smoe.org mailing lists
ivan@stellysee.de
| From | "John L. Micek" <jlmicek@verizon.net> |
| Subject | Re: Lydon |
| Date | Wed, 28 Nov 2007 13:11:10 -0500 |
[Part 1 text/plain utf-8 (2.1 kilobytes)]
(View Text in a separate window)
>I'll allow that what constitutes a "song" will differ from person to
>person, but to me the whole point of punk is to voice aggression. For me,
>that blinds whatever songcraft might be there.
> I guess it depends on the band. I'm not a huge Ramones fan, for example,
> but I love a lot of their songs. But Lydon and crew? I've tried many times
> over the years, but punk just generally sounds like a lot of noise to me.
> Chord progressions and lyrics, yes, but songs? Not to my mind.
I've heard this argument a lot over the years. And I'd offer this rejoinder:
Try listening to "Never Mind The Bollocks" again. But when you do, to the
extent that't is possible, try mentally removing John Lydon's vocals from
the mix. If you do, I think you'll find that Chris Thomas actually produced
a really well-made AOR record with layers and layers of guitars and some
really punchy drums. Without Lydon's vocals, it could be a glam rock record.
And I'd challenge anyone to tell me that The Clash didn't write great pop
tunes. "White Man in Hammersmith Palais," for me, was the apogee of British
punk, and they didn't put out their record until Year Zero +1 (ie: 1977).
john micek
----- Original Message -----
From: <zoogang@cox.net>
To: <audities@smoe.org>; "Stewart Mason" <craigtorso@verizon.net>
Sent: Wednesday, November 28, 2007 11:43 AM
Subject: Re: Lydon
> >
> Alan
>
> ---- Stewart Mason <craigtorso@verizon.net> wrote:
>>
>> ----- Original Message -----
>> From: <zoogang@cox.net>
>> > I view punk as an expression of attitude. Most of it does absolutely
>> > nothing for me. I know there's a faction of people who swear by
>> > punk, but to my view, for the most part, we're not talking about
>> > songs here.
>>
>> If you're gonna say this, we're going to have to define "songs."
>> Particularly in the first wave New York and UK scenes, there was
>> plenty of songcraft in punk: the songs were faster, shorter and
>> simpler, but they were still songs, and huge numbers of them were
>> incredibly catchy. At what point is something no longer a 'song"?
>>
>> S
>>
>
>
For assistance, please contact
the smoe.org administrators.