Punk: Attitude Page #8

By both sides

We must have come

To a secret understanding

They got a bucket full

of grief from their fans...

and you find out

that punk rockers...

were some of the narrow-minded

people on the face of the earth.

Talk about you grow your hair too long.

What are you, a hippy now?

And we found it in America.

You try something on,

you put a guitar solo in a song...

the song is longer than a minute and a

half. And all of a sudden, what's that?

You know. Freebird?

You're like...

God, come on, give us

a little room. No.

My little girl was born

On a ray of sound

My little girl was born

On a ray of sound

We were very much connected with

the whole English post-punk thing.

I mean, it seemed to me they had,

they'd heard the New York bands.

I mean it was very similar

to the punk thing.

The Rough Trade bands...

The Raincoats and The Pop Group

and Gang of Four...

and those bands were

extremely powerful for us.

The Fall, you know,

from Manchester.

I mean these were just

different ideas coming out...

that weren't just, you know,

the it wasn't "Pretty Vacant".

You can see

See, see, see, see, see, see

The new wave scene was probably

best personified by James Chance.

I remember I beat him up one night.

I don't know why.

He had 2 black eyes...

which probably improved

his looks a little.

I'll tell you how

I got started.

It was one of the first

Contortions gigs.

It was in like this,

this sort of hall you know...

and there wasn't

any stage or anything...

and all these people were like

just like sitting on the floor.

And if there is one thing I can't stand,

it's people sitting on the floor...

at one of my shows...

and so I just started wading

out into the audience and...

and pulling them up

to their feet, you know.

You gotta put me back

In my cage

And that didn't even seem

to get them very upset...

so I just started

slapping them and stuff.

You know, I really was just trying to

get a reaction out of these people...

and then later on we would have

somebody who would come on and like...

like drag me back...

after I had been

in the audience for a while.

James Chance was doing his sort

of James Brown thing...

with people who really were,

at the time, non musicians...

and he like the idea of them

making scratchy, scrawky noise.

A satisfactory pleasure

And it hurts

more than pain

I got what it takes

To drive you insane

By 1980 punk was

really over because...

one, all the New York bands

got signed and were on tour...

so there wasn't a scene

at CBGB's anymore.

Patti left the scene,

Television pretty much disbanded...

Blondie became new wave,

if not disco.

So, I don't know, I mean,

at least, as far as I'm concerned,

it was like, well then f*** it...

I'll start a f***ing band.

And I wanted to challenge people...

and I wanted to mess

with their heads.

I wanted to f*** them up.

One, two, three, four.

Theoretical girls

Theoretical girls

The new wave scene was, was really

hated by most people I knew...

who were into the

punk rock scene.

It's like, it was, I had friends that,

it's not music, it's ugly...

it sounds bad,

it's like horrible.

If you want to find what the sound

of new wave was...

it was truly DNA.

It was truly the band that

broke completely from everything...

everything that was happening in punk

and with Teenage Jesus...

I mean, my God, I mean, that's just

indefinable what the hell she was doing.

A very interesting music, but not

something you could really dance to.

Alright, alright.

- Who the hell are you?

- We're the band.

The band?

Where's your instruments?

What the...

In New York, punk rock became really

equated with hip hop in a way.

And there was a period in the late 70's,

especially in the early, early 80's...

where those 2 scenes merged,

hip hop and, and punk rock in New York.

At least socially.

Like with Rick Rubin getting

involved with Run DMC...

and The Clash getting

involved with hip hop.

You gotta fight

For your right

To party

They had records,

they had turntables.

They found 2 turntables...

you could take a piece of this on,

and a piece of this on...

and that was

their instrumentation.

Take the power

Take the power

Take the power

Hip hop had a completely

different attitude...

because it really

had its eye on...

being really

a communication tool...

but at the same time it had no

problems with going for the gold...

and that was the difference

I always noticed.

Punk rock was sort

of embarrassed by riches.

Come back some day

Back for a time

Thanks to Glen Branca you have

Sonic Youth, in my opinion.

I mean for at least 2 years no one

came to their f***ing concerts.

You know, it was their constant

perseverance...

and touring and getting

records out...

and ambition that drove

them to where they are.

And I know

There's something down there sugar soul

Back to the cross

a twisted lane

There something down

there sugar kane

But that was the point that labels

just stopped paying any attention...

to people who in the Sixties'd've been

like Frank Zappa and Captain Beefheart.

And that was when the music got

very interesting to me.

That's when, that's when

the rubber hit the road...

and all of a sudden

these guys are going...

"Screw ya, I'm going for

the music instead of what you think...

and what the genre wants".

Now that the spiky

hair has gone...

I see that you're

a well read guy...

cos now you can do songs that

show me you're a real artist.

I can see that you're

into different stuff.

Oh you're a Dadaist now, ok.

I'm very interested.

By the end of, say...

maybe mid 79...

the only people playing

punk music left...

were the people who really

wanted to be there...

and so their was a big split...

which means that punk

went more underground...

and got more intense

more purist in a way...

which is both

good and bad...

and more hardcore.

The genre hardcore...

it's American as, you know,

fake wars and apple pie and baseball.

Gotta, gotta, gotta go

It's when that f***

yeah guy got a guitar.

He does that in

the 7:
11 parking lot.

What the f*** you looking at?

That's his band.

Ok, now he's got a guitar.

Bands that I love,

that I consider hard core punk...

and it's probably the best

way to say it...

were bands like Black Flag,

Circle Jerks, Dead Kennedys.

They were a phenomenal band;

they had so much to say.

Zen fascists will control you

100% natural

They've got this sick sense

of humour that other people have...

but they're not showing in their bands.

What can I do with that?

Plus, what would happen if I took

the horror of Alice Cooper...

but made it about real things

that happen to people.

Instead of vampires

and monsters...

police brutality.

Soon I will be president

Carter Power

will soon go away

California Uber Alles, California

Uber Alles, Uber Alles

I mean, there was punk and then there

was more extreme punk...

and people were calling

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