Why Punk Mattered

On our previous show, Paul Burke proposed that punk was unimportant at the time, left no lasting musical legacy and the reason people still bang on about it is because the middle classes act as its gatekeeper in the media that we all read and watch.

In this riposte, while not dismissing all of Paul's points, I'll try to put punk in its cultural context and show how profound its influence has been, not just the music, but in design, a DIY spirit, female inclusivity and racial integration. 

And here's a compilation of 25 songs from the first flower of punk in '76 and '77. https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/vinyl-maelstrom/id1739501489?i=1000666490941

Be expertly briefed each week on a wide variety of intriguing musical topics.

Chapters

• 0:19 Introduction
• 1:47 No punk hits, few actual punks, no joy
• 3:17 A nation in disarray
• 6:43 The long musical influence of punk
• 11:06 Punk's influence on design, class, DIY, women and race
• 15:42 Conclusions

Transcript

Why Punk Mattered

Introduction

"If you were born after 1970 and don’t remember punk, you’ve almost certainly been misled by people who do. You’ve probably been told – through countless paean-to-punk retrospectives, documentaries and newspaper culture pages ­– that it was a glorious, anarchic revolution that swept all before it. I can tell you first-hand that it wasn’t.

Punk was as middle-class as a Labrador in a Volvo. Far from being hugely influential, punk was a passing fad that made little impression on the charts and left the lasting legacy of a spent firework."

Not my words but those of Paul Burke who we heard from on last week’s episode. Paul has a distinctive take on punk rock and its legacy, and again I’ll be focusing mainly, but not exclusively, on UK punk, to simplify matters. Quite soon actually I’ve got an interview coming up about Aussie Pub Rock with Michael Mulcahy which is really interesting. I digress.

In short, Paul’s proposition is that punk was unimportant at the time, has left no lasting musical legacy and the reason people still bang on about it is because the middle classes act as its gatekeeper in the media that we all read and watch.

You might think I’m going to violently disagree but that’s nbot the case. As many of you have pointed out already e has some good points. So, let’s start there.

Riposte

First up I agree, because it’s a fact, that the initial wave of punk did not yield many hits and not that many people were listening to the actual music beyond the Sex Pistols in 1976 and early ‘77. God Save The Queen clearly got to #1 although the authorities insisted that it only ever made #2. There were a handful of other minor hits. As Paul said, most people – not all - carried on listening to Saturday Night Fever, Abba and Mull of Kintyre. Everybody who was 18 did not suddenly become a punk in 1977, still less 1976. 

Inky Parker and Johnny Eccles were the two resident punks in our class. But even they only dressed up at weekends. But, here’s something interesting. In 1977 everyone in my class wore flares. By 1978 nobody had flares. One of punk’s first victims was the manufacturers of crimplene flares. It was already exerting an influence.

Was punk joyful? Smile on your face, swaying hips, sexy joy like disco, soul and reggae? Of course not. But its intention was quite different.

Let’s try to put together an argument as to why it should continue to be a subject of those retrospectives and documentaries. But also why many people are still fiercely attached to the idea of punk and why it continues to stir strong feelings.

First point. Cultural context. The UK was in a mess in the mid-70s. Inflation reached 25% and at one point the chancellor went cap in hand to the International Monetary Fund asking for money. A couple of years before the miners had been on strike and the country had been reduced to three-day weeks to preserve energy. England had stopped qualifying for World Cups (although Scotland managed it in 1978). Then in 1977 came the Queen’s silver jubilee with street parties and union jacks everywhere. 

I don’t think punk could have happened at another time. There was a bubbling anger amongst young people in the mid-70s which spilled over into punk rock and then actual riots a few years later. The Sex Pistols sang No Future For You and that was how the disaffected youth felt. In their song English Scheme The Fall’s Mark E Smith suggested the clever ones tend to emigrate. The ruling Labour party’s Jim Callaghan was asked at a Labour offsite what advice he’d give to young people. He agreed with Mark E Smith. He said he’d emigrate. And he was the prime minister. 

After the infamous Bill Grundy interview when The Pistols swore on the early evening news programme, all hell let loose. There was a moral panic, fuelled by people like moral guardian Mary Whitehouse. It’s hard now to understand quite how unstable and paranoid the establishment was. The country felt like it was drifting out of control. I remember there was a strong rumour which circulated at school that Lord Mountbatten was going to organise a right wing coup, possibly involving the Duke of Edinburgh.

Punk, which had been a minority cult till this point, was suddenly on the front pages of the conservative press and the tabloids. The Filth And The Fury was one headline. It was debated in the Houses of Parliament. Punk rockers became a lightning rod for fear, paranoia and anxiety. Johnny Rotten was attacked on the street.

None of this was much to do with the music, but it’s important to frame punk in its cultural context.

Was the music completely original? Not really. It tapped into the attitude and sonic menace of counterculture groups from the US such as the Velvet Underground, The Stooges and garage rock; and combined that with an English pub rock sound - bands such as the 101ers who became The Clash, Dr Feelgood and The Stranglers. Pure punk was a bit of a cul-de-sac musically. Where do you go with fury and three chords? Not that far, although hardcore and anarcho-punk groups like Crass took it further than you might think.

But the great strength of punk was ultimately its ability to assimilate other genres. I’d like to draw a parallel with the English language here. English has proved itself endlessly adaptable to outside influences from Latin to Scandinavian to Greek to French to Hindi et cetera. It was punks’ ability to blend, merge and hybridise that guaranteed its durability. 

Where I most disagree with Paul is in punk’s legacy. It’s a lkittle indirect, in that it’s what the punk counterculture inspired that’s important. Buzzcocks fused punk with pop, in the States Television, Patti Smith and Blondie and Talking Heads fused punk with art rock. Joy Division started life as punks and blended its fury to become the godfathers of goth and then evolved into New Order who popularised electronic dance music. Morrissey was at the famous Pistols Free Trade Hall gig in Manchester and eventually created the template for indie with The Smiths. 

And yes, punk bands in Coventry and Birmingham fused with the ska and reggae scene to create the Two-Tone phenomenon. Take Terry Hall, lead singer of the Specials who started in the punk band Squad. The Specials, Madness and The Beat all had many hit singles.

Over in America the 1977 punk slash post-punk bands Wire and the Gang of Four directly influenced Red Hot Chilli Peppers, Nirvana, Green Day, Blink-182 and REM. In Australia Soundgarden, in Wales the Manic Street Preachers. 

Talking of Australia, Radio Birdman and The Scientists were ploughing their own furrow, and I'm Stranded by the Saints lays justifiable claim to be the first punk single. Nick Cave was originally punk with his band Boys Next Door, then the Birthday Party. It wasn't just a UK phenomenon.

What we know for sure is that these bands all claim that punk rock was significant in their development. There are plenty of other genres too – all the post-punk bands, now undergoing a second revival, what’s now called alternative music, queercore, metal rap punk fusion, riot grrrl, et cetera, et cetera.

Artists who had been big in the mid 70s experienced what some of them described as a nuclear winter. If punk didn’t sweep all before it in terms of chart hits, it had a profound effect on what record companies and their A&R people were looking for. And as gatekeepers to what was cool the music papers, especially the NME,  fully embraced the punk explosion. All of which had a major effect, at least in the short term, on the sound of young groups.

But crucially, it wasn’t just the music.

Visually, the original punk look was an aesthetic masterpiece. I remember someone at school saying at the time they’d just seen a punk at a bus-stop and we all immediately wanted to find out more. Not just the clothes either. The blackmail lettering of Jamie Reid on the original Sex Pistols album had a profound effect on a generation of designers.

You can certainly argue that by the end of the 70s punk had come and gone. You can also argue that by the time we get to Live Aid in the mid 80s the influence of punk appears negligible. But that's to ignore the fact that even Sting and the Style Council came out of punk in the first place, no matter how far they travelled in the meantime. 

Now, how about the idea that the middle classes have culturally appropriated punk.

Personally, I feel that it's a good thing that punk stretched out its influence from its working-class origins. More importantly though, to see it in class terms is to mischaracterise it, I think. As another friend, Nestlers, of impeccable working class credentials put it: No one said that punk was made by the working class for the working class. There was a huge collection of people from all over involved in it. The Clash and The Pistols hung out with Jasper Conran and a lot of people in the bands were from the suburbs.

Punk was more a movement galvanised by a righteous anger, which swept up everyone who felt like a neglected outsider, who felt unseen. That’s what movements do. 

Some other big points about punk. The DIY element. The fact the early bands were barely competent was paradoxically inspiring. Now anyone could have a go. Punk was above all else a do-it-yourself phenomenon from the slogan scrawled on the t-shirt  to the record labels and fanzines that sprang up in basements, made possible by the arrival of the office photocopier. You didn’t have to sound like Eric Clapton to make a record. It was democratic in a similar way that later MySpace would create a movement based on cutting out the middle man.

Then, the female perspective. Although women had been in bands before, of course, punk was quite inclusive. Far from perfect and still male-centric. But baby steps. There’s a famous picture of Siouxsie, Pauline Murray, Debbie Harry, Chrissie Hynde, Viv Albertine and Poly Styrene – the first women of punk. Nor were they alone.

And it helped break down racial boundaries as well. We’ve talked about two-tone, and I know Paul will disagree with me here but the fact The Clash covered Police and Thieves and Time Is Tight was significant. There was a connection with the West Indian communities and their music. The Slits were a reggae-punk band and dub found its way into PIL, Gang of Four and Young Marble Giants.