very first punk labels 0:20:06.040 --> 0:20:09.880 were self started. Miles Copeland started Step Forward, Bob Last 0:20:09.880 --> 0:20:13.240 started Fast Product, and of course, very famously, Tony Wilson 0:20:13.320 --> 0:20:17.280 started Factory Records. Yes, dude, which, by the way, see 0:20:17.600 --> 0:20:20.280 twenty four Party of People. If you never have everybody. 0:20:20.320 --> 0:20:22.760 It's amazing to see that again. I saw it once 0:20:22.760 --> 0:20:25.080 when it came out. Yeah, it's a good movie. Um. 0:20:25.080 --> 0:20:28.439 But it follows this progression of punk into new wave, 0:20:29.240 --> 0:20:33.359 uh into the eighties. Um. It just does it in 0:20:33.359 --> 0:20:36.520 a spectacularly great way because it's Steve Coogan who's created 0:20:37.040 --> 0:20:42.240 so good. But people trace the um punk on record 0:20:43.480 --> 0:20:48.119 or on recorded tape rather to the very first single 0:20:48.320 --> 0:20:51.520 they claim very first punk single November seventy six, The 0:20:51.640 --> 0:20:55.560 Damns New Rows, which I thought that was weird because 0:20:55.600 --> 0:20:59.520 the Ramones released their album before them, but maybe because 0:20:59.560 --> 0:21:01.680 they're among were on the label when they released their album. 0:21:01.720 --> 0:21:03.600 They're saying like this is the first d I Y 0:21:04.119 --> 0:21:06.679 Maybe when was the Ramons first? Off? I think like 0:21:06.720 --> 0:21:10.800 the full year before. I'm pretty sure, if not at 0:21:10.880 --> 0:21:13.720 least seventy six then, but I'm pretty sure seventy five. Well, 0:21:13.760 --> 0:21:16.119 the Buzz Cox put out an EP and I listened 0:21:16.119 --> 0:21:18.920 to a lot of that today. I enjoyed that. UM 0:21:19.160 --> 0:21:23.040 Spiral Scratch was this EP was apparently the first British 0:21:23.080 --> 0:21:26.560 homemade record and that was a really big deal. Uh, 0:21:26.600 --> 0:21:30.080 this is a seven. They sold out a thousand copies 0:21:30.160 --> 0:21:31.920 that they printed, then they went on to sell another 0:21:31.960 --> 0:21:37.119 sixteen thousand and UM. The influence on Spiral Scratch really 0:21:37.480 --> 0:21:40.320 spread out and told everyone because they printed it was 0:21:40.400 --> 0:21:43.919 very cool. They printed on the little record jacket like 0:21:43.960 --> 0:21:47.280 how much it cost, how they produced it, and what 0:21:47.320 --> 0:21:49.800 the money was all about for a hundred and fifty 0:21:49.840 --> 0:21:52.760 three pounds, basically saying go do this right, like and 0:21:52.800 --> 0:21:55.760 here's how to do it. Yeah. Um they all all 0:21:55.800 --> 0:21:58.080 like that kind of set the tone for other records, 0:21:58.119 --> 0:22:01.080 like other punk bands released their own record. Words also 0:22:01.400 --> 0:22:05.000 included instructions on the sleeve that the record came in 0:22:05.560 --> 0:22:09.000 UM and the whole d I Y record released thing 0:22:09.040 --> 0:22:14.439 that the Buzz Cocks kicked off UM. Other people started 0:22:14.480 --> 0:22:17.560 to find other ways to to kind of make it 0:22:17.640 --> 0:22:21.240 so punk could exist outside of the influence of the 0:22:21.320 --> 0:22:26.720 record companies. Like people would release records in zip block baggies, 0:22:27.320 --> 0:22:29.639 Like that was the record sleeve that your record came in, 0:22:29.680 --> 0:22:31.680 and people loved it, Like you didn't. You didn't need 0:22:31.760 --> 0:22:34.240 like this expensive sleeve for the thing to come in, 0:22:34.320 --> 0:22:36.320 Like you could just pop it in for in a 0:22:36.440 --> 0:22:40.439 zip block bag and sell it. It's super punk. And 0:22:40.480 --> 0:22:45.520 then also, um, if you can form a band that 0:22:45.680 --> 0:22:47.720 it was put like this, like the sex Pistols showed 0:22:47.720 --> 0:22:50.560