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From "John L. Micek" <jlmicek@verizon.net>
Subject Re: Lydon
Date Wed, 28 Nov 2007 15:55:57 -0500

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> I'm sorry, Alan, but I gotta go with Jaimie on this one: you seem to have 
> a misapprehension of what punk is, both lyrically and musically, that's 
> going to make it hard to continue this conversation much further.  I'm not 
> saying that you're in any way duty-bound to listen to or appreciate punk, 
> I'm just saying that your statements on the topic so far suggest that part 
> of your disdain for the style is based on a misreading of intent.
>
And just a word in defense of aggression, here for  a moment. Given the 
societal forces that gave rise to punk (at least its English incarnation) in 
pre-Thatcherite Britain, is it really any surprise that the music was fired 
by people looking to work out their frustrations? Take rampant unemployment, 
simmering tensions between youth and the police and an economy that was 
generally in the toilet with no prospect for improvements, and I'm guessing 
you'd be pretty hacked off as well.
Even still, it seems pretty reductive to just write it off as "aggressive," 
and nothing more. There was some serious melodicism in the songs of The 
Clash. I've already opined on the sonics of "Never Mind the Bollocks."
And one of the things that doesn't get written about nearly enough to my 
mind, is the intersection between punk and reggae. For a group of people 
generally written off as scribbling swastikas across their shirts, the punks 
were remarkably inclusive. Before there were any punk records in the 
jukebox, DJs were spinning King Tubby and Studio One tracks between sets.
That seems pretty forward thinking to me.

john micek 



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