Transcript
Alan Cross (0:00)
Hey, it's Alan and I just wanted to let you know that you can now listen to the ongoing history of new music, early and ad free on.
Alan Cross (0:06)
Amazon Music included with Prime.
Alan Cross (0:10)
This program is sponsored by BetterHelp. We've all got that go to person who we can talk to when life gets stressful and weird, which is good, but what about when that doesn't work? As good as they might be, they're not trained and may not have all the answers. When that happens, you need someone who knows more and is qualified to deal with your issues on a professional level. This is why BetterHelp exists. Quality counselors who meet localized standards for vetting and care delivery. These are experienced and qualified people. After filling out a short questionnaire, you'll be matched with a therapist that fits your needs and typically that match is perfect. But if you feel the need for someone else, no problem. Switch therapists at any time for no cost. You can even pause your sessions when you need to. BetterHelp is super flexible and is Hitrust certified and complies with GDPR standards, which means they meet some of the highest global standards for data Privacy. With over 5 million people supported to date globally, BetterHelp is now available in Canada with a network of counselors who have expertise in a wide range of specialties and with a 4.9 out of 5 rating based on over 1.7 million client reviews, Better BetterHelp makes counseling affordable and convenient. And like I said, you can switch counselors at any time for no cost.
Alan Cross (1:28)
Here's the deal.
Alan Cross (1:29)
Listeners to this podcast get 10% off their first month@betterhelp.com ongoing that's betterhelp.com ongoing.
State Farm Announcer (1:40)
This episode is brought to you by State Farm. Checking off the boxes on your to do list is a great feeling. And when it comes to checking off coverage, a State Farm agent can help you choose an option that's right for you. Whether you prefer talking in person, person on the phone, or using the award winning app, it's nice knowing you have help finding coverage that best fits your needs. Like a good neighbor, State Farm is.
Bill Grundy (2:02)
There.
Alan Cross (2:06)
Every once in a while, something extraordinary happens in rock and roll. I hate to use the cliche of a perfect storm, but that's exactly what I'm talking about. A bunch of things involving culture and politics and demographics and economics and science and technology all collide and and mix in just the right way for something totally new and unexpected to be created. Let me give you some examples. Elvis came along in the 1950s just as millions of post War kids. These new constructs that were now being called teenagers began gravitating to new radio stations that played music derived from a mix of the blues, country and R and B. This music greatly annoyed their parents, something that made it dangerous and forbidden and therefore very attractive. In 1964, the Beatles appeared on the Ed Sullivan show with a fresh new sound that helped drag America out of the funk that followed the assassination of JFK. As far as rock is concerned, the 1960s really began that February night in 1964. Let's try something more current. You might remember the appearance of the music video in the early 1980s, which transformed the industry. Or the time you heard Smells Like Teen Spirit for the first time, and immediately even you knew that something, whatever it was coming next, would be very, very different. And hip hop, listen, don't get me started. There are people, academics, who will argue that the appearance of hip hop in popular culture was an even bigger deal than the Beatles. There's one other event that we need to include on this list, and that's the rise of punk rock in the middle 1970s. Now, as it was happening, it was, take it from me, no big deal. It was an aberration, a niche thing that indulged Weir and Misfits and Outliers. It's just noise, said the rock purists. Ignore it, it'll just go away. But it didn't. In fact, we're still talking about punk rock. And punk became more than just a form of music. It became a way of thinking and acting and creating and presenting its music and film, visual art, literature, dance, politics. It altered so much of Western thought, the punk aesthetic, that, screw you, I'm going to do it anyway. Ethos can be found virtually everywhere in society today. But what led to this? What were the factors that led to the rise of this music and this attitude? And how did it appear worldwide at virtually the same time, in an era long, long before the Internet? All these are great questions. Let's see if we can find the answer to the question, why did punk happen at all? This is the ongoing history of new music, the podcast edition with Alan Cross. Hello again, I'm Alan Cross. These days, we take punk rock and all its descendants for granted. For many of us, it's always been there. So what's the point of questioning its existence? Well, maybe there is no point, unless you want to know where today's alt rock came from and you're looking to predict what may happen to our music in the future. Yeah, there's going to be A lot of older music in this show, but I think if you're going to be a serious music fan, you need to know why things are the way they are. Let's start this deconstruction by looking at the socioeconomic factors behind one of the great musical big bangs in history. And we're going to begin in 1974. We could go back further, but 74 is where things really start to happen. This was a very turbulent time in Western society. The promises of the 1960s, with its hippie values of peace and love, had collapsed. Richard Nixon was a criminal and resigned in disgrace. The Vietnam War a disaster. The oil crisis had crippled the economies of the world, and the Middle east blew up into war with regularity. And of course, there was the Cold War, with the US and the Soviet Union always snarling at each other as cities went. New York was especially rotten. Crime, corruption, sleaze, filth, drugs, racial tensions. The city was literally going bankrupt and many neighborhoods were falling into decay and ruin. When the city asked the federal government for help, they were told, nope, it's your problem, you fix it. So there was plenty to be unhappy about. Music was in bad shape, too. There was prog rock with its virtuoso performances. That was a big thing, but it was hard for the average person to identify with that. Meanwhile, millionaire rock stars were living crazy, decadent lives and had lost all connection with the street. And then out in California, rock had gone all soft. The Eagles, Jackson Browne, Linda Ronstadt. But even that was preferable to what was being heard on AM radio. The top songs in 1974 were the Way We Were, from Barbra Streisand, Sunshine On My Shoulder from John Denver and the Entertainer, an instrumental piano ditty from the movie the Sting. Given the state of the planet, it all seemed horribly, horribly irrelevant. It was also tough being any kind of artist because you couldn't afford anything in the good parts of town. You ended up living in the parts of the city that weren't so good, like the Bowery. There were lots of buildings and lofts that one could get cheap. You could get a lot of space for a lot of people for maybe $150 a month. Maybe there wouldn't be a toilet or a shower or even heat in the wintertime. But hey, you know what? This was better than nothing. This was the situation when a crappy SCSI country, bluegrass and blues club called CBGB started allowing some newer rock oriented bands to play. These groups would play for whatever money that was collected at the door. The bar Kept all the alcohol sales and given the neighborhood, you know, was better than nothing. The two guys out front in this group were the first to persuade owner Hilly Crystal to let them and their ilk play. And before too long, this scuzzy bar turned into something of a scene from 1977. This is Tom Verlaine, Richard Lloyd and their band Telev Television, the New York group that can be credited with getting some kind of scene started at CBGB down in the Bowery, that awful, dirty, crime ridden part of New York. Beginning in about March 1974, CBGB slowly became known as a place where disaffected and alienated artists of all kinds could hang out. These were the people living in the area, attracted by the cheap rents. There was something about the shape of the room too. It was long and narrow, with a sparse stage and no dressing rooms. Because there wasn't a lot on the radio that was worth covering, most of the acts played original material. And because the people who hung out at CBGB were of the left wing, artsy, anti establishment persuasion, new experimental original material was given a chance and even encouraged. This brings us to the Ramones. Most people now look back on them as a straight ahead buzzsaw punk band, but that wouldn't be entirely correct. When they played their first show At CBGB in August 1974, they were absolutely terrible. No one knew if they were serious. What's with the haircuts and the leather jackets and the same last names? And how can you possibly play 15 songs in 20 minutes? Is this some kind of a joke? Well, no, they were. They were very serious. But because their goofiness was so unusual, they were accepted by the artsy crowd as some kind of grand artistic statement with a minimalist bent. Well, not really. That certainly wasn't their intent. The Ramones never thought of it as something like that. They never thought it through at all. But you know what didn't matter? The Ramones from their 1976 debut album. On any given night back then, you could drop in to see them at cbgb. But not all of New York punk was loud and fast. Maybe you'd catch a set by television, which of course was a lot more artsy, or maybe you'd wander into a bar and hear something like this, which was. Well, it was just different. The talking heads from 1977 with Psycho Killer. So here's what's happening in New York City in 1974-1975. Alienated artists of all stripes, musicians, poets, writers, painters, sculptors, are all driven by economic circumstances to crappy areas of the city where they made the best of it. A music community begins to form around a few clubs like CBGB where like minded types begin to hang out and mingle and collaborate. And undisturbed by the rest of the music world, some interesting things begin to grow. Eventually word gets out and groups like the Ramones and the Talking Heads and Television and Blondie and Patti Smith get record deals and their music begins to be distributed beyond New York. Some of those records make it to the uk and that's where we're going next.