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WORLDWIDE_SPONTANEOUS

                                                 September 22, 2016

V. Vale calls punk a spontaneous
world-wide development.  My take is              This may just be a
*slightly* different: punk started in            difference of perspective
New York, and spread from there.                 between someone like me--
                                                 then a young teenager out on
But then, it did spread *very quickly*:          the suburban-fringe of the
it did not take long for punk scenes to          New York scene-- and someone
infest many other cities throughout the          like Vale, then a slightly 
world...                                         older guy at the center of
                                                 the San Francisco scene.
There are always a lot of experimental
art collectives and warehouse
performances and so on, but typically
these undergrounds stay pretty well
buried. There really was something           Vale regards DIY as a secondary
unusual about that stone dropped in the      principle, and myself I would
water at CBGBs: it sent waves around         go further; for the 70s punks
the world that reverberate to this day.      (as opposed to the 90s) DIY was
                                             something you resorted to when
   And part of claiming that                 you had no other options, but
   punk started in New York                  *only* then.  It was a strategy
   depends on where you draw                 to get started while you were
   the line between punk and                 trying to get your foot in the
   it's predecessors.                        door.
 
   From the name of                                     The "Die Before You
   V. Vale's original                                   Sign" ethic is a much
   punk zine, "Search                                   later idea.
   and Destory", we        The reissue has
   might infer that he     a Jello Biafra
   counts Iggy Pop as      interview that
   a True Punk, where      regards Iggy as    And quoted with approval
   for me he was a         an odd outlier,    is a list from Melody
   predecessor.            which is more      Maker in '76, listing Iggy
                           like my take.      as one of the influences.
 
   My faith holds:                            FIRST_PUNKS
 
   Richard Hell was First Punk,
   and Patti Smith was his prophet.        And Malcolm McClauren
                                           was Paul the Apostle.
   (But then the New York Dolls, the       Or something like that.
   Ramones, Talking Heads, and so on
   all had a piece of the action...)
                                               McClauren was the point of
                                               contagion to England, and
                                               once "God Save the Queen" was
                                               banned, everyone got the bug.
 
 



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