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AUTHENTICALLY_STUPID

                                              December 03, 2005


Okay, so the book "Please Kill Me"         PLEASE_KILL_ME
struck me as a great read, and I
really like the way it provides
ammunition against the "punk began
in England" types...

But about half of the way through it
it has dawned on me that it rubs against
the grain on another sore point, there's
another axe I have to grind and this
is a book that tries to blunt that edge,
it is, namely, this:

  The original punks
  were not stupid.

  Punk, despite it's embrace
  of crudity, was a movement           It was a reaction against
  by and for the intelligent.          the *really* stupid shit
                                       that was going on at the
        When people asked me           time: stoner rock, slick
        "what do you *like*            pop, and disco...
        about punk rock", I
        responded "the lyrics               DISCO_SUCKS
        are better".

           There were *other* things
           I liked about it of course:
           the fast beat got the energy
           up, the "we're so nasty"
           schtick could be funny, the
           cheap, populist fashion was
           definitely appreciated...       But those didn't
                                           seem to be key.

  Patti Smith                                 From "Please Kill Me",
  Richard Hell                                quoting Eliot Kidd:
  Tom Verlaine                                "The only thing that made
                                              the music different was that
                                              we were taking lyrics to
            For that matter, even Ramones     places they had never been
            songs had an ironic edge to       before."  -- p. 260
            them missing from any of the
            boozin' and ballin' rockin'
            that was going on.                 "Beat on the brat/
                                                Beat on the brat/          
                                                Beat on the brat/          
                                                With a base-- ball-- bat--/
                                                Oh yeah ..."               

    So there I am reading
    "Please Kill Me", presented
    as the Truth of the origins,
    told in the form of quotations
    from all the players, big and
    small.  It names all the names
    takes things back to their
    roots touching on all the
    contenders for First Punks:               FIRST_PUNKS
    The Velvet Underground,
    Iggy Pop, The New York Dolls,       And the points of contagion
    Patti Smith, Television,            between New York and
    Richard Hell...                     England are carefully
                                        documented.  Unlike *some*
                                        people they don't write
                                        McClauren out of the story.
Then there's this quote from
Legs McNeil himself:                             PISTOL_WHIPPED

  "... because at the that time,
  punk was still just the magazine,
  the Ramones, Richard Hell,
  Johnny Thunders, Patti Smith,
  and the Dictators.  There was
  only about a hundred people
  hanging out at CBGBs.  And half      And it probably didn't
  of those people were not punks,      take them long to
  they were from the art world,        understand the concept
  inspired to come to the Bowery       of being intentionally
  by the yuppie whine of David         crude.
  Byrne."  -- p. 232
                                           There was no "punk painting"
                                           to go with "punk rock",
    Uh oh. Another defender                because that had all been
    of the bastion of the                  done decades before.
    True Punk.

    We're at a point in history
    where CBGBs has begun to
    roar, and no one has said
    one word about Talking Heads.

    There's interviews with             The first Talking Heads
    every drummer, band manager,        record is a *fine*
    and groupie you can think           example of a punk LP.
    of, and they didn't bother          I've never liked
    to ask David Byrne's opinion        "Psychokiller", myself,
    about anything?                     but consider a song
                                        like "No Compassion"...


         So, what's going on here?                       "Talk to your analyst!
                                                          That's what they're
         What's behind this drive                            made for..."
         to write the Talking Heads
         out of history?

         There are two possibilities:

         (1) The old gang is jealous                 (Later in the book,
         of Talking Heads later                      Eliot Kidd mentions
         success.                                    the forbidden name,
                                                     on p.260)
         (2) They're pushing the idea
         that punk is the triumph of
         lower class white trash
         stupidity, and the "art school"
         crowd doesn't fit into
         their thesis.


                       And this leads into what may
                       be a rant for another day, but
                       a few points in outline:


                          Populism good, elitism bad?

                          Why?

                          Stupidity = Authenticity?
                                                          NEOPUNK
                          Are you sure?


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