Punk Lyrics and Their Cultural and Ideological Background: a Literary Analysis
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
Punk Lyrics and their Cultural and Ideological Background: A Literary Analysis Diplomarbeit zur Erlangung des akademischen Grades eines Magisters der Philosophie an der Karl-Franzens Universität Graz vorgelegt von Gerfried AMBROSCH am Institut für Anglistik Begutachter: A.o. Univ.-Prof. Mag. Dr. Hugo Keiper Graz, 2010 TABLE OF CONTENTS PREFACE 3 INTRODUCTION – What Is Punk? 5 1. ANARCHY IN THE UK 14 2. AMERICAN HARDCORE 26 2.1. STRAIGHT EDGE 44 2.2. THE NINETEEN-NINETIES AND EARLY TWOTHOUSANDS 46 3. THE IDEOLOGY OF PUNK 52 3.1. ANARCHY 53 3.2. THE DIY ETHIC 56 3.3. ANIMAL RIGHTS AND ECOLOGICAL CONCERNS 59 3.4. GENDER AND SEXUALITY 62 3.5. PUNKS AND SKINHEADS 65 4. ANALYSIS OF LYRICS 68 4.1. “PUNK IS DEAD” 70 4.2. “NO GODS, NO MASTERS” 75 4.3. “ARE THESE OUR LIVES?” 77 4.4. “NAME AND ADDRESS WITHHELD”/“SUPERBOWL PATRIOT XXXVI (ENTER THE MENDICANT)” 82 EPILOGUE 89 APPENDIX – Alphabetical Collection of Song Lyrics Mentioned or Cited 90 BIBLIOGRAPHY 117 2 PREFACE Being a punk musician and lyricist myself, I have been following the development of punk rock for a good 15 years now. You might say that punk has played a pivotal role in my life. Needless to say, I have also seen a great deal of media misrepresentation over the years. I completely agree with Craig O’Hara’s perception when he states in his fine introduction to American punk rock, self-explanatorily entitled The Philosophy of Punk: More than Noise, that “Punk has been characterized as a self-destructive, violence oriented fad [...] which had no real significance.” (1999: 43.) He quotes Larry Zbach of Maximum RockNRoll, one of the better known international punk fanzines1, who speaks of “repeated media distortion” which has lead to a situation wherein “more and more people adopt the appearance of Punk [but] have less and less of an idea of its content. The critical message of Punk has a number of targets including classism, sexism, racism and authoritarianism.” (1999: 46.) It is this message, its social and political background and the way it is conveyed which, in my opinion, makes punk stand out against other forms of rock music and therefore a fascinating subject matter—or, as the Washington, DC straight edge hardcore punk band (all of these terms will be explained and discussed at length below) Good Clean Fun sang on their 2005 studio album Between Christian Rock and a Hard Place, “[...] they can’t take it away, punk will scream what corporate rock can’t say.”2 I consider punk an art form. That is, it can be seen as such according to the American psychologist Elliot Aronson who quotes the “distinguished Soviet psychologist” Pavel Semenov. The latter once stated that “[man] reorganizes the known environment in order to create something new (this is art).” (Cf. Aronson 1972: 269.) Punk does exactly that. Quite a few parallels to previous art movements can be drawn. “Early Punks used many of the revolutionary tactics employed by members of early avant-garde art movements: unusual fashions, the blurring of boundaries between art and everyday life, juxtapositions of seemingly disparate objects and behaviors, intentional provocation of the audience [...]”, O’Hara observes and consequently compares punk to Dada and the so-called Futurist 1 A quite self-explanatory portmanteau, i.e. a blend of the words ‘fan’ and ‘magazine’, in this case a magazine or journal for and by punk fans. Fanzines can be of high quality, professionally printed on glossy paper, or simply xeroxed and stitched together by hand, or anything in between. 2 For the lyrics to all songs cited or mentioned throughout this text please check the appendix. 3 movement launched by Filippo Marinetti in Paris in 1909, as both tried to break down the accepted barriers between the performer and the viewer, or as Guy Debord would put it, the spectator and the spectacle. Wearing outrageous clothes, earrings and make-up as a paradoxically artistic anti-art statement was copied (most likely unknowingly so) especially by the early London punk scene of the late 1970s. It is important to realize, however, that punk has evolved past these ‘shock tactics’ and has developed “a fairly cohesive philosophy.” (O’Hara 1999: 34.) Therefore, I believe that punk deserves to be treated like any other form of artistic expression, both musically and lyrically, especially because this unique subculture is so heavily based on various interesting ideological and philosophical cornerstones. 4 INTRODUCTION – What Is Punk? punk [pʌŋk] or [puhngk] -noun 1. Slang. a. something or someone worthless or unimportant. b. a young ruffian; hoodlum. c. an inexperienced youth. d. a young male partner of a homosexual. e. an apprentice, esp. in the building trades. f. Prison Slang. a boy. 2. > punk rock 3. a style or movement characterized by the adoption of aggressively unconventional and often bizarre or shocking clothing, hairstyles, makeup, etc., and the defiance of social norms of behavior, usually associated with punk rock musicians and fans. 4. a punk-er. 5. Archaic. a prostitute. […] punk rock a type of rock-'n'-roll, reaching its peak in the late 1970s and characterized by loud, insistent music and abusive or violent protest lyrics, and whose performers and followers are distinguished by extremes of dress and socially defiant behavior [...] (Cf. <http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/punk>.) In a time when unemployment and anxiety about the future plagued a crisis-ridden nation and contemporary rock music seemed to have drawn its last breath, disillusioned English youths and their shocked parents witnessed a cultural explosion, a revolution in popular music and culture that was unheard of—punk was born. For the first time since the 1950s, when the release of the Bill Haley and the Comets’ song “Rock Around the Clock” reportedly caused riots in US-American suburbs and teenagers electrified with the emotions it unleashed overturned cars (cf. Days of War, Nights of Love 2001: 148) rock ‘n’ roll really 5 meant something—that is, with the exception of some of the artists classed with the hippie culture of ’68, who by 1976, 1977 had already become anachronistic symbols of an obsolete era of rock music in the eyes of many young people. Some contemporary punk musicians such as Penny Rimbaud from the anarcho punk band Crass, even considered traditional rock ‘n’ roll “an outright theft of black culture. Elvis ripped off gospel, while some time later Mick Jagger crapped all over the noble heritage of blues [...] selling black sexuality as a white trash commodity.” (2008: XVIIf.) In the introduction to the 2008 reissue of his highly respected essay The Last of the Hippies3 (1982) Rimbaud states that “Sixties liberalism created a convenient illusion for the middle class who most subscribed to it while making no real change to those who suffered its essential complacency: blacks, women and the working classes.” (Ibid.) Punk would not settle for that. Punk addressed the young people’s problems and shared their disgust for the system that had failed them. Not only did punk rock make many young people feel not quite so worthless and insignificant for being unemployed as society did, but it also encouraged them to actively participate in this new cultural revolution, a sub cultural anti-establishment movement, if you will, that seemed to have the power to do away with, as O’Hara puts it, “a current feeling in modern society of an alienation so powerful and widespread that it has become common place and accepted.” (O’Hara 1999: 21.) Regarding punk as a participatory cultural phenomenon, the North American anarchist journal Rolling Thunder claims the following: [...] at its best punk emphasized creativity demonstrating a concrete alternative. It was youth-oriented, certainly, but as youth are arguably among the most potentially rebellious and open to new ideas, this could be seen as an advantage. In focusing on self-expression, it enabled participants to build their own confidence and experience [...] as a decentralized cultural phenomenon, it reproduced itself organically rather than through institutional efforts. (Rolling Thunder, Issue #7, Spring 2009: 71) 3 Originally published as a supplement to the Crass LP Christ – the Album in 1982. 6 In her history of the punk rock movement called Break All Rules: Punk Rock and the Making of a Style (Studies in the Fine Arts Avant-Garde) Tricia Henry analyzes the punk phenomenon in Great Britain as follows: For the large number of people on welfare—or the dole as it is known in Great Britain—especially young people, their outlook for bettering their lot in life seemed bleak. In this atmosphere, when the English were exposed to the seminal Punk Rock influences of the New York scene, the irony, pessimism, and amateur style of the music took on overt social and political implications, and British Punk became as self-consciously proletarian as it was aesthetic. (Henry 1989: 8.) Punk music was simple, primitive even. Anybody who knew three guitar chords could play it. Punk fashion was mostly homemade and, most importantly, outrageous. It was nothing like the pompous glamour represented by many rock stars of the time, such as David Bowie, Marc Bolan or Gary Glitter, to name but a few. Everyday items like razor blades, dog collars and ordinary safety pins served as jewelry and holes were cut and ripped in jeans and T-shirts. Handwritten slogans, very often with sexual or otherwise provocative connotations, completed the punk outfit. The anarcho-nihilistic attitude of early punk rock bands conveyed through their lyrics (cf. appendix: Sex Pistols) naturally appealed to the alienated youth of the late 1970s in Great Britain. Needless to say, these lyrics reinforced all the doubts about the status quo and the capitalist system as a whole that many young people already had at the time and encouraged them to position themselves as far as possible outside society and its commonly accepted norms.