Glam’s Evil Offspring – The History Of Punk
You should never have opened that door!
Ah Glam…the forerunner to punk…the New York Dolls…punk before the time…seminal…without them, the Sex Pistols would never have happened. Blah Blah Blah…makeup…controversial…
Before you get all smug just remember this…thanks to glam and the New York Dolls this went and bloody happened…
Gary Glitter
Jesus Christ Gary Glitter (aka Paul Gadd) was a walking chest rug dressed in tin foil carrying just maybe too many pies, the bouffant hairstyle …the cruelest parody of the New York Dolls on hamburgers ….and we fell for it. He was about 40 at the time setting the world alight with sub-tribal drumming, boot boy vocal choirs and the simplest of riffs that demanded he strut.
No sexual ambiguity here, Gary was all man and just fucking hideous at that. Little kids however proved to be his downfall later on as it turned out he was a child molesting predator. Currently in jail and unlikely to come out.
Glam USA style
In the seventies glam completely bypassed the US of A where they contented themselves with endless guitar solos and buying Fleetwood Mac and Peter Frampton albums by the million.
Around the early Eighties though they suddenly remembered it, and probably not least because of bands like Van Halen. All of a sudden boys who do girls like they’re boys appeared in their droves complete with cowboy boots and tight spandex pants complete with socks for additional bulge support and boy did we suffer and the public lap it up.
Poison, Motley Crue, early Bon Jovi, Faster Pussycat, LA Guns and Guns & Roses were just a few while over here we had those lovable clowns in makeup Wrathchild and Tigertailz …you had to be careful at gigs and check for stubble! Who do I blame? The New York Dolls. They don’t mention this in punk books but I do coz its hilarious. Hell Blackie Lawless of WASP (see picture below with subtle underwear!) was in the last incarnation of the New York Dolls!
And how about this for a killer? These bands became larger and larger, selling bucket loads of records and turning into bloated decadent stadium monsters divorced from the real world. Sound familiar? Remember the seventies? And lo what killed these bands deader than a dodo virtually overnight? The mighty Nirvana who mixed UK and US punk and indie with a modern slant to create grunge….what goes around comes around boys.
Hear this? It’s the sound of the glam dinosaurs dying! Compare and contrast my friends.
Suck on it ……!
TalkPunk
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