The Who, Yardbirds, Small Faces & Kinks – The History Of Punk

The following bands were quintessentially English and their influence was felt both across the Atlantic and down the years to the Sex Pistols. They incorporated the distorted blues of Bo Diddley and mixed in pop and a healthy dose of youth nihilism to give their music an edge.

The Who

Fuck me this is what it was all about. Cool clothes, attitude and a visceral aggressive sound of fury. In 1965 Townsend wrote “My personal motivation onstage is simple. It consists of a hate of every kind of pop music and a hate of everything our group has done…I don’t see any career ahead.” An awesome band with the love/hate relationship of Daltrey ( “I would have been a criminal if I hadn’t been a singer”) and Townsend and the totally lunatic Keith Moon on drums.

Feedback instrument destruction and some classic songs. The archetypal leaders of a youth culture… Mod .. but the template for later heroes. The first band to capture teenage angst.

Unfortunately, the ‘Hope I die before I get Old’ refrain of My Generation turned to ashes as even aged 190 they are still trundling that song out to their generation. Worse than that they gave us Tommy which was part of pops dark ages but we’ll come to that. Let’s instead celebrate some classic early stuff like I Can’t Explain, I Can See For Miles, Substitute and I’m a Boy. Classic pop nihilism!

Check out any early footage of Townsend destroying his instrument, arms windmilling as he hits the guitar, Daltrey swinging the mike and Mooney going nuts. Play loud. Then look at The Jam and say I wonder who their influences were (though they never denied it to be fair).

On the punkometer influenced Patti Smith, The Drones and Suburban Studs who all covered My Generation. Raped used to cover I’m A Boy and the Sex Pistols of course did Substitute. Add The Clash as well who nicked the riff to I Can’t Explain for Clash City Rockers!

The Yardbirds

How important were the Yardbirds ?? Here’s Lester Bangs…

They came stampeding in and just blew everybody clean off the tracks …they were so fucking good in fact, that people were still imitating as much as a decade later…. Psychotic Reactions and Carburettor Dung

Feedback heavy fuzz…. this band induced a cultural shift in America similar to when The Ramones first toured the UK. The band lasted only short time and launched the careers of Jimmy Page and Eric Clapton but then again shit happens.

Tracks to check out… Shape Of Things To Come..(covered by The Ramones), Train Kept A Rollin (their cover but also covered by Motorhead), Heartful of Soul and For Your Love.

Can’t resist the original by Johnny Burnette and The Yardbirds cover

The Small Faces

Riding along of the same mod wave as The Who were The Small Faces. Again pure youth music and the sound would form part of the rock’n’roll pub rock culture that would continue on as part of the UK music scene. Even more when The Small Faces split to become The Faces featuring Rod Stewart complete with boogie style gravel guitar.

Check out Watcha Gonna Do About It (covered by the Sex Pistols & The Jolt) along with All Or Nothing and Sha La La La Lee), Stay With Me, Three Button Hand Me Down and Lazy Sunday Afternoons. Cock Sparrer owe a lot to the Small Faces!

The Kinks

We can’t leave out The Kinks not least for their contribution to the sound of punk with You Really Got Me, All Day And All Of The Night (covered by The Stranglers) and David Watts (The Jam) or Van Morrison & Them with the garage classic ‘Gloria’ covered by everyone from Hendrix to Patti Smith and all points in between.