Week 35: 50 Albums That Changed Music

[BradH]

Somewhere in the mid '90s the rock critic/revisionist historians started to pump-up punk rock to pretentious heights never attempted by prog/art rock.

I don't give a damn what rock critic/revisionist historians have to say, I watched the influence of punk roll through rock 'n' roll like a tidal wave. Sure, it died out as a movement and became a style to be picked up or dropped just like anything else. But there have been huge lasting influences, mostly in the vocal department. All of that alt-rock and indie stuff in the 90's is way closer to 70's punk/new wave in style than anything before punk.

But as Troy pointed out, those that could evolve did, those that couldn't...were called The Ramones.

I tend to agree with the sentiment regarding pure punk bands. I disdained the L.A. bands and wasn't much impressed w/ Minneapolis either. But the Ramones didn't change because Johnny Ramone wouldn't let them. It was a very strange situation, a unique circumstance involving extreme characters in bizarre working relationships. It's one of the oddest stories in rock history and it passed mostly under the radar. But when they performed they were a juggernaut of power and precision, making terms like "simplicity" and "complexity" totally meaningless. Detractors like to focus on their image and their middle-class background and whatnot, basically everything that's not important.

[nobody]

I think it is a misconception that punk was a short-lived fad. If you view punk as that English thing with the Sex Pistols, then, ok, as a popular movement in England, punk was a bit of a flash in the pan. But, if you look at the long line of bands going through from The Ramones (and some people like to start even earlier with The Stooges) to the English punk bands and back to the Hardcore punk bands of the early 80s and right on through until SST, one of the big punk oriented independant labels, put out the first Soundgarden album in the early years of grunge. Toss in modern practitioners like Green Day and the pop punk bands of the 90s and you're covering some ground.

You also cover some pretty diverse musical ground with bands like Television, Blondie, and The Ramones all sharing a stage in New York, bands like The Slits mixing up the scene in London through to bands like the Big Boys who played hardcore but would trot out a full horn section to do covers of stuff like Hollywood Swinging and the Minutemen, who had a unique sound all there own.

And, while I can see how people could not like the LA scene, which admiddedly turned ugly and violent often. It did produce great bands like X and the nuclear bomb that was Black Flag...maybe not everyone's cup of tea, but sneaking a few drinks and begging a ride at 13 to get to a Black Flag show and seeing the place erupt into complete mayhem was a pretty formative experience for my musical tastes for more than a few years.

[BradH]

I think it is a misconception that punk was a short-lived fad.

Well, I for one never called it a fad because its influence was too far reaching. I just thought the California hardcore stuff was a cul-de-sac with bands releasing albums that weren't much different than their previous releases, none of which I liked. So, I thought punk was dead as an evolving musical movement. Before, I thought it was alive in Britain because it kept changing and growing. It seemed more musical to me. Naturally, it evolved itself out of existence while L.A. rose from the grave as the never changing, freaking undead. For me, L.A. killed it as a movement and made it a style - in their case they also romanticized and increased the violence along the way. I have no illusions that I'm being objective in any of this. I was already inclined to listen to the Brits anyway with all that prog. (It's like I told Jay, it's not about where you were, it's about when you were.) Looking back I can see the Pistols and the Clash and all that came after was one huge bank shot coming from the Ramones and headed back across the Atlantic with a different style. I didn't take it seriously until they started to step away from the formula and take some chances, then I backtracked and saw the value of the earlier, more energetic stuff. I was also learning to play the bass by 79/80 and had a whole new crop of idols in J.J. Burnel, Tina Weymouth, Colin Moulding, Jerry Casales, Bruce Foxton...it was as technically challenging and musically rewarding as anything I'd heard - and I could practically play Yes's "Roundabout" in my sleep at that point. So, I rejected all that crap about how it was simple or stupid like it was "Smoke On The Water" or something. (Listened to that incident the other day too...Zappa onstage doing "King Kong" when the balcony caught on fire. Howard Kaylan:"It's Arthur Brown in person!")

Anyway...

"Juggernaut of power and precision"?????????????? Mighty big words...particularly for a style which IMHO exists purely on the twanging of power chords...

How do you "twang" a power chord?

[Resident Loser]

...How do you "twang" a power chord?...

...that wasn't nobody (how's that for English and how she is spoke), that was me BTW...

Guitars twang...so twanging two notes separated by a perfect fifth is how one twangs a power chord...or you could have two good friends pull tight on a Shunyata Anaconda Helix and give that a good pluck...

jimHJJ(...but that would be twanging a power cord...)

[Resident Loser]

But there have been huge lasting influences, mostly in the vocal department. All of that alt-rock and indie stuff in the 90's is way closer to 70's punk/new wave in style than anything before punk.

...this is somehow a good thing? Unmelodious near-atonal monotony? Is this like deja vu all over again? Is it Week One? The range of a 59cent harmonica? As someone into good vocals and harmony, if such an "influence" is the best thing punk offered it's truly a sorry state of affairs...

But when they performed they were a juggernaut of power and precision, making terms like "simplicity" and "complexity" totally meaningless. Detractors like to focus on their image and their middle-class background and whatnot, basically everything that's not important.

"Juggernaut of power and precision"?????????????? Mighty big words...particularly for a style which IMHO exists purely on the twanging of power chords and the lockstep rhythm...a, er...make that beat...rhythm implies a certain complexity...

Image is a contrivance, whether it's Epstein's make-over of the Fab Four or the insistance of biker jackets and Cons for all...as is the whole "disaffected youth" thing which strikes me as a bit of dishonesty with your audience...If you are capable of that, it sorta' makes your whole oeuvre suspect...

The "Best of" album can be reduced to "Sedated" and "Rockaway Beach"...

jimHJJ(...the Ramones in a nutshell...)