Cranked up Really High: Genre Theory & Punk Rock
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CRANKED UP REALLY HIGH: GENRE THEORY & PUNK ROCK by Stewart Home CHAPTER IV: RELICS FROM THE PAST British PUNK ROCK circa 1977 Before getting to grips with the dialectical transformations of Punk Rock, I want to deal with a particular moment in the history of PUNK ROCK that was a time of both fusion and division. This is the period when the legacy of sixties garage rock became completely entangled with the ideology of Punk Rock passed down to a subsequent generation by the likes of the MC5. Indeed, quite a number of intellectually unsophisticated writers would lead you to believe that the genesis of PUNK ROCK is to be found in this period. However, as I've already pointed out, as an evolving musical genre, PUNK ROCK has no fixed boundaries. 1977 is only one of many points at which we could begin to investigate this phenomenon. Those pseudo-intellectuals who believe that it is possible to discover the 'origins' of Punk Rock at this particular juncture in the development of the discourse have quite simply failed to grasp the dynamics of culture and their 'work' should be subjected to merciless criticism. 1977, at least in the way it was mythologised by the Clash on the flip-side of their first single White Riot, was a time of apocalypse. However, this was not the only vision of what that year was about, according to the brief sleeve notes on the back of a Beggars Banquet compilation album entitled Streets: Select Highlights from Independent British Labels: 1977 was the year that the music came out of the concert halls and onto the streets; when independent labels sprang out of the woodwork to feed new tastes; when rock music once again became about energy and fun; when the majors' boardrooms lost control. Suddenly we could do anything. Clearly, while the Clash were projecting themselves as the epitome of Punk Rock, Streets is basically about punk rock. However, the distinction is somewhat opaque because a handful of the tracks on the Streets compilation reflect vague social concerns that could be subsumed under the nebulous ideological posturing of Punk Rock. Cranked Up Really High by Slaughter And The Dogs appears, from what it's possible to decipher of the lyrics, to be an anti-drugs song. Other contributions from Manchester, such as Ain't Bin To No Music School by the Nosebleeds and Lookalikes by the Drones, also give the impression that the bands may be participating in some barely articulated form of social protest. Marginally more impressive in terms of political content is the anti-fascist anthem Fear On The Streets by the Members. Coming from, or possibly going in, the opposite direction is Arabs In 'Arrads by the Art Attacks, with its catchy chorus of "Hungry in the food hall / Staring at the salads / I can't compete with the Arabs in 'arrads'." Likewise, Disaster movie by the Exile could be seen as a Punk Rock stab at populist politics with its plea of "Let's all join together / Give the country a second look!" Several ditties on Streets, all lacking any consciously articulated ideological dimension, will be found distasteful by the political correctness brigade. College Girls by Cane with its chorus of "Every guy knows how juicy they are / Oh oh college girls clits," is a classic slice of punk rock. The Drive contribute a song about masturbation entitled Jerkin', and the Pork Dukes offer Bend And Flush, the punk rock equivalent of a smutty music hall song. Be My Prisoner by the Lurkers is unlikely to go down well with those reactionary elements within the feminist movement who are opposed to consensual sado- masochism, while is god a man by Arthur Comics? appears calculated to upset Christians as well as being very funny indeed. Since PUNK ROCK is all about acne splattered youth having a go at sitting targets, both musically and lyrically, Streets is an excellent example of the genre. If we examine other tracks by the groups featured on the record it becomes obvious that most of them fit more neatly into the punk rock, as opposed to Punk Rock, category. All the songs featured on the record were recorded in 1977, a time at which an explosion of media interest in PUNK ROCK led to a great deal of confusion about substrands within the genre. However, while genre categorisations are necessarily provisional, it's not a difficult task to untangle the current standing of the songs and acts to be found on the Streets compilation. It seems like a good idea to reiterate here that there are basically three strands to what we are disentangling – music, lyrics and image. Music is probably the least important aspect in terms of drawing a distinction between punk rock and Punk Rock, since both tend towards the harder end of the pop format with a propensity for tuneful two to three minute songs. Music is more useful as an aid to exploring the differences between PUNK ROCK and those strands of the broader pop and rock genre that are sometimes confused with it. For example, by ignoring the PUNK emphasis on tuneful pop melodies, even if these were buried beneath guitar distortions, hardcore and so called anarcho-'punk' bands created new rock subgenres that are completely distinct from PUNK ROCK. Lyrically, the anarcho-pacifist bands were also far too specific and articulate in giving vent to their social concerns, whereas Punk Rock politics are notoriously vague, or if at all specific, so absurd that they indicate those involved have had little qualitative contact with organised ideological groupings. Finally, while Punk Rock groups are more concerned with projecting a 'street level' image than punk rock bands, the way this posturing was taken up within hardcore and anarcho-'punk' became so caricatured and stereo-typed that it was transformed into a mutant brand of bohemianism, something completely alien to PUNK ROCK as a form of popular culture. Returning to the Streets compilation, let's look first at Fear On The Streets by the Members, the most obvious candidate for inclusion in the Punk Rock canon. While there is no reason why this song, taken in isolation from the rest of the group's output (or possibly even coupled with the raucous B-side GLC) should not be considered an example of Punk Rock, anyone who views the Members entire career can see that over the course of a few years they transformed themselves from a punk rock group to a moderately successful pop act (they had the odd hit single). Both live and on record the Members stressed the pop aspect of their brand of punk rock by laying great emphasis on novelty and humour. Apart from anything else, this was a 'natural' course for them to follow because they looked odd; singer Nicky Tesco was short enough to be considered a metaphorical, if not a literal, midget. Song titles such asSoho A Go Go and Love In A Lift reveal the music hall origins of their smutty humour, while other tracks, most explicitly Chelsea Nightclub,contain passages of musical pastiche in homage to sixties pop, in this case self-consciously drawing out the element of youthfulness in both PUNK and Mod by plagiarising the Who's My Generation. However, although the group dubbed their music the Sound Of The Suburbs (they came from Camberley in Surrey, in easy commuting distance of London), they'd absorbed enough of the Punk spirit to record the odd serious song such as Fear On The Streets or the awful white reggae of their hit single Offshore Banking Business. The other groups featured on Streets who went on to make the British pop charts are the Doll and the Lurkers. The Doll's contribution to the record, Trash, was by far and away the best track they ever recorded, owing as it does – both in terms of music and the sneering lyrics – a huge debt to sixties garage rock. The Lurkers are much more interesting than the Doll, having had a long career full of interruptions and line-up changes. In the late seventies, the group were peddling a souped-up version of pub rock and quickly gained a huge skinhead following, thanks to their no nonsense attitude towards music. Again, song titles such as I'm On Heat reveal the roots of the band's very British humour in music hall traditions. Having broken up and reformed a couple of times, the Lurkers released their classic surf-punk mini- albumKing Of The Mountain, on Link in 1989. This was followed by the tunefulPowerjive and Non-Stop Nitropop long players on Released Emotions and Weser respectively. The Lurkers more recent recordings demonstrate that punk bands don't necessarily get worse as they get older, although live performances have been marred by Arturo Bassick's seriously sad banter with the audience, which has been known to degenerate to the level of "I'm 37 years old and I still believe in Punk Rock!" In terms of cult status, Slaughter And The Dogs stand head and shoulders above everyone else featured on Streets as the classic punk rock act. They went on to record the anthem Where Have All The Boot Boys Gone? and the Do It Dog Style album for Decca. The band appeared desperate to make the charts, as well as having one of the most muscular stage acts to be seen on the college, pub and club circuits in the late seventies. Live they were awesome, but singer Wayne Barrett's relationship with a Paris based chick caused the group to break up before they succeeded in reaching a mass audience.