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FIRST_PUNKS_FIRST
July 12, 2004
With material from:
Of all the places to begin, December 19, 2003
let's begin with "Horses": January, 2001
Patti Smith's first album was
released in 1976. I was
listening to this a lot when
I was 17.
And shortly thereafter I was
reading articles about Punk
in the Village Voice, and
listening to "The Good City Rock
Show" on WBAI...
And it was obvious to me that Around 1990 I would
Patti Smith had done this: she'd try and tell the neo-punks
kicked the door open to what that Patti Smith was first,
really was a "new wave" of stripped and they'd play her records
down, high-energy, and lyrically and wonder what was wrong
strong music. with me. Hey man, this
doesn't sound like the
Then I was caging records where I Dead Kennedy's. It doesn't
could: the Ramones, Talking Heads, even sound like the Ramones.
Blondie, the Sex Pistols... but if
you asked me, the best of this first NEOPUNK
wave was clearly "Richard Hell and
the Voidoids".
Much much later -- when doing
research for wikipedia articles -- (January 2001)
it dawned on me that it was more
complicated than this. The Trouser Press guide
has an oddly dismissive
Patti Smith was a poet that article on Patti Smith,
decided to form her band only calling her "too
after seeing Television perform idiosyncratic to have
at CBGBs. been influential".
And in those days, Television But what if she was influential
(originally "The Neon Boys") in encouraging everyone to be
was fronted by *both* Tom idiosyncratic?
Verlaine... and Richard Hell.
The man I thought had In any case: Patti Smith
followed Patti Smith was already well-known in
got there ahead of her... the NY scene as a poet,
and her attention to
the punk scene clearly
helped put it over, helped
And there are other to validate it.
contenders for "first
punk": She published the first
review of Television at
Someone I know who was kicking CBGBs, in the Soho
around in New York at the time, Weekly News.
(if not doing a lot of concert
going picks) "The New York Dolls". And scoring a
major label
At a time when no record contract
originally music was is not to be
breaking through on the sneered at...
radio, The Dolls were Certainly they
clawing there way up became a staple (Or at least it
playing street fairs of "The Good wasn't, back then.)
and such. Punks before City Rock Show".
there were punk rock
bars.
There's also the Ramones,
or maybe Iggy Pop, who
were both doing what they One thing that's clear:
did pretty early...
The Sex Pistols were not
And the gaze of history a the first, and punk did
century hence will probably *not* originate in
have a hard time discerning England, however much
the gap of a few years between credit they deserve for
"The Velvet Underground" and picking up on it as fast
"Television". as they did...
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