The Boring Sixties – The History Of Punk
Look the sixties soon became the boring sixties. Fact! 1967 was a magical year we are told because an album came out that changed people’s lives. For some the greatest album of all time by the most influential group of all time that regularly tops reader’s charts…..yep that album was Velvet Underground and Nico. oh yeah, another album came out Sgt Peppers Crappy Hearts Club Band and music would never be the same coz all that’s bad in music comes from …
The bloody Beatles. We will explore their legacy in later parts but before we leave there’s one other vital band we should mention as they contribute to the next phase with their sound.
Along with the Velvet Underground, the other band commonly singled out as being influential were those lovable political rockers the MC5 from Detroit. Between them, they created different notions of a pop underbelly, of a pop angry and politicised with a sound to boot that could incite as well as excite. Great music didn’t have to be comfortable or in tune. Guitars could be set on stun and discordant. They were in a minority. They sold bugger all but their influence still stretches over all of these years !! not bad…They are the last link to The Yardbirds etc before rock moves in a more metallic direction.
What we see is the pop song as a three-minute burst of youth and spontaneity being dragged to an intellectual mind-numbing album length of concepts to be explored. So where did it all go wrong? Well, musicians became rock stars who suddenly had the desire to be taken seriously… they didn’t want to get old before they died…they started touring to ever larger amounts of people becoming ever more distant from their record public, becoming richer and fatter. They wanted to be recognised as artistes pursuing a valid form of expression.
So as we progress what we have got? A drug-addled generation of free lovers who have lost the plot in a welter of mysticism and pretentiousness. It’s the birth of stadium rock, hard rock and giant egos and super bands. We started with 3 minute burst of youth and spontaneity and we leave with Cream turning Robert Johnson’s majestic blues of Crossroads into a 17-minute guitar torture, John & Yoko in bed, concept albums and a desire to be taken seriously. Dark days indeed.
Above – George Harrison pretending to be a water lily
Right – Eric Clapton noodling somewhere in the 18th minute of his solo. Note rest of band have gone and are on bus home!
Yet something odd happened in England. We never lost the notion of small bands playing raw rhythm and blues/ 12 bar and that was something that was going to have a large impact in later years but I’m getting ahead of myself. Next part into the seventies via 1969…. God what a nightmare! Ridiculous album sleeves, ridiculous makeup, ridiculous lyrics and plenty to laugh at… and that’s just the men!
Jim Morrison puts our first look at Punk Rock in perspective with this bit of gibberish from god knows where from 1969.
The thing they called rock, what used to be called Rock’n’roll – it got decadent. And then there was a revival sparked by the English. That went very far. It was articulate. Then it became self-conscious, which I think is the death of any movement… It became incestuous. The energy is gone. There is no longer a belief.
Yep as we said the boring 60’s – As we enter the Seventies there’s not a lot to sing about.
TalkPunk
Post comments, images & videos - Posts are checked and offensive or irrelevant ones will be removed
