mc5

[ironspoke]

Admittedly I'm not a huge fan of punk rock. I generally prefer reading bits and pieces on some of these bands to actually listening to their music. About as hard core as I get is the Clash and maybe some old Social Distortion. I also appreciate the Ramones and like a lot of their stuff.

Recently though I've been listening to the Velvet Underground and I keep seeing these refernces to MC5 and the Stooges. I know there are a lot of punksters on here and I was curious of any thoughts regarding these two bands. Do many on here actively listen to the Stooges and to MC5? Is it a bad assumption to believe these bands were THE first punk bands? Just curious.

[Ripp]

I'm a looong way form the biggest punkster on this forum but I can all but guarantee you'll not get many bad things said about either the Stooges or the MC5. And yes they pretty much started the genre. Why the Sex Pistols get so much credit is beyond me.

Spoke if you like to read about bands then I highly suggest a book by Michael Azzerad called Our Band Could Be Your Life. It folows the early years of about 10bands in the 80s and very early 90s as the underground music scene took over the mainstream. I loved reading it! But then that is the type of music I was listening to starting in 89 and I was familiar with over half of the bands already, the ones I recall offhand; Black Flag, Minor Threat, Fugazi, Mudhoney, Sonic Youth, Husker Du, Replacements, Dinosaur Jr., Butthole Surfers.

[ironspoke]

Thanks for the tip. I'll look for it. The Replacements came to Pittsburgh at some point either back in the late 80's or early 90's and I came this close to seeing them. Big regret. I think it was that same year that I also passed on Cracker. Asshole.

[LeeMcGough]

Why the Sex Pistols get so much credit is beyond me.



Promotion, promotion, promotion. Lots of appearances on the 'telly, and such. Johnny Rotten was an entertaining caricature of punk rock.

[cMc]

They are all staples on my absolute favorite radio station, The Underground Garage. (http://www.littlestevensundergroundgarage.com/splash.htm)

[poison idea]

As far as protopunkers go -I'm a Huge fan of the Stooges. Raw Power is an amazing album.
I like the idea of and behind MC5 but the band never did all that much for me.
The Dictators (horribly overlooked and under rated) and The NY Dolls were pretty excellent as well.
Velvet Underground are a personal fav, but i don't see them as punk as much as NY art rock. (not a bad thing)

Regardless, all those bands were pretty much balls out rock bands and made it abundantly clear how irrelevant Steely Dan was.

IMHO, punk is one of the most over and misused words in the music lexicon.

Crass sounds looks and lived nothing like GG who sounds looks and lived nothing like the Descendents who sounds looks and lived nothing like the Germs but they're all good and all considered punk. Is it an aesthetic, a fashion, a mindset, a sound, a movement, an era, a lifestyle?
Who cares. If it sounds good, listen and enjoy.


Johnny Rotten was an entertaining caricature of punk rock.
I'd say he was pretty much the real deal -Brains, a fantastic wit and genuine venom. Sid was the caricature.

[ironspoke]

One of my favorite parts on Allmusic.com is the section on influences and influenced by. I mean Punk most certainly started with some band. Its interesting to see who these guys list as influencing them.

On another note....I see your distain regarding Steely Dan. I kept my mouth shut on that underrated guitar thread. I was never a fan. I just dont get it. But that is the beauty of music. Too each his own.

The Velvet Underground really didnt do much when they were making music. They had very little commercial success and disbanded with very little notice. I'd be curious to hear if there is anyone on here who actually listened to them in the 60's. THOSE folks were ahead of the curve. They would also be in their 50's or 60's so I'm not sure of too many folks of that demo on this site.



One of the best summers I ever had was spent up on Marthas Vinyard....we listened to Lou Reed's Rock and Roll Animal over and over and over.