John_Savage_-_Savage_Jukebox.pdf

7/29/2019 John_Savage_-_Savage_Jukebox.pdf

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JohnSavage

SavageJukebox

2009 PERSONS UNKNOWN ;-)


2/9

The Damned - New Rose

Their debut, a sub-three minute torrent of pounding drums

and fearsome guitar riffing with an intro that referenced

The Shangri-La's kitsch via the New York Dolls pipped thePistols to become British punk's inaugural release. This

chaotic cacophony and its flip, a ludicrous reworking of

The Beatles' Help, set the template with a rapid-fire tempo

and rubbishing of music's sacred heritage respectively.

Sex Pistols - Anarchy In The UK

Despite the headlines, the Pistols' debut only hit Number

38. That illustrates the depth of resistance towards punk

rock, an affront to virtually every accepted norm. However,

aficionados whispered that Anarchy... was just not anarchic

enough. Certainly, after the sledgehammer intro andRotten's beautifully insane Carry On cackle, the verses

sounded sluggish. The difference, though, was Rotten, whose

voice - and face - did more than anything else to establish

punk's pernicious purpose.

Buzzcocks - Spiral Scratch EP

The E.P.s title track, Boredom, a sardonic encapsulation of

then-leader Howard Devoto's dissatisfaction Im living in

this, uh, movie / But it doesn't move me" - was recorded

under the watchful eye of producer Martin Hannett and Pete

Shelley's dad. Costing just 500 to make, it became theU.K.'s first independent single, selling 16,000 copies.

Devoto immediately left and formed Magazine. The remaining

Buzzcocks became the undisputed masters of heart-on-sleeve

melodious punk.

The Clash - White Riot

After witnessing 1976's Notting Hill carnival, where black

and white youths took on racist police, Joe Strummer was

awakened from his political slumbers and penned this

glorious call to arms. A plea to disaffected whites to join

together and fight the establishment - "white people go to

school, where they teach you how to be thick," he bellows -

White Riot lost some of its blustery power when delivered

via a US-owned major label. Dissenters cried "sell-out".


3/9

The Adverts - Quickstep

Recorded at London's Pathway Studios in just one take, The

Adverts' second single and follow-up to their brilliant

debut outing, One Chord Wonders, pins TV Smith's wry, semiautobiographical lyric - "I knew my youth couldn't last

forever / I knew some chords so I got the band together /

Sick of sleeping and beating up my mother / Forget those

luxuries, I've got myself another buzz" - to a thundering

yet ramshackle glam rock backdrop. "Me cymbals fell off,"

mumbles sticksman Laurie Driver on the record's outro.

Sex Pistols God Save The Queen

If you had to reduce punk rock to one single, this would be

it. Every second of God Save The Queen is graven in stone:

its impossible to imagine it sounding any other way.Infuriated by the Bill Grundy scandal and the World War II

retro of the Queen's Jubilee, everyone involved with the

Sex Pistols concentrated on making this single count: from

the video to the graphics to the timing of its release,

everything was perfect. None of this would have mattered if

the record hadn't showcased a great rock group at the

height of its powers. From the opening, patented Sex

Pistols fanfare - an accelerating guitar / drum figure -

through the ringing verses, right down to the closing

terrace chant of "no future", God Save The Queen is a

masterpiece of wildness and discipline, tension andrelease.

This iconic confidence belies a troubled gestation. Written

in autumn 1976, No Future, as it was first known, was first

demo'd in January 1977. With crisp, full production from

Chris Thomas and some judicious editing - bye bye "God save

Windolene" - God Save The Queen was retitled as an

alternative national anthem and selected as the group's

first single under their new A&M contract. When they were

sacked and all but a few pressed-up copies destroyed, the

pressure was on to get the record out for the Jubilee

celebrations in June 1977. Quickly signed to Virgin, the

Sex Pistols faced a struggle to get heard at all. Banned by

the BBC and the commercial media, God Save The Queen

nevertheless sold enough to reach Number 1 in Jubilee Week

and was only kept off the top by a piece of craven

manipulation on the part of the British Phonographic

Institute.


4/9

What were they all so worried about? Three minutes, 17

seconds of the toughest, most concise hard rock ever to berecorded, with no flab, not a note out of place. This was

meant to hurt, and it did: every word by Lydon was a gold-

plated bullet shot right at the heart of the British

Establishment. A scandalised international media zeroed in

on the sarcastic insults directed at the Queen (even if

"she's not a human being" was, and is, a reasonable

comment) but ignored the deeper point: "it made you a

moron". Here was the reality of 1977, direct from "the

flowers in the dustbin": 'There is no future in England's

dreaming." Backed up by the hundreds of thousands who

rushed out to buy this one - yes, the only anti-Jubileeprotest of any substance - the Sex Pistols opened up a gap

in perception that radicalised a generation. By daring to

tell the truth when their whole world was lying, these four

Londoners became 20th century heroes.

The Heartbreakers - Born To Lose

With the break-up of the New York Dolls, guitarist Johnny

Thunders and drummer Jerry Nolan recruited Television

bassist Richard Hell and guitarist Walter Lure to form the

first punk supergroup. Hell soon departed to found the

Voidoids; meanwhile, the remaining trio plus Billy Rathreleased this grubby bar-room rock number that melds heroin

chic with a gutsy swagger and death wish mentality. It set

their manifesto but just a year later Thunders would go

solo.

The Saints - This Perfect Day

Debut single - (I'm) Stranded - intuitively locked into

punk's sense of dislocation, but it was born as much out of

geographical isolation as any sense of social rebellion.

This Perfect Day spat on the cars and beer culture of The

Saints' bemulleted Brisbane home, yet managed to turn Chris

Bailey's disgust into a universally recognisable rage. The

band's ability to make guitars churn - second only to

Buzzcocks - was still in evidence, but the song's keening

harmonica set The Saints' musical bar far higher than their

dunderhead peers.


5/9

Sex Pistols - Pretty Vacant

Punk's studied boredom in musical form, Pretty Vacants

dismissal of, well, everything didn't shock like Anarchy...

or God Save The Queen. Its subversion was more subtle,Rotten's phrasing ("we're va-cant') allowing him to say the

"c" word on radio. Whether intentional or not, it gave punk

its first war cry and allowed the pogoing hoardes the

chance to snigger conspiratorially when "sir" played it at

the school disco.

The Lurkers - Shadow

Dubbed Uxbridge's answer to The Ramones the original fab

four-piece - Arturo Bassick (bass), Howard Wall (vocals),

Pete Stride (guitar), Manic Esso (drums) - fired just one

perfect pop punk missive before their bassist upped andleft. Shadow was a no-holds-barred, twisted-love-gone-bad

narrative that showcased Wall's spectacularly deadpan

finger wagging. The band continued with several new line-

ups but its here that their true punk legacy lies.

The Clash - Complete Control

While the group thrilled the UK's live circuit on the White

Riot tour, CBS released the unauthorised single, Remote

Control. Complete Control, the group's angry, potent

retaliation was penned by Mick Jones. A trail blazing

explosion of aggressive energy, it was aimed squarely inthe direction of their label and manager Bernie Rhodes, who

had demanded "complete control" of the group. Reggae

figurehead Lee Perry produced, which further added to the

band's credentials.

Generation X - Your Generation

London pop-art punks Generation X used their debut single

as a statement of intent an answer to The Who's My

Generation (sample lyric: "Your generation don't mean a

thing to me"). Given the group's evident love of their '60s

forefathers these sentiments may not have rung entirely

true but did provide a first taste of Generation X's sing-

along pop-punk. The flipside was even better though: a

three-minute big city tour guided by wide-eyed and

amphetamised teenagers.


6/9

Buzzcocks - Orgasm Addict

Orgasm Addict was the first of the Mancunian prime movers'

string of classic punk-pop 45s. Like the others, it was

founded on taut hyperactive arrangements, a clever chaos of

phraseology and neat, sing-a-long choruses. Pete Shelley's

fruity delivery adds a comic wink to lines such as

"Sneaking in the back door with dirty magazines"; the sheer

energy of his chatterbox style smuggled two references to

fucking past the censors. Most overt masturbation song

since Curved Air's Not Quite The Same.

Wire - I Am The Fly

Having set out their stall with the deliberate, ultra

minimalist Pink Flag, Wire further blurred the line between

punk and art rock with this startlingly original 45. As if

a riposte to the rash of identikit punk then clogging up

the racks, I Am The Fly took deadpan delivery and humdrum

rhythms into a heady, almost psychedelic space. The result

was unashamedly experimental, yet instantly unforgettable,

thanks to the extraordinary, insect-mimicking guitar line

to the simpleton chorus.

The Normal - TVOD

Inspired in equal parts by Neu! and The Ramones, Daniel

Miller recorded his first and only single in early 1978,

cresting the wave of homegrown punk / synthesizer

productions by Throbbing Gristle and Cabaret Voltaire. The

nominal B-side to the JG Ballard-derived Warm Leatherette,

TVOD presents the nightmare future that has actually

occurred. Apart from a rare one-sided 1979 live album, The

Normal made no further records; instead, Miller went on to

run Mute records.


7/9

Throbbing Gristle - United

Savage messiahs of misanthropy put out pop 45? Strange, but

true. More perverse still, Throbbing Gristle's 7" debut was

a love song, albeit one that quoted 20th century occultistAleister Crowley ("Love is the law"), and referenced the

gas chambers on its cover. A deathly electro paean to

obsession ("You become me / I become you"), United was

trance-like and full of morbid charm, as if a barely

comatose Syd Barrett had returned with a mission to become

the English Kraftwerk.

Cabaret Voltaire - First EP

Like Throbbing Gristle and US sci-fi weirdos Chrome, CV's

connection to punk was more timing and attitude than their

actual sound. As this shows, while their contemporariessped up pub-rock and struggled with two chords the trio of

Stephen Mallinder, Richard H Kirk and Chris Watson used

primitive electronic rhythms, tapes, synths and guitars to

create a dark politicised noise, slow and menacing rather

than fast and furious - a mutant take on The Velvet

Underground's Here She Comes Now only piling on the

strangeness.

Jilted John - Jilted John

Rivalling Belgian Plastic Bertrand in the "punk novelty"

stakes, budding Mancunian actor (and future JohnShuttleworth creator) Graham Fellows' Jilted John persona

seemed omnipresent over the summer of '78, thanks to a Top

5 UK chart placing. Over a jerky, up-tempo rhythm, John's

camp Northern brogue spat out this angst-ridden tale of

doomed adolescent romance with darling Julie and the

dastardly interloper who dared usurp her affections. Made

one feel sorry for anyone named Gordon.

X-Ray Spex Identity

Despite the so-called intellectualisation of pop, it was

only with the supposedly lowbrow punk that the form truly

grappled with matters close to home. Identity is a key

text, a desperate howl at the bittersweet desire for

recognition and the perils of public life, set to the

band's characteristic chug-a-lug. But it proved all too

real for singer Poly Styrene, by this time a regular on Top

Of The Pops. Shortly afterwards, she dramatically quit the

business.


8/9

Siouxsie And The Banshees - Hong Kong Garden

After two years in the punk wilderness, Siouxsie And The

Banshees got the deal they wanted, then surprised everyone

with this effervescent slice of pop exotica. Moresurprising still, the song-inspired by Siouxsie's local

Chinese takeaway - rewarded the hitherto punk untouchables

with a Top 10 hit. Their early iconoclasm wasn't far away,

though: the flipside, the pop-defying Voices, was

responsible for more than a few pub jukeboxes receiving a

good kicking that summer.

Metal Urbain - Hysterie Connective

Outsiders within their native Paris, Metal Urbain

nevertheless became the best-known French punk group,

making and releasing records in the UK. Hysterie Connectiveis their third 45 for Andrew Lauder's Radar records, and

showcases their innovative and still compelling fusion of

synthesizers and buzz-saw guitar attack. The lyrics, as

ever, are extremely sarcastic. Metal Urbain stopped

operating in the late 70s, but have since re-formed twice.

Subway Sect - Ambition

Vic Godard and his band were seen as certain A-listers when

their second single was released, but it would be the'80s

before they were heard of again, by which time punk was

dead. A swirling 1960s fairground organ is brutally stabbedthroughout, Godard out-oiks Bowie on vocals, the drummer

has a fit and twin guitars add muscular power chords. Think

of it as a punk's mini-version of The Who's Won't Get

Fooled Again.

Gang Of Four - Damaged Goods

The pleasure and guilt of sex was a thorny topic for punk,

but on Damaged Goods Gang Of Four elevated it to the same

level of evil as corporate greed and political corruption.

The stabbing guitar and bouncing bass was the nearest the

band came to pop music on their debut album, while

uncompromising B-side Anthrax equated love to a disease

first contracted by humans through carnal knowledge of

sheep. Even when writing pop songs, GOF played for keeps.


9/9

Television Personalities - Part-Time Punks

Hilarious attack on out-of-towners who "pogo in their

bedroom... but only when their mum's gone out, wont buy

The Prefects unless its on red vinyl and refuse to usetoothpaste. We called them "plastics", but four fingers

pointed back at us. Played with almost rudimentary ability,

sung in a deadpan monotone with the worst harmonies ever,

it deserves space on your shelf next to The Pooh Sticks' On

Tape and Half Man Half Biscuit.

Electric Eels Agitated

The worst band out of the US's deadest cities, Cleveland's

Eels were at the barricades in 75, alongside The Dead Boys

and Rocket From The Tombs. Didn't like each other (still

dont), didn't like you, couldn't play, didn't care ('boutnuthin'), looked like shit. Utterly brilliant, then, though

it took me to convince Rough Trade to release this

uncompromising howl of unarticulated boredom four years too

late.

The Undertones - Get Over You

Having debuted with a perfect pop song, the Tones could

hardly get any better, but nobody can say they didn't come

close on a few occasions. With big-budget support from

their label, the rough edges were sandpapered by people who

would never understand the band's appeal. Still, somethingssurvived: Feargal's vibrato, the Ramonesey guitars, a

chorus to die for and hooks a-plenty. If you're going to

have a flop single, make it this good.

Wire -A Question Of Degree

As Radiohead are to Britpop, so Wire were to punk. On EMI's

prog label, they morphed from punks to visionaries. Coming

between their LPs Chairs Missing and its successor, 154,

this 45 summed up their transformation: starting with a

simple beat and rhythm, it then crams too many syllables

into each line and moves through dreamy sequences with the

hand of an experienced producer apparent. Your big brother

in his afghan might like it.

2009 PERSONS UNKNOWN ;-)For more Punk E-books go to

http://persons-unknown.blogspot.com

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John_Savage_-_Savage_Jukebox.pdf