January 1976: PUNK Hits the Newsstands!
When PUNK Magazine First Got Media Attention!
Everything went right with PUNK Magazine #1: Lou Reed on the cover, the Ramones in the centerfold, and the anti-disco editorial all put the magazine on the cultural map. Somehow Ged Dunn Jr., who had no publishing experience, set up a distribution deal that resulted in our first issue appearing on newsstands all over New York City!
One of my favorite moments in my entire life was seeing the first issue of PUNK on the newsstand rack at the Gem Spa: the corner newsstand where the New York Dolls took their famous photo for the back cover of their first album. It wasn’t just the Dolls connection that was so cool (and it was), but the Gem Spa was the heart of the East Village back in the day. It’s where people went to buy the most influential and important publications, so being on display there was a big deal It was like having your artwork displayed in the Metropolitan Museum of Art if you were a fine artist or playing Madison Square Garden if you were in a rock band.
In a similar way, shortly after PUNK #1 was published and hit newsstands, the three writers most responsible for starting the CBGB music scene gave PUNK Mag glowing reviews:
James Wolcott wrote one of the most important cover stories about the CBGB scene in the summer of 1975, which appeared on the cover of The Village Voice. His short description of the Ramones convinced me to visit the club in August 1975. I was blown away! I figured the band was so original and so radical that they’d become the face of a new music form.
So when James Wolcott wrote the first-ever plug for PUNK Magazine for the OPTIONS section of the Village Voice? (Which appeared in the centerfold, the most popular section of the most popular weekly publication in New York City.) It was the most exciting and influential coverage I could ever hope for. (Thanks, James!) PUNK Magazine instantly became world-famous. Subscription orders began to arrive from all over the world!
The Soho Weekly News was the second-largest weekly publication at the time, with a circulation of 60,000, and Danny Fields’ column was one of the most popular things they published. I wasn’t aware of Danny’s amazing career at the time (he got the MC5 and the Stooges signed to Elektra Records, worked with The Doors, was the Editor of Sixteen magazine, etc.). Anyhow, getting PUNK Magazine mentioned in the two most influential New York alternative weeklies in the same week was phenomenal. Overnight, the magazine went from a nonentity to a major player in the music industry.
Of course, the fact the Danny was the manager of the Ramones at the time and introduced me to Lou Reed at CBGB for the first issue was kind of cool.
There was an even more important news item that Lisa Robinson wrote for the New Musical Express. (IMO, Lisa deserves more credit than anyone for creating the CBGB scene: For instance she famously encouraged Danny Fields to manage the Ramones, but she also wrote most of the seminal publicity that put the Bowery club on the map).
At the time, England had three weekly music newspapers: Melody Maker, Sounds and the New Musical Express (NME). The NME were aggressively publishing articles about the NYC music scene back in the day. Unlike PUNK Magazine, their circulation was fabulous! Her influence was so great that this small plug sparked interest in PUNK Magazine being distributed in England, and within a few months we were selling many more copies there than in the US. But this is a story for another day.
Hey: My birthday is coming up soon! I’m turning 72! Yes, I am really old now. That’s what happens when something you created in 1976 is remembered 50 years later.
Can you spare a dime? Or perhaps support this newsletter somehow? Here’s how you can help out an old man who started the punk rock movement many years ago and helped a lot of people get rich as a result:
My eBay store has been around for a long time and is a major source of income for me. You can buy PUNK Magazine back issues as well as other items (STOP! Magazine, the Bosko comic book etc.) By the way, if you buy a copy of PUNK #23 (our latest issue) I send three copies (one signed) with every order.
LINK: https://www.ebay.com/str/stopmagazine
WornFree.com has been selling PUNK Magazine swag for decades! They offer a lot of different PUNK Magazine t-shirt designs and some record cover parodies I’ve done.
Thanks for reading the newsletter all the way down to here.
I remember hanging out with Wolcott at CBGB a lot back in the day. We got along good back in the day. He was one of the more intelligent people in the room. And I wish I could have kept a copy of his story about the 1975 Summer Rock Festival at CBGB. I haven't been able to find it online... Hoping I can track it down in a library archive some day.
The New Musical Express was the best at covering the New York rock scene back then. I ran across some of their coverage from 1974-75. I have to remember to dig up New Jersey's The Aquarian weekly newspaper 's "Punk Rock" cover story from September 1975--it was bizarre!
My first inkling of something going on at CBGB was Wolcott's article about the Summer Rock Festival there shortly after I hit town in the summer of '75. My first awareness of Punk Magazine was his article in the Voice in early '76 giving an overview of the developing Downtown music scene where he talked about Punk Magazine and, for the first time I remember seeing it, called the music “punk rock.” #2 had just hit the stands. I had been out of town for a few weeks around Xmas/New Years, so I missed my chance to snag a copy of #1, but as soon as I looked over #2 I knew it was the rag for me.