Punk came along at a time in my life when I felt a bit rootless. I was too young to be a hippy and deemed by the hip, young gunslingers to be a dinosaur, because I listened to prog rock bands like King Crimson and Genesis. They had a point. When I first heard White Riot at a party, I thought it was an unmelodic row. Now, the Clash get played on Radio2.
I feel a bit betrayed. I come from proud working class stock. I went to a Secondary Modern (later a Comprehensive) School and I still carry some barely discernable socialist hormones in my biological make-up. To be told by a privately educated, older than me in years, Punk that I'm a dinosaur still annoys. Joe Strummer may have been a lovely bloke and remained true to his principles, but to label me and other people like me in that manner and from that position in life strikes me as hypocrisy.
Silly, isn't it? Forty years on and I still get cross.
But Brendan where is punk now? Prog Rock never went away and seems to be much better treated and respected these days. Most punk was laughable. It was then, it is now.
ReplyDeleteBy the way did John Anderson of Yes really record the Ying-Tong Song or was that Stuart Maconie just joshing?
We have a pair of twins at school who look quite normal but when their dad turns up for Parent's Evenings he looks ridiculous, all tattoos and facial ironmongery. I bet he's not a bank manager.
Just checked, Jon Anderson did, it seems, on his State if Independence E.P. I wonder if Spike got any royalties?
ReplyDeleteJesus, I just listened to the first 30 seconds. I wish it was just a rumour. I feel a bit sick . . .
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