Punk Rock Brain Wash: From Iggy to Emily’s Army
This blog was born out of my love for Punk Rock. In doing so I thought it best to define what I think of as Punk Rock. To use a slightly updated cliché, Wikipedia states that Punk Rock is a rock music genre that developed between 1974 and 1976 in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. While this is a fair definition, many would argue its roots go back a decade or so further. In The Stooges, Iggy Pop was making music I would call Punk Rock even before the notorious hippie coming of age Summer of Love. Some have argued the roots take you back to Andy Warhol with his managing of Lou Reed’s Velvet Underground. Some think of The Doors as being California’s first Punk Rock band. I’ll go out on a limb and say that The Kingsmen’s cover of Richard Berry’s “Louie Louie” from 1963 is the first Punk Rock song. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cec1JInytH0
It did lead to an obscenity investigation by the FBI into a supposed obscene lyric after all. The Kingsmen were from Portland Oregon, not really know as a Punk Rock town, but there I said it. Punk Rock was born on the West Coast! For me Punk Rock begins with The Ramones along with Iggy Pop being the sort of God Father of Punk. That is personal though. I love The Ramones and The Velvet Underground are just boring and pretentious and while I respect Iggy, I can really only listen to one or two of his songs before getting bored.
Also, from my perspective, which of course is the perspective of this blog, Punk Rock is not just about the music. Punk Rock is an attitude and I’m reluctant to add, even fashion. I’m not going to dwell much on the fashion expect to say that by the early 1970’s, huge rock bands like Led Zeppelin, where performing in custom made white satin suits with colorful dragons embroidered on them and adding lasers and smoke machines and gongs to their shows. These bands were also dragging their songs out to the point where I can recall an eight track tape needing to stop and switch tracks during Lynyrd Skynyrd’s nauseating log Free Bird guitar solo. The rejection of this bloated type of Rock music by working class city kids (see The Ramones) and yes even by middle class art school kids (see The Clash) in the early 1970’s is what fueled the formation of The Punk Rock scenes. There was the Do It Yourself attitude and style formed either out of necessity or as a rejection to the slick imagines of those 70’s mega bands.
Mentioning an 8-track would give a hint to my age and that of my Point Of View. While I’m old enough to have been born before the Summer of Love, I’m young enough to have started high school in the Fall of 1979. Six months after Sid Vicious died. 
The first time I heard Punk Rock music was a year later in September 1980. At the time I was listening to bands like Kansas, Electric Light Orchestra, Boston and The Steve Miller Band. Music that went well with playing Dungeons and Dragons with my friends. I thought those bands really “kicked ass.” In September of 1980, Tom my 21 year old brother in-law and my sister Lori moved to South Lake Tahoe. Somehow I ended up in the U-Haul truck with Tom, riding up from the Bay Area. There was no tape deck in the dash but Tom had planned ahead and brought what was then unapologetically known as a Ghetto Blaster.
As we got rolling Tom asked if I wanted to hear the new album by The Clash. I had never heard The Clash; I don’t think I’d even heard a single Punk Rock song before. I distinctly remember thinking as Tom asked the question, that The Clash “were some wimpy New Wave band.” I don’t think I’d even heard any New Wave music at that point it was just an image. Certainly nothing as awesome as Fly Like an Eagle (Eagle, Eagle)… For any youngsters out there reading this, and by youngsters I mean anyone born since my Tahoe ride in 1980, unless you lived downtown in a few select cities like Los Angeles, New York or London, it took great effort to find non mainstream music in 1980. There was no MTV and certainly nothing like the Internet to help you. There weren’t even independent record stores out in the burbs where you might stumble across something. College radio didn’t make it over the hills where I was. The only independent radio station was a high school station a town over, but they played mostly Black Sabbath and Carol King. Living 20 miles from San Francisco as I was it took a big brother or in my case my big brother in-law Tom. I said “sure” to his question not really feeling like I had a choice. If you’ve found this blog, you have certainly heard the album London Calling. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g4dL0lv72oM
You also probably know that album starts with those big E and G power chords right off the top from the title track. “bomp-bomp-bomp-bomp! bomp-bomp-bomp-bomp!” over and over. Then the melodic bass riff, yes riff that’s not a bass line “boom! boo-boo-boo-boom!” There are few moments in my life that I can look back and know something shifted inside me. The first time I kissed my wife and being handed my college diploma both come to mind. So to it was when I first heard London Calling. I will undoubtedly be coming back to this album and The Clash numerous times in the blog. But for now I’ll just say it was like peaking behind a curtain no I was like ripping that curtain down and seeing a whole new world to that 15-year old me. A world that melted away ELO and Kansas and took me to The Sex Pistols, The Ramones, Crass, The Buzzcocks, Stiff Little Fingers, 999, The Dead Kennedys, Flipper, The Germs, Black Flag, Operation Ivy, Rancid, NoFX, Green Day, Off!, Iggy Pop, Emily’s Army, and so on and so on and so on…
And a little aside to those who argue that London Calling wasn’t new by September 1980. Fuck you. It was. Yes it came out in the UK in December 1979, the US a month later but in the pre-digital age, 8-months later was still considered new. Especially in the suburban San Francisco of 1980. 
The first Punk Rock show I went to, in fact the first concert I went to was later during my Sophomore year to see The Jim Carroll Band.
This was either in late 1980 or early 81. They played at the Old Waldorf in San Francisco’s financial district. It’s a comedy club now. The stage was only about two feet higher than the crowd. I don’t remember much about the show other than it was a small and sweaty room. I know it was my sophomore year because that was the year of The Clash and the year I met Scott. I would have no idea about Jim Carroll without Scott. I’m sure I write more about Scott in this blog but for now I want to write about how I met Scott. The first day of tenth grade, just days after first hearing London Calling, I had PE in either second or third period. My classmates and I were all milling about waiting for the class to start when I saw this kid I’d never seen before, halfheartedly bouncing a basketball and wearing a Ramones t-shirt. A simple black t-shirt with that Ramones logo. I later learned that he had just transferred to my school from Brooklyn. I walked over to him and said “Hey. The Ramones!” and pointed at his shirt. Scott said “Yeah. I like all that shit” and a lifelong friendship was born. Understand I didn’t think anyone else in my high school listened to Puck Rock as far as I could tell. Seeing that T-shirt and Scott was like finding a message in a bottle on a desert island. I was not alone. Fashion.
OK. I’m rambling way too much for what is my opening post introducing myself and what the hell this blog is all about. If you’ve stuck with me, God Bless you, I’ll say this. I love Punk Rock. Even as I’m approaching my 50’s, I love Punk Rock. This is going to be a very specific blog about Punk Rock from my point of view. I think it’s an interesting and I’ll try entertaining point of view. I still go to shows. Sometimes in the pit. I sometimes play in bands. But I have a “real” job. I have a very real mortgage. I drive a hybrid. I hope you enjoy this. Hey Ho! Let’s Go!