Jason
What PUNK ROCK means to me
Nov 27, 2007
When I was about 12 years old I first heard Sid Vicious' version of Eddie Cocheran's Something Else. It was a defining moment in my life at that point as I thought it was the best Rock 'n' Roll record I'd ever heard. It also made me reappraise my misconceived view of Punk Rock.
I'd been led to believe by my parents, peers and the media that Punk Rock was the most dangerous, talentless and disgusting thing to ever happen in the world of music. Despite this I still went out and bought The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle by The Sex Pistols, the second album I had ever bought (the first I have to admit was ABBAs greatest hits). I was completely blown away by the raw energy and power that came from John Lydons vocals, Steve Jones' Guitar and Paul Cook's drums. It wasn't long before I bought the definitive punk album: Never Mind The Bollocks Here's The Sex Pistols. Even better than the Swindle album by a huge mile.
Having these two albums in my record collection (of just 3 LPs) at the age of 13 I was now considered a Punk rocker. However it was 1979 and the Pistols had split and Punk was no longer the challenge to the music industry that it started out to be, but some political parody of itself. The Punk ideal I signed up to was the fun side of Anarchy and Chaos, not some political ideal that the media and radicals would have us believe. The Punks of '76 & '77 didn't have mohican haircuts, didn't die their hair all the colours of the rainbow, didn't cover themselves in tattoos and piercings, in fact some of them were still fashioning long hair and flares. Most of the bands at that time could play their intruments and were quite creative with it - I cite Anarchy In The UK as an example with harmonies in the chorus. Also playing credible covers of sixties rock 'n' roll acts.
To illustrate what Punk was to me, in the late 70's a kids TV show called TISWAS was on air - it was Punk TV - complete mayhem, chaos and anarchy on our screens for three hours on a Saturday morning. Nobody got hurt, nobody had a go at anyone it was just a new and different form of entertainment and the kids loved it. This was opposed to the staid, boring and safe Noel Edmunds on BBC's Swap Shop. Much like the comparison between Punk and the mediocrity of middle of the road Rock & pop music of the same era. Boring.
Punk was a musical revolution not a political one, just a new interpretation of Rock 'n' Roll; short simple and effective.
Unfortunately Punk got hijacked, the second wave of punk bands were mostly idiots who thought punk was about being shocking, not able to play and look as outrageous as possible. Also politics invaded and spoilt it all for me, the fun had been forced out and the movement effectively died. Thankfully, out of the embers of Punk the new wave of rock bands emerged such as the Police and U2, Squeeze etc.
So if some one asks if I was a Punk then yes I was but I was a Fun Punk.
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Why did I bother learning to play the guitar?
Nov 27, 2007
Why did I bother to learn to play the guitar? Well I blame my friend Wig (Charlie Waygood).
At the age of 17 I was under the impression that if you played a musical instrument it meant that you were irresistable to the opposite sex. My mate Wig seemed to always have a girl fawning over him. So I took my first steps into the world of rock 'n' roll and taught myself the guitar in the hope that the girls would come flocking. It took me probably three years to reach any kind of level of proficiency, three years of hard work and ridicule from my friends, but I kind of got there in the end.
So after all this, did women find me more attractive with a fender stratocaster hung over my shoulders? Did the fact that I could strum a few chords make girls fall to my feet in adouration? Did they f*ck.
Finally, I realised that my mate Wig's musical talent wasn't the reason that the girls all thought he was great but the fact that he was better looking and more charming than I.
Ho hum
As a post script; ironically, the woman I married hated me playing the guitar, perhaps that's why she left.
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