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Explain the asthetics of Punk

Here's a fascinating essay describing the Sex Pistols performance at San Francisco's Winterland, January 1978:
http://concerts.wolfgangsvault.com/dt/the-sex-pistols-concert/3054-7788.html?utm_source=NL&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=090616
As an old fashioned "peace-love/classic rock" lover, this episode of music completely eludes me. Didn't The Who catch the same vibe but with a lot more musical skill and integrity? Nonetheless, the essay gives a good snap shot surrounding the Sex Pistols and a glimpse into the punk musical phenomenom. If punk had been a satire, it'd be hailed a triumphant post-modern concept piece. The fact it is "real" is even more amazing to me. Excuse me, I have to put on a Judy Collins records to feel "clean again". LOL.
jwong
jaybo
4,478 posts
 
hodu...i think that pretty much 'nails it'....
chashmal
605 posts
 
The only way to explain this aesthetic is to go back to the source (which is NOT The Who). It is, without a doubt, The Velvet Underground. Listen to the first 3 albums and you tell me.
inwanw
38 posts
 
I think that Chashmal could be onto something here. There is a little of the punk in the early Velvet Underground. But Rock and Roll was first the sound of a rebel cause. It was perhaps a little softer at the start. People were going away from the fifties and into the sixties where it was the time and place of peace love and understanding. Folks we were in the middle of a undeclared war. Remember Nam. The Sex Pistols and the punk groups perhaps remind us that the world is not a very pretty place at times. And there are changes that still need to be made

A few years back I went to Israel for work. As the van I was in was driving up to the gate of a company I noticed the gate guard was holding a machine gun. Sorry you are not in Kansas. I have seen this elsewhere along with poverty that you cannot imagine.

It is not a nice place out there. The US is a very insulated place.
grinnell
1,111 posts
 
Maybe Iggy Pop is the Ur Punk.
hodu
316 posts
 
I was in college in the late 1970s and had the great good fortune of having a few friends who turned me on to some fabulous music. I really liked The Clash and The Jam (and still listen to Paul Weller, for what it's worth). There were several camps at the time. The "progressive" bands -- Yes and ELP and King Crimson, for example -- had all gone completely over the edge into their endless, self-indulgent frippery. There was the bloodless muzak of Fleetwood Mac and The Eagles. There was pre-fab foolishness like Boston, who were huge when I was in college. Oh, and there were the punks. Imagine in your head for just the briefest of moments one of the bad songs from that time -- God, there surely are plenty to choose from, but how about "Don't Stop" (Thinkin' About Tomorrow) -- and then consider "White Riot" or "In the City" -- from the first Clash and first Jam albums, respectively -- and you'll then know what a fabulous breath of fresh air the "punks" were at that time. We needed them. Rock 'n' roll needed them. Joe Strummer saved our souls.
Or, put another way, I got yer asthetics for ya, right heah!
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