"His name was Malcolm McLaren: self-declared genius and godfather of punk.
So began one of Britain's great creative partnerships... His mother was a sex worker and he had been brought up by his eccentric grandmother, who lived by the motto 'to be bad is to be good and to be good is just boring.'... He took six days to visit her in hospital after the birth of their son, refused to be called 'Dad' and threatened to cart the child to Barnardo's when asked to pitch in. Westwood retreated to a caravan in Wales; hunting for wild vegetables while he ran riot in London and married another art student.
But attraction overcame everything.... Westwood rekindled the partnership, blossomed artistically and simply
ignored the abuse."
From the BBC obituary for Vivian Westwood.
"Then came the Sex Pistols, snarling at the 1970s. McLaren embraced them
as an angry pot-shot at the hippy movement he hated. Westwood opened a
shop on the King's Road, conjuring the look the Pistols made famous. A
bewildered world gasped and named it Punk.
She called the shop, 'Let It Rock', then changed the name to 'Too Fast
To Live, Too Young To Die.' Finally, it was re-branded simply as 'SEX' -
the huge pink sign above the door meant only the brave went in...."
Lots more at the link, and the BBC has a nice photo collection here.
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Too bad she’s dead and all, but she was wrong about everything, part of the chorus of wrongheadedness that has caused so much damage to the world.
She was a climate change nut. Good that she didn’t live to see the destruction of the planet.
I am not inconsolable. I'm glad I never heard of her till now. Her obit makes her out to be really annoying. Worse than Joy Behar in many ways. Hard pass on swastika t-shirts and nipple zippers (whatever they are). There are clothes that only someone like Madonna could wear..... Ian Tyson, however, sounds like a totally admirable person. I'm playing one of his albums as I type this. His music is pleasant enough. I liked Ian & Syvlia in their era without ever being a fan. This is the first time I've listened to them in decades. They're not as dated as the Kingston Trio, but the music is not immortal.
All those punks, walking around in silly clothes and thinking they were somehow authentic and rebellious, when all along they were just another set of customers for the fashion industry.
Clyde nailed it.
I do not - never have, never will - understand the appeal if people of people - caricatures of people - who embody a twisted genius embalmed in decadence.
It's like admiring a zombie: truly dead but still, somehow, moving.
I don't care, and I was a punk.
Until I realized they were irresponsible posers.
Raising children isn't fashion.
Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!
Isaiah 5:20
That was probably the most amusing obituary I have ever read. Such a perfect parody of Boomer narcissism (though I realize she was technically not a boomer). It is difficult to believe the writer was a fan of Dame Westwood.
No goal other than destruction, abuse, and pretty things to view on the way to it. If you're going to live in that world, best get used to the abuse early. Apparently there are those who flourish there. Got to feed those addictions.
Nope. It's a normie life for me, thanks. She got herself a big old run out of it, though. And all that adulation from the wannabes.
There's a great bit of myth-making in that obituary. For one, the Sex Pistols did not form and present themselves fully-formed to McCLaren to manage them. He had briefly managed the New York Dolls in NYC in their last gasp before sputtering out. While in NY, he visited the clubs and he became interested in Richard Hell, then member of Television, one of the first bands to play at CBGB, a scummy Bowery bar. McClaren was taken by Hell's homemade short, choppy haircut and his purposely ragged clothes, with some of the rents held together with safety pins.
McClaren returned to London and opened a fashion shop. A couple of young men who hung out in his shop--Steve Jones and Paul Cook--wanted to form a band. They found Glen Matlock to play bass, but they still lacked a singer. McClaren tried to convince Hell to leave NY and come over to London front this incomplete new band, because of Hell's look and charisma. Hell considered it, but decided to pursue his own ambitions in NY. In quick time, they found Lydon and asked him to audition. To quote John Lennon, Lydon "passed the audition," and the Pistols were complete. Hell's short chopped hair and safety-pinned clothes were adopted as part of their look, via McClaren's management.
The term "punk rock," as applied to the mid-70s music scenes that formed (first) in NYC and slightly later in other cities in America and abroad, derived from a self-produced magazine founded in NYC by John Holmstrom and his friend "Legs" McNeil. The music scene at CBGB (and Max's Kansas City to a lesser extent) was well in place by late 1974-early'75. It was, for lack of another term, referred to as "the New York underground music scene" when reported on in the Village Voice and other local periodicals. (I can remember reading a copy of the Village Voice in mid-1975 and spying an ad for a "New York Underground Music Festival" to be held over several nights at CBGB, in which many bands played, including most of those who became internationally known, (e.g., the Ramones, Talking Heads, Blondie). Television and the Ramones had been playing at CBGB since mid-1974, as had Debbie Harry, in a band that preceded Blondie.) Holmstrom and McNeil were considering names for the magazine they wanted to produce, and McNeil suggested "Punk." He meant it as a reference to a snotty, smart-alecky teenage wiseguy, an archetypal figure in popular culture. They wanted to write about the bands (and the scene forming) at CBGB. PUNK, the magazine, was humorous, influenced by MAD magazine and the pop culture of the day. It featured Holmstrom's drawing and comics, and they included fumettis--comics using photos instead of drawings. The magazine was mostly hand-lettered like a comic book.
The magazine quickly became popular among those attending and/or interested in the music scene forming at CBGB and it became associated with that scene, Journalists writing about the scene started inserting the word "punk" into their articles, influenced by the name of the magazine covering the scene. Among other possible reasons for this, "punk" was a much simpler term to identify the scene than "the NY Underground scene."
The US "punk" bands were far more diverse in their musical styles than the English bands, who mostly copied the Ramones' short, fast, rythym-chord style. The Sex Pistols themselves were musically very similar to the New York Dolls, and were in no way musically novel. The greatest single unique element in the Pistols was John Lydon's (aka Rotten) personality and scathing contempt directed at all and sundry. This is the Pistols' (and England's) primary and sole contribution to the "punk rock," as a style or idea.
Many Britishers still wrongly insist "punk rock" originated in the UK--with the Sex Pistols being the first punk band. Yet, the Ramones had already released two albums while the Pistols were still little known, barely reported on even in Britain. Vivien Westwood's claim on inventing "punk style" is correct only insofar as she took from the look of the young people in the scene in NY and London, and in amplifying and tarting up that look. She had been designing fetish-wear and bondage clothing for McClaren's shop and she incorporated motifs from that into the so-called "punk style" she promulgated.
In short, "punk rock," as a pop culture phenomenon, came from the USA, from NYC, was born from the scene at CBGB.
While orthodoxy may be the graveyard of intelligence, visceral choices of your causes is not a pathway to wisdom. Her life seems to have been similar to those cars whose back glasses are plastered with decals supporting this cause and that. A white tank to protest fracking, hmmm. I'm sure that had some deep meaning, particularly in this winter of the power cuts in Europe. No word in the obit indicating she froze to death?
Great posts, Robert Cook. Thanks for the history.
As for Vivian Westwood- I do tend to admire people who live very full lives and produce a lot during those lives. She did that and more. She made herself globally known and had an influence on many. That I didn't agree with some of her social or political stands is neither here nor there. She lived a full life and I admire that.
"Then came the Sex Pistols, snarling at the 1970s. McLaren embraced them as an angry pot-shot at the hippy movement he hated. Westwood opened a shop on the King's Road, conjuring the look the Pistols made famous. A bewildered world gasped and named it Punk. She called the shop, 'Let It Rock', then changed the name to 'Too Fast To Live, Too Young To Die.' Finally, it was re-branded simply as 'SEX' - the huge pink sign above the door meant only the brave went in..."
I don't know how true the movie Sid and Nancy is, but I remember a Johnny Rotten line from that movie, "Sex is boring." Sid just repeated it like a dummy. "Yeah, sex is boring." And Nancy was like, "What the fuck?"
The name of the band is (arguably) feminist, as it re-imagines the male sex organ as an instrument of violence. I don't have any trouble imagining a feminist writing a book or movie about a male band that calls themselves the Sex Pistols because they hate women and want to kill them.
The Ramones were the Beatles of simplicity.
Each song on their one and only album is designed (I think) to piss off a certain class of people. If you love the royal family, the Sex Pistols have a (notorious) song for you. Are you a liberal feminist? They've got a song for you, too.
Of course the Sex Pistols weren't the only ones singing pro-life songs. Pat Boone did it too.
I think the Sex Pistols has better music, but the lyrics are shockingly similar.
Johnny Rotten was inspired by a real person, a woman who was in a mental health clinic and showed up at his house holding an aborted baby.
a Badass to the end. I kind of like that.
Vicki from Pasadena
Robert Cook, that's all interesting stuff. Thanks!
It is amusing that Johnny Rotten later expressed his wishes that Margaret Thatcher Rest In Peace and mourned the passing of the Queen.
It is wonderful that he cares for his wife who suffers from Alzheimer’s.
It is ironic that of all famous musicians of 1976 that he, 45 years later, would be in contention to be the most admirable man.
I remember watching him being interviewed on either Conan or Letterman a number of years ago. He took shots at the usual suspect, especially The Allman Brothers who that evenings musical entertainment. What struck me is that he had a distinct twinkle in his eye when he was saying the outrageous things.
Thanks for that link, Althouse!
Interesting to contrast her swastika T-shirts (with the word "Destroy" spray-painted on it) with the swastika T-shirt that Sid Vicious wore.
I saw a documentary about the Pistols (boring). But one part stood out for me -- Vicious wearing that damn shirt during an interview. And the journalist doesn't say anything about it(!)
My feeling on this is that the Pistols just wanted to shock and upset people. That was their ticket to fame -- notoriety. Sid Vicious couldn't actually play musical instruments. He was there almost entirely for show and to get into fights with people. On their amazing album, it's rumored that Vicious had almost nothing to do with it.
I don't mean, by the way, to diminish the Sex Pistols as a band or Johnny Rotten/Lydon as a front man. The Pistols' music, though similar to existing rock music, was exciting and galvanizing. Lydon's lyrics were quite smart and incisive. He is keenly intelligent and possessed of undeniable charisma. He was the one indispensable element that made Pistols so great, and memorable.
His name was Malcolm McLaren: self-declared genius and godfather of punk. So began one of Britain's great creative partnerships... His mother was a sex worker and he had been brought up by his eccentric grandmother, who lived by the motto 'to be bad is to be good and to be good is just boring.'... He took six days to visit her in hospital after the birth of their son, refused to be called 'Dad' and threatened to cart the child to Barnardo's when asked to pitch in.
Was she still married to the other guy when she was fucking McLaren? You can see why he might doubt the baby is his. Splooge stooge is the term Althouse invented for men like McLaren. I think?
Glad she kept the baby. If a man's a splooge stooge, he's going to be a bad dad. Maybe he improved over time?
Even if we take infanticide off the table (which, obviously, Rotten refused to do!), we might ask why feminism has been so on board with the all-male Roe v. Wade, and the $1 billion abortion industry. Why so opposed to letting the voters have their say?
It's an elitist view, not a democratic one.
These are the same elites, by the way, who ruthlessly censor abortion photographs (not fashionable!) and keep the truth from our people.
Camille Paglia has a fun rant on feminism and fashion. The whole talk is amazing. But here's one neat passage I want to highlight.
Let me tell the full story of what happened that night. Now, normally if you're in a boring lecture, you can, like, tune out. You know, you can plan your meals, do your laundry in your head, and things like that, okay? In this case, it was torture to me, because she was showing these gorgeous pictures up on the screen, beautiful pictures that were stimulating the mind, stimulating the imagination, you understand? And at the same time she was trashing these pictures with this horrible Lacan, labyrinthine thing. So I was just out of my--I was out of control. People turned around and said "Shh!" to me. I was writhing in my seat [imitates electrocution-like spasms]. It was awful. Let me give you an example. There was a Revlon ad of a woman in a blue pool of water, and she was beautifully made up, and there was obviously a reflector being used to shine the sunlight especially intensely on her face. This was a beautiful ad. And Diana Fuss was going, "Decapitation--mutilation."
Then there was a beautiful picture from Harper's Bazaar, I think, of a black woman wearing a crimson turtleneck. But instead of the collar turned over, you know, it was up like this, around the chin. It was very beautiful. It was like a flower. And she was wearing aviator glasses that I recognized, from the 1930s! Now Diana Fuss said, "She's blinded." I would have said, "She has mystic vision." Anyway, with the turtleneck, what do you think? "Strangulation, bondage!" It went on like this, picture after picture after picture. I thought, "This is psychotic." Such radical misinterpretation of reality is psychotic. But it's a whole system. Psychosis is a system. People within that system feel it's very rational.
Now, what I hated about this was you had two hundred young women, who didn't understand a word of what she was saying--it was all that Lacan gibberish--and they're all going, "Ohhh, wow! The woman from Princeton--a big woman from Princeton. She's so brilliant!" And I thought, "This is evil." Diana Fuss is not evil. She's a nice woman. But if what you're doing is evil, I'm sorry, it has to stop. This is perverted. It really is perverted. When you destroy young people's ability to take pleasure in beauty, you are a pervert! So I stood up, I was very agitated--and she was such a good sport. I mean, here was this maniac she never heard of, my book had just come out, and I was waving my arms around. I said I didn't mean to condemn her, because I understood that what she was doing was the result of ten years of feminists doing this. But nevertheless, I asked, why is it, why is it that feminists have so much trouble dealing with beauty and pleasure, I said, to which gay men have made such outstanding cultural contributions? Why--if gay men can respond? This is why I get along so well with gay men, and I don't get along with lesbian feminists. This is why my sexuality is a complete neuter! I don't fit in anywhere! I'm like this wandering being, the Ancient Mariner--it's just awful.
Great comments, Cook!
The roots of punk even go back further to the garage band era of late 60s Detroit (Question Mark and the Mysterians, et al) and the Germany-stationed GI-fronted band The Monks (Listening to Monk Time you get a distinct punk vibe from it)
Not to mention bands like Pere Ubu (out of Cleveland) were already releasing 'post-punk' music in 1976, and inspiring bands like Joy Division who would soon follow.
Thanks, interesting, Robert Cook.
Iggy Pop was my first music idol. I was lucky enough to see him in a tiny upstate New York club at his prime. Also saw the Ramones there. But I was a kid.
Iggy was smart enough to clean up his act early. He could have been one heck of a professional baseball pitcher with that body. His true love was golf, and he made a second career of sorts on the amateur circuit.
G.G. Allin may have been the only real punk musician, based on the technical description. It's a shame he never entirely fulfilled his dream of being murdered on stage by his fans. But for music, Johnny Mathis and Dean Martin are much more my thing.
Cook,
I like your posts about punk.
I’ll disagree slightly. Bowie’s influence on punk is staggering. Hang on to Yourself is a pro to-punk song that’s as good as any punk song.
His influence on all pop genres is pretty staggering.
"Sid Vicious couldn't actually play musical instruments. He was there almost entirely for show and to get into fights with people. On their amazing album, it's rumored that Vicious had almost nothing to do with it."
Sid Vicious was a latecomer to the band. He was a friend of Johnny Rotten. Their first bassist (and main musical composer of most of their songs) was Glen Matlock. He and Rotten didn't get on, so Rotten maneuvered to get Matlock out of the band. I'm not sure if Matlock was fired or if Rotten made the situation so untenable that Matlock quit the band. Once gone, Rotten got Vicious into the band, so he had an ally and mate, given that he was not particularly friendly with Steve Jones or Paul Cook, either. (For their album, Steve Jones played the bass parts.)
"The roots of punk even go back further to the garage band era of late 60s Detroit (Question Mark and the Mysterians, et al) and the Germany-stationed GI-fronted band The Monks (Listening to Monk Time you get a distinct punk vibe from it)
"Not to mention bands like Pere Ubu (out of Cleveland) were already releasing 'post-punk' music in 1976, and inspiring bands like Joy Division who would soon follow"
Yes, certainly. The Ramones saw themselves as an American Bay City Rollers. They were all lovers of 60s pop and rock, and they hated country-rock, art-rock, (Yes, Genesis, ELP, etc.) and the other iterations of "rock" at that time. They didn't see themselves as creating a new genre, but as trying to do justice, in their own way, with the rock and pop they grew up with.
The Monks were a wonderfully idiosyncratic band, all of them US military guys who met and formed their band in Germany. I love their one album. Pere Ubu became and remains one of my favorite bands of that time and milieu. I've seen them live several times. I'd put their first album, THE MODERN DANCE, as among the best of the entire era. The most truly "punk" of bands was one that was born and died before "punk rock," as such, was a thing: The Electric Eels, out of Cleveland. They only played live a handful of times, and the only recordings of them are cassette recordings of several their rehearsals, (plus one recording of one of their live gigs). I also place them among my favorites. They had several drummers, but their last, the one on their small body of recordings, was Nick Knox, who went on to drum for the Cramps for most of their existence. The Cramps were another wonderful band. I saw them six times, probably the most I've seen any one band.
The first band to actually call their music "punk music" was the NYC duo SUICIDE, a vocalist and keyboard player who tended to drive audiences out of the room. The singer, Alan Vega, saw the Stooges at their first NY show in 1969, and he was electrified by Iggy's performance, particularly his confrontational acts of entering the audience. That inspired Vega, a visual artist, to form a band. By 1970, Suidice was performing around NY, putting up flyers calling their music "punk music." Though hated by many and loved by few, SUICIDE managed to put out a number of albums and they performed (with decreasing frequency up until their final shows in London in 2010, opening for the reformed Iggy and the Stooges, Vega's inspiration).
Cook and Shouting Thomas have seen things man.
The Cramps, Elvis had nothing on Poison Ivy’s snarl man.
Great thread. Thank you, all. HT Robert Cook
I've done some more digging to supplement my memory, (which was the source of comments above).
Johnny Rotten joined the band who would become the Sex Pistols in August 1975 and their first gig was in November 1975. They drew little attention in or outside Britain at first, drawing their first significant media attention in Spring 1976. At a gig on April 23, 1976, Johnny Rotten and Malcolm McClaren became involved in a physical altercation with someone in the audience at a club show they were playing. This made the front page of the NEW MUSIC EXPRESS, a British music weekly newspaper that was published weekly (I think). On the same day as that attention-drawing Pistols gig, The Ramones' first album was released.
Even more significant (regarding the origins of "punk rock," so-called), the first issue of NY's PUNK Magazine was published in January 1976, and by April, the month of the gig that first captured media attention for the Pistols, PUNK Magazine was publishing its third issue.
Clearly, the claim by the Brits in general or Johnny Rotten and the Pistols in particular that they birthed "punk rock" is bollocks. The British music fans followed the US music press and when the Ramones played their first gig in England in July 1976, they packed the house. Many people who were were in early UK "punk" bands or would later form them were at that gig. The relative renown of the Ramones at that period was far greater in general than was that of the Pistols, who had been gigging at that time for just under nine months, most of that time with little press coverage.
I didn't know any of that.
Clearly, the claim by the Brits in general or Johnny Rotten and the Pistols in particular that they birthed "punk rock" is bollocks.
ha ha ha
Never mind the bollocks!
Robert Cook, Saint Croix, thank you for your comments! Informative and interesting. I'm sure our host knows how much these kinds of contributions add to this blog - the only place I visit every day.
I dated a guy in high school who loved punk and managed to get me into The Clash, but that's as far as I could go, being otherwise a musical theater nerd. Our breakup resulted in part from his possible calling to the Catholic priesthood. (Turned out to be a doctor in a poor Appalachian community, which would have been an interesting life for me if I'd been invited... but the priesthood thing certainly seemed to rule that out, as well as my graduation a year before his and my return to the States from England, where we met as Air Force brats at, of all things, an arts camp.)
Robert Cook, Saint Croix, thank you for your comments! Informative and interesting. I'm sure our host knows how much these kinds of contributions add to this blog - the only place I visit every day.
I dated a guy in high school who loved punk and managed to get me into The Clash, but that's as far as I could go, being otherwise a musical theater nerd. Our breakup resulted in part from his possible calling to the Catholic priesthood. (Turned out to be a doctor in a poor Appalachian community, which would have been an interesting life for me if I'd been invited... but the priesthood thing certainly seemed to rule that out, as well as my graduation a year before his and my return to the States from England, where we met as Air Force brats at, of all things, an arts camp.)
There's a great bit of myth-making in that obituary.
Calling Vivian Westwood "the godmother of punk" is ridiculous. I know she died and we should say nice things. On the other hand, this is the Althouse blog and we are warned about the dangers of civility bullshit.
I have nothing nice or mean to say about Vivian Westwood. Call me a fashion neophyte -- not my bag -- but I never heard of her before today. I'm sure there are many amazing events in her life -- and sins as well -- just like the rest of us.
But I will call bollocks on that fucking headline. It's music, okay, not clothes. It's an auditory phenomenon! You could add one word and make that headline semi-honest.
Dame Vivienne Westwood - the godmother of punk fashion
And if you need to dump a word, how about "Dame"? Why the hell would anybody at the BBC suggest that punk rock was created by the aristocracy? What are you, 12?
McLaren was very strange on David Letterman and Tom Snyder. Funny maybe, but strange certainly. You don't really find the likes of him or Quentin Crisp or Brother Theodore on late night talk shows any more.
Westwood spent a lot of time campaigning against consumerism. Pretty strange for someone in the fashion business, but probably very fashionable.
I just wanted to pop into the comments to thank Robert Cook for his fun, interesting and informative comments on this!
Thanks to Althouse, Cook and Saint Croix, this is a great thread! The only so-called Punk I followed was Patti Smith and I’m curious how she fit into that genre. she always seemed more Bohemian than Punk as her writing was so literate. I assumed it was because she played at CBGB. Smith is more like Degas, an artist grouped with the impressionists mainly because he was around at the same time.
I’ve always been fascinated by Westwood’s designs, like Alexander McQueen, she was working class and seemed startlingly original although deeply imbedded in English history. Sometimes she could look like a deranged bag lady but she was committed to her ideas. Her title of Dame was granted by the Queen and the photo of her twirling the skirt of the very proper and conservative suit she designed and wore to her ceremony showing the gorgeous satin lining and her neglect of underwear was perfectly Westwood. I’m curious where she got her training as those outfits are beautifully made.
She was in the business of selling clothes to the wealthy but encouraged people to use what they had or to shop in thrift stores and make those things their own by ripping up and reconfiguring them.
I dated a guy in high school who loved punk and managed to get me into The Clash, but that's as far as I could go, being otherwise a musical theater nerd.
I was schooled on street corners by music nerds (guys, always guys) who knew way more shit than I did. I just like the sounds, you know.
I would say shit like, "Where did Asia come from? They came out of nowhere, and now they have the #1 song. That's amazing!" And a music nerd would intellectually beat the crap out of me.
"Yeah, they didn't come out of nowhere." And then he would inform me of each musician and what bands they used to play in. It was like running into Encyclopedia Brown.
I think it was the same damn conversation where I said, "I like Van Halen." And he laughed out loud and tried to be nice. "I would call them party music. I mean, they're fun." He was trying to be nice but his disdain, oh my God.
I've had two black eyes before. I think intellectually he beat me up on that street corner worse than that. (His nickname was Moose, by the way).
My best friend was also a music nerd, but way nicer. I was actually surrounded by music nerds in my life. We had a conversation back in, I don't know, 1984 to 1986, somewhere in there. It was specifically about Sid Vicious and his damn Nazi T-shirt. It went like this...
"Why the fuck is he wearing a Nazi T-shirt?"
"He's a rebel. It's anarchy."
"The fuck it is. Nazism isn't anarchy. It's dictators and shit. Killing innocent people. Murdering the Jews."
"That's not what the music is about. At all."
"Well, he's wearing a fucking swastika. I don't like that shit."
"You need to listen to it before you make a judgment."
"I don't want to listen to Nazi shit."
"Taylor, oh my God, you haven't heard the music yet. Try to have an open mind. It's anarchy, okay? They're revolting against the monarchy. They don't like the Queen of England. And punk music has a whole variety of ideologies. The Sex Pistols are anarchists, the Clash are marxists."
"Commies?! You want me to listen to Commie music and Nazi music? Holy shit, Rob."
I might be exaggerating slightly for comic effect.
The only so-called Punk I followed was Patti Smith and I’m curious how she fit into that genre.
Call me a sexist but I never listened to Patti Smith in my young days. Heard of her, never got around to it. Althouse mentioned her on a thread a while back. I think this song is very punk. I love her voice. She's definitely somebody I would listen to. (I don't have time for musical odysseys anymore, but I'm still a film nerd).
That link might seem anti-Christian to some listeners. "Jesus died for somebody's sins, but not mine." Here's a musical nerd talking about Patti Smith's Christianity at First Things.
People shift over time. It's just something that happens. Evolution, you might call it!
(Interesting tidbit -- in that article Smith is described as the "Godmother of Punk" and I'm like, well, that makes a hell of a lot more sense).
Patti Smith wasn't a punk rocker. She was a bohemian poet and artist who began reciting her poems to musical accompaniment (Lenny Kaye on guitar) at poetry recitals in NYC, which evolved into her gathering a full band and her writing actual songs. I saw her in concert in 1978 and it was the fourth greatest concert I've ever seen. (The opening act was an up and coming band called Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. They were also very good.) The three concerts that I liked better were all by The Who, with all original members, in 1973, 1975 and 1976. (In retrospect, I saw a number of later shows by other acts that were probably on the same level as Patti Smith and The Who. The Cramps were always a barn burner of a band in concert.)
Temujin: if selling swastika t-shirts is your idea of a fulfilled life...well, I'm surprised.
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