I’ve been very busy fundraising for the Underground Archive this week (email me if you’d like to see the proposal if you’re interested in helping), so I thought I would send out a playlist of some of the stuff I’ve been listening to lately for this week’s newsletter while I am putting together plans for the rest of the year. Lots of exciting stuff might be coming together! So stay tuned for details.
Generation X
Perfect Hits
After all these years of listening to punk rock, I decided to listen to Generation X again. I was blown away. I hadn’t listened to them for a long time. I liked their first album back in the day, but hearing their music again shocked me. They might have been the best English punk rock band from the 1970s.
The song structures are more rock ’n’ roll than your basic punk rock, but it’s as fast and furious as any punk LP I can think of. There’s great guitar playing throughout, and I had to ponder once again: “Why wasn’t this a big hit back in the day?”
Oddly enough, the band took a lot of criticism for being too pop-oriented, not being political enough, too commercial, and not working class. It does sound like studio musicians might have been used on their recordings. Those young kids were probably unable to deliver this kind of amazing stuff. But the songs are so good, if studio musicians polished it up, more power to the producer, If you’ve never heard Generation X before? You must check this out. They are one of my personal favorite punk groups of all time.
Obviously they had a lot of “commercial potential,” since Billy Idol became a huge star on MTV with “Dancing With Myself” and White Wedding,” etc. But his Gen X stuff was so much better.
Dark Carnival
Let There Be Dark
I’ve probably covered this record before in my newsletter, but this album is so neglected that I want to promote it as much as possible: It’s like the Stooges met the Velvet Underground. Ron Asheton’s guitar work is his best since the Stooges (I tend to prefer his guitar playing on the first two albums over James Williamson). Lead singer Niagara is like Nico, Dylan or Jimi Hendrix: Not technically a great singer but a great voice with a tons of punk attitude. Niagara is one of the most amazing people I’ve ever met in the punk rock world.
It’s my favorite LP from the 1990s. Give it a listen if you’ve never heard it before, okay?
Patti Smith
Horses
My favorite song from Horses:
It was just announced that the Patti Smith Group has planned a tour for the 50th Anniversary of their first LP Horses. I always thought that was a significant recording because it was such a successful debut album and led the way to the signing of so many CBGB bands, starting with the Ramones, Blondie and the Talking Heads, the Live at CBGB LP, etc. At the time (late 1975, when the cultural shit was in full force), Springsteen and Smith were both promoted as “street punks,” etc. This paved the way for the Ramones and a more authentic version of “punk.”
“Piss Factory”
But it was Patti Smith’s single “Piss Factory” that got people excited about her and the band. It was released in November 1974, around one year before Horses. I bought a copy at the East Side bookstore on St. Marks Place back in the day, and it blew me away. Her lyrics are about the everyday reality that people have to deal with: A shitty job with asshole co-workers for a crappy company. This is a universal situation that most people can relate to. It tells the truth about life.
To me, this is what makes punk rock great. The best punk rock songs are about everyday life: the lyrics are about things we all deal with—especially when you don’t have a lot of money or influence. Rock music in the early 1970s was always about celebrating the high life, promoting fantasies about being a big rock star, getting groupies, doing cocaine and bullshit like that. Punk rock reflected real life bullshit.
In the 1960s, musicians like Dylan, Barry McGuire, Phil Ochs et al wrote “protest songs” that were mostly political, aimed at the government and the Vietnam war. When Iggy and the Stooges recorded their first LP in 1969, with songs like “No Fun” and “1969” they weren’t political protests, they were existential protests about life itself. “Another year with nothing to do.” “No Fun.” Real life is tough.
Songs by the Ramones were also about existence instead of fantasy (which to me was a failure of heavy metal, which at the time was never about everyday reality). “I Don’t Care” perfectly describes the pain of breaking up with the woman you love. “Listen to My Heart” is another song about a break-up. If you listen to the Ramones, yes, a lot of songs are kind of goofy: pinheads, sniffing glue, etc. But like many 1960s pop songs, many songs are about romances gone wrong, the anger over breaking up with one you love, and real life situations. And they’re usually about being a loser in love, whereas bands like The Rolling Stones or Led Zeppelin wrote songs about being large and in charge.
The Ramones modeled themselves after the Beatles, and in many ways their covered the same territory. (But this is a topic for another day.)
“Piss Factory” was the most realistic depiction of a real life situation that I ever heard. Like “Frankie Teardrop”, Suicide’s most insane and song about a murder/suicide, it represents the best that punk rock has produced. They are masterpieces because they reflect the realities of life—not fantasies about being a rock star, etc.
“Nowhere at all” :
Lester Bangs once told me about an outtake that appeared on the B-side of “Charley’s Girl” by Lou Reed. It was difficult to find back then unless you bought the single: The song never appeared on a Lou Reed LP. Lester said it was like Lou’s punk rock record. Since it was recorded on November 18 and 21 1975, and Lou became a big fan of the Ramones at that time (a week before I interviewed him at CBGB for the first issue of PUNK), I think this song by Lou was inspired by the Ramones. But I am sure that Lou (and many other musicians), thought that the simplicity of punk rock would be an easy thing to duplicate, but in reality? It’s difficult to create art or music that is primitive, simple, and direct. All the same, it’s a cool song by Lou, right? And he didn’t try to compete with the Ramones, he just followed his own path.
Alice Cooper
Love It to Death
I’ve often mentioned how seeing The Alice Cooper Group in New Haven on April 28, 1972, changed my life. Blue Oyster Cult opened the show (I became =an instant fan!) and the Edgar Winter Group was up next (their song “Frankenstein” was a huge hit back then). When Alice Cooper did their Killer show I was shocked to my core. Back then? This was punk rock. And I fucking loved it!
Love It To Death is another great LP: to me, that LP and Killer were the best albums back in the day. I was 18 when “I’m Eighteen” became a hit. It described my life so well. It’s too bad we don’t have songs like this anymore, Music like this helped me to survive a lot of bullshit back in the day. And it’s still the biggest inspiration for me when it comes to creative stuff. “Caught In a Dream” still gets to me: I’m still chasing it. And I have managed to catch it now and then.
Hey! Contribute to the GoFundMe campaign if you can. This would establish a permanent home in the East Village to preserve punk rock and the amazing history of the Lower East Side to American culture… You know, like the punk scene at CBGB!
Please share, forward and do what you can. Thanks!
Thanks! Yeah, "Piss Factory" was an incredible moment. And Patti's residency at CBGB made it famous!
Great picks! Particularly the Patti Smith