How Did You Get Into Punk?

[dave]

Was it all at once, was it bit by bit? Did you take a break when hardcore was the norm?

For me it was the skaters at my high-school ('80) who listened to anything different. Two brothers turned me onto the Sex Pistols (who I thought were hilarious, but only as a black humor comedy group, not as a band. All these years later, I have enormous respect for Lydon, but that opinion still holds) and tried to get me interested in Black Flag (who would have to wait 'til far into my senior year before I heard them.). I already was into stuff like Devo and the B-52's, but the breakthrough for me was hearing the 1st Clash album the summer before my senior year, wow!, and the Nuggets collection that Fall at a friend's house (which was ultimately the more powerful argument for non-commercial sounds). Because hardcore was everywhere (still can't stand it) I took things at a slower pace, finding out about the Butthole Surfers/Birthday Party/Scratch Acid, then going into Blues, Soul, Ska, etc. and 60s Punk/Rockabilly comps before coming back to Punk (Aussie Punk was vital to me, and remains so). About then the whole Mummies/Gories/Oblivians/Japan thing happened. I did get burned out around '99, but the slow pace I kept let me keep my interest in the long run.

[John Battles]

I'VE HEARD ABOUT SPECIAL AFFECT AND DV8.....SAW THE REFORMED EFFIGIES A COUPLE OF TIMES. I ACTUALLY FOLLOWED THEM , ONCE....TECHNICALLY. I WAS INVITED TO PLAY THE AFTER - PARTY TO THIS BIG 30 YEARS OF PUNK (IT WAS 2006. I WAS QUICK TO TELL THEM , IT'S BEEN FORTY YEARS SINCE PUNK BROKE.) FESTIVAL , MOSTLY BANDS I'VE NEVER HEARD OF. BUT , THE EFFIGIES CLOSED IT , THEY WERE GOOD , JUST TOO HUMORLESS , JUST LIKE WHEN I SAW THEM DO AN UNBILLED APPEARANCE AT A CHICAGO PUNK /NEW WAVE BANDS REUNION......THEN , THEY CALLED CURFEW , WHICH MEANT EVERYBODY UNDER 21 HAD TO LEAVE.  IT ALSO MEANT , THEY WENT FROM 300 TO 30 ATTENDEES BEFORE I HIT THE STAGE. BUT , I HIT THAT FUCKER , HARD.

Cool pics. Bo Diddley was also on the show with The Clash and The Undertones (Aragon Ballroom , Chicago.).
 
melissa scott said:

Mr. Rotten

I'm pretty sure this was the first photo I ever saw of Johnny Rotten. My friend Trixie came into homeroom and showed me a news article -- she'd clipped it to show me. Pretty sure I have the article plastered in a book somewhere. Around Dec '76 or Jan '77? I read the article, stared at the photo, then refused to give it back to her. Got told off by the teacher for wrestling over it. The rest of the school year was pretty much wasted on me.

She and I had already been hooked on old Who LP's -- and when the Ramones lp came out, we both went on an all-day mission to find our copies. Success!

So we were ready for The Pistols. There was an awesome newsagent in Evanston, IL who stocked PUNK. Seriously, the only one in town:

Wish I'd been the one to buy 'em. Read hers. :-(

I've checked my school diaries from '78-'81 and there are photos pasted in of The Clash on almost every other page for 2 years running. Wow. What an impression they made. I'm sure if I hadn't seen 'em live, I wouldn't have been so stuck on them for so long.

Funny, there aren't there any homework listings, but almost every show or gig I attended is marked in girlish handwriting. I love how many pictures I have of Blondie. And Mick Jones! I guess The Rose came out that year, huh?

Remember The Effigies? DV8? The Special Affect? Don't know why, but I had a habit of clipping the show ads from The Reader (Chicago) and pasting them in. At the time, it seemed like overkill, but now I'm glad I did it.

Thanks Dave for the trip down cloudy memory lane. Mel

[Dan ring]

Yep..right on! As Ray Davies put it so brilliantly in song, I'm not like everybody else.

Ghislaine Korb / THE PUSH-BACKS said:

i was born  punk.Honest.So the first time i heard a punk song it was like a shock it was so new yet so familiar!!

[antonio]

Misfits.

[E.J. Matze]

I was ambushed in my room by a sweaty guy and his friends.

[electrocute your cock]

I blame the Ramones. I was mostly into metal and it's various subgenres and I liked some of the hardcore I was exposed to but never gave punk any thought until I saw the video for Psychotherapy. So yeah, Psychotherapy really does work.

[Bibliodiscoteque]

Like most of you, it was a relative that got me into punk. I had a cousin Stacey who went to London for the summer in 1988. I was just leaving 6th Grade and going into the 7th when she came to live with our family for a bit. 

She returned from London with long purple braids, a leather jacket, and some records. She made me tapes of some Clash and Sex Pistols, but a few months later when she gave me some tapes of the Misfits, The Circle Jerks, and Black Flag, did it really sink in. 

Despite getting mocked remorselessly through junior high and high school I always felt punk spoke for me and as a teen going to tens of dozens of shows in Providence I felt that the kids I met were more family than not. I owe all of my interests to the punk scene. 

[Stoned Again Productions]

By accident. In the early 70s I ran a wire from my radio to the roof with a homemade metal clothes hanger antenna and picked up some Houston stations 60-70 miles away. Fortunately before I discovered punk and hard rock it was blues, rock n roll, and garage my parents had on vinyl playing around the house constantly.

[Erik]

I was 15 big into Mudhoney and the Screaming Tree's when I was in a record store and seen the cover to Social D's heaven and hell album was blown away and haven't looked back since!

[James Porter]

I was twelve years old. For me, it was a combination of (a) reading Creem magazine, (b) listening to Dr. Demento's syndicated radio show, and (c) some of the more accessible "new wave" bands were starting to make minor inroads that year (1979).

I should also add that I was a fan of 50s and 60s rock, thanks to oldies radio. Punk and new wave, to me, sounded like a return to those bygone eras. Looked like those bygone eras, too. At a time when the typical rock star looked like THIS:


...the typical punk rocker looked like a throwback to the Monkees:

^^^This may appear to be standard rock star attire now, but for the mid-late 70s, hair this short looked almost stark.

[James Porter]

Dave wrote:
"the breakthrough for me was hearing the Nuggets collection that Fall at a friend's house (which was ultimately the more powerful argument for non-commercial sounds)."

Kinda ironic you'd say those sounds were non-commercial, since several of the songs on that album were AM radio hits.

[Andy Climax]

I didn't get into punk....It got into me and has bin there ever since 'Vive le Difference!'

[John Battles]

Yeah , like a throwback to The Monkees if they'd been doing HEROIN , instead of just The Frotis. Kidding aside , My beginnings  were similar , but , prior to '79 , there were also exploitation mags on Punk , I remember looking at them in the bookstore. But , what little Punk Rock I was hearing before 1980 was also on Dr. Demento's show , tho' I remember more stuff like The Flying Lizards than The Ramones or The Sex Pistols. ONCE , I HEARD A CLASH SONG ON THE RADIO , BEFORE THEY HAD A HIT. The Rock station played their version of "I Fought The Law" when it came out , here , in '79, in the afternoon , just to let their listeners hear what was going on with this Punk Rock stuff in The UK. They were NOT allowed to make it a habit. This was Dallas , we did'nt have a WXRT or a Rodney on The Roq , but , a rescue was in order in the form of DJ George Gimarc .

I CLICKED ON THE CONNECTION TO 50'S AND 60's Rock , too , when I was finally able to hear this stuff , in earnest (Though I'd read and heard of said connection.). The look was cooler , and more referential to those eras , as you could still get great old clothes (What "Vintage" used to be called.) in thrift stores and mostly affordable boutiques. The first local bands I was seeing (Telefones , Ft. Worth Cats , Ejectors , Chef Physique , Jetsons , Frenetics.)referred to the 60's Garage sound without being Retro 60's bands.
 
James Porter said:

I was twelve years old. For me, it was a combination of (a) reading Creem magazine, (b) listening to Dr. Demento's syndicated radio show, and (c) some of the more accessible "new wave" bands were starting to make minor inroads that year (1979).

I should also add that I was a fan of 50s and 60s rock, thanks to oldies radio. Punk and new wave, to me, sounded like a return to those bygone eras. Looked like those bygone eras, too. At a time when the typical rock star looked like THIS:


...the typical punk rocker looked like a throwback to the Monkees:

^^^This may appear to be standard rock star attire now, but for the mid-late 70s, hair this short looked almost stark.