Why Punk Happened

Summary

Ongoing History of New Music – “Why Punk Happened”

Host: Alan Cross (Curiouscast)
Date: September 10, 2025
Main Theme:
Alan Cross dives into the origins of punk rock, examining the complex social, economic, political, and cultural conditions in the mid-1970s that gave rise to this transformative genre in New York, London, Toronto, Los Angeles, and San Francisco. The episode explores how punk’s sound and rebellious attitude not only shook up music but also influenced art, fashion, politics, and youth culture globally.

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Overview

Alan Cross contextualizes punk as one of rock’s major evolutionary leaps, contrasting it with previous musical “big bangs” like Elvis and The Beatles. He identifies punk as both an unexpected eruption ("a perfect storm") and a necessary reaction to a world undergoing socio-economic crisis and creative stagnation in popular music.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

The “Perfect Storm” for a Musical Revolution

• Historical Parallels:
  • Elvis in the '50s: Sparked by demographic and technological shifts, responded to postwar youth culture ([02:06]).
  • The Beatles in 1964: Brought optimism post-JFK assassination ([02:06]).
  • MTV and music video culture in the ‘80s, Nirvana in the ‘90s, Hip-hop’s emergence ([02:06]).
• Punk’s Addition to the List:
  • “There’s one other event we need to include on this list, and that’s the rise of punk rock in the middle 1970s.” — Alan Cross [02:06]
• Punk as initially dismissed but ultimately world-changing:
  “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.” — Alan Cross [02:06]

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New York: Punk’s Incubator

• Socio-Economic Turmoil ([04:00]):
  • New York was bankrupt and crime-ridden; artists were forced into cheap neighborhoods (the Bowery).
  • Music scene was stagnant, with little on mainstream radio to inspire.
• CBGB & Early Scene ([05:30]):
  • Venue began featuring new rock-oriented bands; artists attracted by cheap rent, mingled in a long, dingy bar.
  • “CBGB slowly became known as a place where disaffected and alienated artists of all kinds could hang out.” — Alan Cross [07:06]
• Founding Bands:
  • Television, The Ramones, Talking Heads, Blondie, Patti Smith.
    • The Ramones’ first show at CBGB (August 1974): “They were absolutely terrible… How can you possibly play 15 songs in 20 minutes? Is this some kind of joke?” [08:30]
    • Artsy crowd saw the Ramones’ minimalist approach as an artistic statement, even if the band itself hadn’t intellectualized their style ([09:00]).
• Scene’s Expansion:
  • “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.” — Alan Cross [10:20]
  • These New York bands eventually caught the attention of UK listeners ([10:50]).

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London: Punk and the Power of Shock

• More Severe Economic Crisis ([14:13]):
  • Britain still reeling post-WWII; rampant unemployment, strikes, rolling blackouts.
  • Deeply entrenched class system and rigid, formal social structures.
• Youth Alienation:
  • Hopelessness among young people; little upward mobility, few jobs.
• The Bill Grundy Incident ([17:00]):
  • The Sex Pistols’ infamous December 1, 1976, live TV appearance on ITV’s “Today,” punctuated by drunkenness, swearing, and on-air scandal.
    • Key exchange:
      • Grundy: “Are you serious or are you just making me laugh?”
      • Sex Pistols: “Oh yeah… Beethoven, Mozart, wonderful people. They really turn us on.” [19:45]
    • Grundy’s career ended, and British tabloids put “punk” on the front page nationwide the next day ([21:17]).
  • Significance:
    “While all the respectable people tried to recover from this horror, a lot of those alienated young people thought, ‘Oy, this is alright, let’s have more of this then.’ And so it began.” — Alan Cross [21:17]
• British Punk’s Unique Anger:
  • Driven by class antagonism, political outrage, and a desire to “destroy the status quo.”
  • “It gave a sense of power to the powerless.” — Alan Cross [23:00]
• Legacy:
  • Punk peaked during the “Winter of Discontent” (1978–79), after which Margaret Thatcher became prime minister, her policies ensuring punk’s political tone lasted for years.
  • The Clash exemplified the movement: “The Clash with Janie Jones, side one, track one of their debut record from 1977, the Winter of Discontent…” ([24:21]).

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Punk’s Parallel Scenes: Toronto, LA, San Francisco

Toronto ([26:35])

• Socio-economic shocks:
  • Economic downturn, growing separatist tensions in Quebec, rising violent crime.
  • “Yonge street was a seedy place where no respectable person went.”
  • Sensational murder case (Emmanuel Jacques) shattered the city’s moral image.
• Punk’s Arrival:
  • Message caught on quickly; Toronto became the “third leg of a triangle that extended through both New York and London.”
  • Bands: The Viletones (first Canadian punk single, May 1977), with a vibrant albeit small scene.

Los Angeles

• Natural Home for Outcasts:
  • Noted for alienation, big city sprawl.
  • “As soon as the Ramones and some of the other New York bands started releasing records...LA took to punk very quickly.” — Alan Cross ([28:00])
• The Masque:
  • Central venue, home to X, The Germs, The Blasters, The Dills, and early punk-era Go-Go’s ([29:00]).
  • The Nerves released “Hanging on the Telephone” (1976), later reinterpreted by Blondie.

San Francisco

• Diverse Influences:
  • Mixed hippie, art, and political leanings; produced eclectic sounds.
  • First wave: The Avengers, The Nuns, The Dead Kennedys — the latter “helped set the table for what would later be called hardcore.” ([31:22])

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Pivotal & Memorable Moments

• On New York Punk’s “Art School” Nature:
  “Most people now look back on [the Ramones] as a straight ahead buzzsaw punk band, but that wouldn’t be entirely correct… 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.”
  — Alan Cross [08:30]

• On the Explosion after Bill Grundy:
  “The entire kingdom knew about punk rock… what had been a tiny, tiny, tiny scene all of a sudden was seeing a massive influx of adherents in all parts of the country.” — Alan Cross [22:10]

• On Punk’s Political Edge:
  “British punk went beyond just mere music. It involved kicking against the upper classes in the monarchy. It was about shocking the older generations. It was about challenging all manner of established institutions. It was all about destroying the status quo. In short, it gave a sense of power to the powerless.” — Alan Cross [23:00]

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Notable Quotes & Timestamps

• “It was an aberration… said the rock purists. ‘Ignore it, it’ll just go away.’ But it didn’t. In fact, we’re still talking about punk rock.”
  — Alan Cross ([02:06])

• “CBGB slowly became known as a place where disaffected and alienated artists of all kinds could hang out.”
  — Alan Cross ([07:06])

• “By 6:18pm Bill Grundy's TV career was over and everyone was talking about those filthy young men on the telly.”
  — Alan Cross ([20:30])

• Sex Pistols, on live TV:

  • Grundy: “Are you serious or are you just making me laugh?”
  • Sex Pistols: “Oh yeah… Beethoven, Mozart, wonderful people. They really turn us on.” ([19:45])
  • Grundy: “Well, keep going chief… Say something outrageous.”
  • Sex Pistols: “Dirty bastard… dirty old man.” ([20:10])

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Structural Timeline of Key Segments

| Timestamp | Segment | |-----------|--------------------------------------------------| | 02:06 | Punk as a “perfect storm”; context of other musical revolutions | | 05:30 | Economic & social overview of 1970s New York | | 07:06 | The rise of CBGB and New York punk’s “big bang” | | 08:30 | The Ramones’ early days and scene-building | | 10:20 | Expansion of New York punk’s reach | | 14:13 | UK economic, political climate, and class struggle| | 17:00 | The Bill Grundy/Sex Pistols incident | | 19:45 | Transcript of Bill Grundy/Sex Pistols exchange | | 21:17 | Public outrage and the explosion of UK punk | | 23:00 | Punk’s role in giving “power to the powerless” | | 24:21 | The Clash and Margaret Thatcher’s rise | | 26:35 | Punk’s growth in Toronto | | 28:00 | Los Angeles scene and The Masque club | | 29:00 | The Nerves and LA-to-NY cross-pollination | | 31:22 | San Francisco punk, The Dead Kennedys | | 32:35 | Elvis Costello’s SNL rebellion; punk’s American impact|

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Conclusion

Alan Cross’s episode serves as an accessible, vivid primer on the birth and spread of punk. He emphasizes punk’s origins in alienation and adversity, drawing connections between the scene’s divergent developments in America, the UK, and beyond. Ultimately, punk is portrayed as a necessary, explosive correction to a stagnant music and social culture — a “big bang” whose aftershocks continue to shape music today.

“Today’s music and today’s musical attitudes didn’t just happen. It’s all the result of years and years of evolution and mutation. And if you’re an alt rock fan, you cannot understand what’s happening now if you don’t look back to where it all came from… As far as alternative music is concerned, its big bang moment was in the mid-1970s and we’re still feeling the effects today.”
— Alan Cross ([33:00])

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For listeners new to the story of punk or alt-rock, this episode is both highly informative and entertaining—packed with anecdotes, historical color, and cultural reflections, all delivered in Alan Cross’s characteristic narrative style.

Transcript

[Alan Cross]

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.

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[Bill Grundy]

There.

[Alan Cross]

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.

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, BetterHelp makes counseling affordable and convenient. And like I said, you can switch counselors at any time for no cost.

Here's the deal.

Listeners to this podcast get 10% off their first [e-mail] ongoing. That's betterhelp.com ongoing.

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[Alan Cross]

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[Alan Cross]

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[Alan Cross]

We're back with a look at the question why did punk happen? Its sound and influence can be found virtually everywhere in society today. But why did it happen in the first place? We started with all the economic, social, political and demographic reasons behind the birth of a small scene in the Bowery of New York, a place where no one else wanted to go. The weirdos had found a safe place of their own and they really, really liked it. The music they made was experimental and non commercial, at least by the standards of the time, but found a welcoming audience. The scene was left to its own devices, some would say ignored, but that was the best thing that could have possibly happened. In England, though, things were rather different. English punk was very, very different from what was happening in America. While punk was more of an art statement in New York, it was fueled by politics and the class system in the uk. Let me paint you a picture of Great Britain in 1975. As bad as the economy in the US was, it was worse in the UK. Even though the war had been over for 30 years, the empire had still not recovered. There were still areas with bombed out buildings. The government had run out of money thanks to a welfare state system that had been derailed by the oil crisis of 1973. Industrial production and manufacturing was in steep decline. Three day work weeks were introduced as a money saving measure and it seemed that just about every single union, from miners to garbage collectors to bakers to grave diggers to hospital workers went on strike. There was so much pressure on the pound that the bank of England spent all of its foreign reserves trying to prop up the currency and needed a Greek style bailout from the International Monetary Fund. There were scheduled rolling blackouts. Areas would receive notification as to when the electricity would be cut. If you knew, for example, that your neighborhood was going to be without power after 3pm on a Tuesday, then you had to make sure that you did all your cooking for the next day or so before then. The class system was Firmly entrenched. Opportunity and advancement was linked to birth, not ability. And then there was the monarchy. Someone once told me this story that illustrates just how formal things were. When the Queen delivered her annual message on Christmas Day, all activity in houses across the kingdom would stop. People would just halt whatever they were doing so they could pay attention. Some older people would stand in front of the TV and salute, remaining that way until Her Majesty had finished speaking. Young people were crushed by this recession. They couldn't find work. Unemployment soared. Hopelessness set in. Millions had resigned themselves to a life of living on the dole. There had to be something better than this, right? By the end of 1975, word had drifted across the Atlantic that something was happening in New York. Some kids picked up on this, but they kept mostly to themselves and they were pretty much ignored by everyone else. Now we're actually literally talking about groups of young people who numbered in the dozens. That's it. That's how small this scene was. But then something happened that suddenly and unexpectedly brought English style punk rock to the rest of the country. And for this context, is everything. In December 1976, there were three TV channels in the UK, BBC One, BBC Two, and the Independent ITV. With so few TV channels, TV personalities were rare things and big stars. And one of those big stars was a guy named Bill Grundy, who hosted a suppertime talk show on ITV called Today Now. Bill was the real thing, kind of like, I don't know, the Oprah of his day. He was the first TV host to present the Beatles back in 62. And later he hosted several other national TV shows. And then came Today on December 1, 1976. His guests were supposed to be the members of Queen, but at the last second they had to cancel. Everybody seems to recall it was because somebody in the band needed to be rushed to the dentist with a bad toothache. I think it was Freddie Mercury. But because this was live television, a substitute guest had to be found straight away. Someone in Bill Grundy's office got ahold of Malcolm McLaren, the manager of a new group called the Sex Pistols, who had just released their debut single a week earlier. He called them at their rehearsal space and told them that a limo was coming round to collect them for an appearance on Bill Grundy's show. The Pistols, always keen to have a laugh, called some of their friends and they all piled into the limo with many, many, many bottles of wine, most of which were gone by the time they reached the studio. So here's what happens, the band and all Their hangers on, all quite drunk, were escorted onto the set. Grundy, who was also known to tipple before and during a show, wasn't really keen on having these yabos on his program. So there was tension from the beginning. Most importantly though, was that today wasn't on any kind of tape delay. There was no opportunity to censor anything before it went out to millions of living rooms across the nation. And that's where things all went horribly wrong. Well, for Bill anyway. It was 6:15pm Wednesday, December 1, 1976. By 6:18pm Bill Grundy's TV career was over and everyone was talking about those filthy young men on the telly.

[Bill Grundy]

I am told that that group have received £40,000 from a record company. Doesn't that seem to be slightly opposed to their anti materialistic view of life? More the merrier, really. Oh yeah. Well, tell me more about it. I don't know. Have you? Yeah, it's all gone. Really, dan? A loser. 40? Really? Good Lord. Now I want to know one thing. What? Are you serious or are you just making me trying to make me laugh? Really? No, but I mean about what you're doing. Oh yeah. You are serious. Beethoven, Mozart. Really? What are we saying, sir? Wonderful people. Are they? Oh yes. They really turn us on. What? They do? Well, suppose they turn other people on. That's just their time. It's what? Nothing. A rude word. Next question. No, no. What was the rude word? Was it really good heaven you wrote me today? What about you girls behind? Are you, Granddad? Are you worried? Or are you just enjoying yourself? Enjoying myself, are you? Yeah, that's what I thought you were doing. I always wanted to meet you. Did you really? We'll meet afterwards, shall we? You dirty son. You dirty old man. Well, keep going, chief. Keep going. You've got another five seconds. Say something outrageous. Dirty bastard. Again. You dirty. What a clever boy. What a rocker. Well, that's it for tonight. The other rocker, Abel, and I'm saying nothing else about him, will be back tomorrow. I'll be seeing you soon. I hope I'm not seeing you again. Prompt me though. Good night.

[Alan Cross]

Here's where we need to discuss context. Families all around Great Britain were having supper with the TV on when this happened. These yabos had sworn on television making a mockery of dear Bill Grundy. The shock, the outrage and the indignation hit the country like a nuclear bomb. And the next day all the newspapers had headlines that screamed about this horrible scourge called punk rock. While all the respectable people tried to recover from this horror. A lot of those alienated young people thought, oy, this is alright, let's have more of this then. And so it began. The Sex Pistols with Anarchy in the uk, a single that barely troubled the bottom of the charts after it was released on November 26, 1976, and before their appearance on the Today show with Bill Grundy. They were a minor curiosity, just as all these other new edgy groups were. But a week later, December 2, 1976, the day after the Bill Grundy appearance, the entire kingdom knew about punk rock. And what had been a tiny, tiny, tiny scene all of a sudden was seeing a massive influx of adherents in all parts of the country. British punk went beyond just mere music. It involved kicking against the upper classes in the monarchy. It was about shocking the older generations. It was about challeng manner of established institutions. It was all about destroying the status quo. In short, it gave a sense of power to the powerless. The following summers were stinkin hot, and that only contributed to the misery the people of Britain felt in Manchester. The 100-year-old sewer system began to crumble. So much of the city had to deal with an awful lingering smell during those terrible heat waves. And just when it couldn't get any weirder, it did. After decades of what was known as the Post War Consensus, an era where the left and right and British government got along, the whole thing collapsed. For the past half dozen years or so, the political right had begun to blame the welfare state created by the Post War consensus for the UK's economic woes. We can't keep spending our way out of trouble, they said. And things just got worse. The winter of 1978-79 was known as the Winter of Discontent. Not only was the country paralyzed by strikes, but it was the coldest winter in 15 years. There were blizzards, not good in a land of rolling blackouts and coal shortages. All this simply increased the heat of punk. It went from being this innocuous sort of thing into a genuine counterculture.

[Bill Grundy]

Let them know, Let them know.

[Alan Cross]

The Clash with Janie Jones, side one, track one of their debut record from 1977, the Winter of Discontent, shattered the left's hold on power in Britain and the Conservatives took over. Margaret Thatcher became prime minister on May 4, 1979, and the Iron Lady's efforts to get things under control did nothing to endear her to British punks. And even though punk rock was burning out, Lady Thatcher's tough tactics made sure that a huge swath of British music remained very political. And very critical of her for years to come. But that's actually another story. So there's a brief lesson on what led to punk rock in the uk. In a moment, we'll wing back to North America to figure out exactly what happened here. Tron Aries has arrived. I would like you to meet Ares, the ultimate AI soldier. He is biblically strong and supremely intelligent.

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[Nancy Hickst]

The 70s, four young women were found dead for nearly 50 years, their cases went cold. I'm Nancy Hickst, a senior crime reporter for Global News. In the season finale of Crime Beat, I share how investigators uncovered shocking evidence of a serial killer and hear exclusive interviews with the killer's family. Listen to the full season of Crime Beat early and ad free on Amazon Music by asking Alexa to play the podcast Crime Beat.

[Alan Cross]

We're back in the middle 70s for this program trying to show why punk happened. If you're going to understand today's alt rock, this is really important stuff. It explains part of why our music is the way it is. To recap, punk started in New York as a low key, artsy sort of thing. From there it made its way to the uk where it took on a life of its own, fueled by class warfare and politics. But there were at least three other cities where punk rock took root, and Toronto was one of them. Like everywhere else in the middle to late 70s, Canada was having a really rough time economically. The Parti Quebecois had been elected in Quebec in 1976 and had let it be known that they wanted to carve Quebec away from the rest of Canada. Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau was seen as increasingly arrogant and unable to fix the economy. National debt exploded, interest rates were on their way up, and in some ways Toronto was rotting like New York. Yonge street was a seedy place where no respectable person went. And then there was the sexual assault and murder of Emmanuel Jacques, a 12 year old Portuguese immigrant who was lured into an apartment above a massage parlor where he was raped over a 12 hour period before being drowned in a sink. This was hugely shocking to a city that considered itself good, moral and proper. A place where it was tough to get a drink or anything else on a Sunday. It was ripe for a shakeup. And when the notion of punk rock was planted, it grew quickly. Although the scene was very tiny, it was enough. And Toronto ended up forming the third leg of a triangle that extended through both New York and London. There was this constant back and forth of bands between the city and New York and. And when bands came over from the uk, they had to play Toronto. Toronto punk wasn't as artsy as New York punk. And it certainly wasn't as political or as class conscious as what they would do in the uk. But man, it could still be really, really angry. Toronto chose the Vile Tones. Some people remember that as the first ever Canadian punk rock single. It was released sometime in May of 1977. There were punk rock scenes in other Canadian cities. Hamilton, London, Winnipeg, Vancouver. But none of them were quite as big as what took root in Toronto. Then there was Los Angeles. Louisiana had always been a place for the alienated, the outcast and the weird. So it was a natural place for punk to land. As soon as the Ramones and some of the other New York bands started releasing records, and as soon as a few Sex Pistol singles were spread around by the right people, LA took to punk very quickly again. We have the recurring themes of alienation and hopelessness mixed with the desire to kick the crap out of the status quo and the established music industry. And because LA had its own version of cbgb, it didn't take long for some kind of scene to establish itself. The Mask was on Hollywood Boulevard. The owner was a Scotsman named Brendan Mullen. This was the home to places like X, the Germs, the Blasters, the Dills, the Screamers, the Weirdos, the Zeros. And it was also a rehearsal home for an all girl punk band called the Go Gos. Yes, them, they were very punk before they became pop. The mask opened in 1977 and closed in 1979. Very short run, but it was essential to the development of SoCal Punk. Let me play you this. The nerves were part of this LA scene and. And in 1976 they released a four track EP that featured this song that later traveled east, where it was picked up in New York by Blondie, who then had a hit single with it.

[Bill Grundy]

Don't leave Me Hanging on the Telephone. Don't leave me Hanging on the Telephone.

[Alan Cross]

That's the original version of that song, the nerves with Hanging on the Telephone, which later became a hit for Blondie, who brought it to the artsy punks in New York. The last city worth talking about when it comes to the original punk rock explosion is San Francisco. It has long been a place for the left leaning and the radical. In fact, you could make an argument that San Francisco punk was the most eclectic of all the punk that we saw back then. It often combined the best of the artsy side of things with the best of the angry side. And of course there was the hippie side with its drug culture and left wing politics. The result was some very interesting experimentation which set the stage for later rock, new wave and technopop sounds. First wave punk bands from San Francisco included the Avengers, the Nuns and the Dead Kennedys.

[Bill Grundy]

Pole pop, pop, pop.

[Alan Cross]

The highly political Dead Kennedys, a Bay Area punk band that helped set the table for what would later be called hardcore. And finally, I want to play you the closest thing North America has to the Bill grundy episode. In December 1978, the Sex Pistols were booked to play this new show on NBC called Saturday Night Live. However, they ran into visa problems and were replaced at the last second on the show, but by this geeky guy from England named Elvis Costello. Now you can play the show, the producer said, if you promise not to play your song. Radio, radio, you gotta understand that Saturday Night Live is on NBC. NBC owns a lot of radio stations and your song is insulting towards radio programmers. So we would really appreciate it if you kept your performance to one of your British singles, please. Elvis said, okay. But then this is what happened on December 17, 1978. And as we saw with the Sex Pistols and live television, sometimes weird things can happen. I'm sorry, ladies and gentlemen, there's no reason to do this song here. This was another one of those why are things the way they are shows. Today's music and today's musical attitudes didn't just happen. It's all the result of years and years of evolution and mutation. And if you're an alt rock fan, you cannot understand what's happening now. If you don't look back to where it all came from. As far as alternative music is concerned, its big bang moment was in the mid-1970s and we're still feeling the effects today. Think about that. The Next time you hear anything on the radio, if you want to reach me anytime, try AllenAllencross CA I'm kind of obsessive about answering my email. You can also find me at my website, which is called A Journal of Musical Things. That's a journal of musicalthings.com I'm also very obsessive about that, updating it every single day with as many as a dozen posts, sometimes even more. My wife wonders why I disappeared to the office for so long. To keep up to date, go to the website and sign up for the free newsletter, which will appear in your inbox by 10am Eastern every weekday. Technical Productions by Rob Johnston I'm Alan cross. Your sausage McMuffin with egg didn't change your receipt, did the sausage McMuffin with egg extra Value meal includes a hash brown and a small coffee for just $5 only at McDonald's for a limited time.

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