Roots of Punk/New Wave
Posted: Thu Jun 17, 2004 10:56 pmIt is always difficult to determine the roots of a musical style. There is a theory that punk originated in the US in the 70s and then went ot Britain and the rest of the world. I've often thought that that theory was too simple. The roots of British punk and New wave really rest in the mid-sixties British groups.
This struck me when I listened again the other day to that little known Rolling Stones 1967 masterpiece, "Between the Buttons". This album is a new wave album pure and simple. The same could be said for parts of the Beatles' Revolver and Rubber Soul. The halmarks of this proto-new wave style include: the use of interesting rhythms and guitar styles that were not tied to the boring blues riffs that came to dominate after the end of flower power in the late sixties; and the use of lyrics that related to the lives being lived by the audience.
I remember that when I was 14 or 15 in the mid 70s I just couldn't get into the contemporary artists at all. They all seemed to be heavy-metal tossers or glorified country and western singers. None of them had any real balls or spoke my language at all. There were a few exceptions. Bowie was one; but Cockney Rebel, who were using a lot of the trademarks of new wave in their music and lyrics, whilst pretending to be glam rockers, were even more interesting.
So there I was, growing up in Sydney, Australia in 1976 mostly listening to any pre-67 British music I could find, hating flares and wishing that rock music could grow out of SUpertramp, Emerson Lake and Palmer and the awful Eagles, when a few friends suggested we form a band. A few members wanted to play the typical Led Zep, Eagles blues/country based rock that I thought was shite. But the lead guitarist and I managed to put a lot of mid-sixties stuff in the repetoire. Then we heard Elvis Costello, the Jam and the Sex Pistols and knew that we weren't alone.
And wasn't it great to be alive and 17 in '77? We could chuck out the flares hanging around in the backs our wardrobes, and stop using our little fingers on the second and fourth beats of the bar when playing the bottom two strings of the guitar. Rhythm sections were set free to use ideas from R&B, jazz and even classical music. And we only knew 6 or 7 chords. But above all the lyrics of rock spoke with the audience more than to them. It had become cool again to sing in your natural voice.
This struck me when I listened again the other day to that little known Rolling Stones 1967 masterpiece, "Between the Buttons". This album is a new wave album pure and simple. The same could be said for parts of the Beatles' Revolver and Rubber Soul. The halmarks of this proto-new wave style include: the use of interesting rhythms and guitar styles that were not tied to the boring blues riffs that came to dominate after the end of flower power in the late sixties; and the use of lyrics that related to the lives being lived by the audience.
I remember that when I was 14 or 15 in the mid 70s I just couldn't get into the contemporary artists at all. They all seemed to be heavy-metal tossers or glorified country and western singers. None of them had any real balls or spoke my language at all. There were a few exceptions. Bowie was one; but Cockney Rebel, who were using a lot of the trademarks of new wave in their music and lyrics, whilst pretending to be glam rockers, were even more interesting.
So there I was, growing up in Sydney, Australia in 1976 mostly listening to any pre-67 British music I could find, hating flares and wishing that rock music could grow out of SUpertramp, Emerson Lake and Palmer and the awful Eagles, when a few friends suggested we form a band. A few members wanted to play the typical Led Zep, Eagles blues/country based rock that I thought was shite. But the lead guitarist and I managed to put a lot of mid-sixties stuff in the repetoire. Then we heard Elvis Costello, the Jam and the Sex Pistols and knew that we weren't alone.
And wasn't it great to be alive and 17 in '77? We could chuck out the flares hanging around in the backs our wardrobes, and stop using our little fingers on the second and fourth beats of the bar when playing the bottom two strings of the guitar. Rhythm sections were set free to use ideas from R&B, jazz and even classical music. And we only knew 6 or 7 chords. But above all the lyrics of rock spoke with the audience more than to them. It had become cool again to sing in your natural voice.