Prog & Punk - Connection??

Geez, you guys must be youngins...

My high school was all either Zep, Pink Floyd fans.. or the american CSN&Y, James Taylor, the Eagles, type..  I had a group of friends and we were basically into ELP, Yes, Crimson & Floyd.  With a little James Taylor thrown in for me... Of course, I ran off with ELP the summer before my senior year.. so I'm sure if I'd actually gone back I could of convinced a few of them of the pleasures in listening to ELP.

I did finish my senior year in NYC with help from my friends.. even got a BBA after the birth of my son...

 

James Lee wrote: emdiar wrote: My fave punk tracks are "The Day Before" and "The Ungovernable Farce" from "The Ungovernable Force", by Conflict. They mix thrash punk anarchy with concept album formats and a proggy attitude to arrangements. They have also recorded at the Enids studio, borrowing RJG's keyboards. http://www.conflict.org.uk/music.cfm ps. Punk Poetry? John Cooper Clarke's yer man. Woohoo- a Conflict fan! "Force or Service" is my fav track from that album- are you into Crass too? "Reality Asylum" is one of the scariest songs I've ever heard

Yeah, but hold on a cotton pickin' minute, a Conflict fan, Stateside?? What gives buddie?

edit: sorry, I learned my Americanisms from black and white B movies.

Edited by emdiar

Crass.Someone at work at work once lent me one of their albums.It was the musical equivalent of a painfull joke but without the joke bit. 

James Lee wrote: I'm starting to get the feeling that richardh is not a big fan of punk

Actually I did like some of it.But the bands were arrogant.The likes of Keith Emerson built there reputations over a period of some 10 years or so just to see the punks gob all over them in the space of a few months or so.Still that said I can name a number of punk records I like:

Anarchy In The UK - The Sex Pistols

Nice N Sleazy - The Stranglers

Mirage - Siouxsie and The Banshees

Gary Gilmore Eyes - The Adverts

Down In A Tube Station at Midnight - The Jam

New Rose - The Damned

Shot From Both Sides - Magazine 

Doesn't mean I have any respect for the 'artists' or the genre though!

 

Well as I said before somewhere here... I got proposed to by a very drunk Rat Scabies...  Actually I had a paying job as babysitter to "The Damned" on their first trip to the US.  I've never seen anyone, including Keith Richards, who needed a dentist more than Rat.

I also knew Sid Vicious and Nancy.  They were Max's regulars for awhile and lived near me in the Chelsea Hotel. Nancy had one of those mental disorders where she would go off the wall into these temper tamtrums.. and Sid would just slap the sh*t out of her to get her back.  Strange... 

I never liked Punk either... they couldn't play an instrument..they lacked personality, and they all looked so god awful unhealthy....

richardh wrote: Anarchy In The UK - The Sex Pistols The Sex Pistol first single,in the original indie version is reputed to have Chris Spedding play the lead opening - the rest of the band weren't up to it. Chris Spedding who played with Nucleus 4 or 5 years before, then the Sharks before the punk period. Down In A Tube Station at Midnight - The Jam I'm most curious how the Jam's Paul Weller has become the master of retro rock in the last ten years - Wild Wood was a favourite early 90's album, which has  reminded me of an updated Family album. Further Paul Weller was playing guitar for Robert Wyatt on  a live-for-TV concert put out by BBC4 last year. New Rose - The Damned Have you heard the Tubes' take on the Beatles' I Saw Her Standing There using New Rose's riff!!!

Dick Heath wrote: richardh wrote: Anarchy In The UK - The Sex Pistols The Sex Pistol first single,in the original indie version is reputed to have Chris Spedding play the lead opening - the rest of the band weren't up to it. Chris Spedding who played with Nucleus 4 or 5 years before, then the Sharks before the punk period.

I remember Chris Spedding.He had a few hits including the interestingly titled 'Get Out Of My Pagoda'.

 

Interestingly, Howard Devoto was formerly Howard Trafford of the Buzzcocks. Just thought I'd mention that for any Devoto fans who didn't know

Chris Spedding did indeed play for the Sex Pistols, although more in the role of producer. Apparently he lent Steve Jones his amp during a couple of the recording sessions, and tried to get a mix that highlighted how well the band could play (Jones, Cook and Matlock were all session musicians, TTBOMK). He particularly wanted to highlight Matlock's bass runs - but, of course, one of the Pistols' main "selling points" was the fact that they "could not play". The facts were that all the band members were more than a little competent - although not exactly masters of their craft!

Like almost everything else about the Pistols, this was just part of the early hype - one way that the phenomenon of punk can be seen as progressive is that the band concentrated on everything EXCEPT the actual music, honing the publicity to the point where it was the image that sold the band and very little else. Although it has to be said that the songs are good and stand the test of time as great rock - just another little irony!

I wrote the above before Googling to check my facts, and turned up this article.

http://www.guitarworld.com/artistindex/9608.pistols.html

If it contradicts anything I've said above, well, it's my research and understanding against Alan Di Pernas!

There's also this short piece at chrisspedding.com;

http://www.chrisspedding.com/session/sp/sp.htm

 

Edited by Certif1ed

Very little has been said about punk that wasn't said about rock and roll when it first appeared. Check out the majority of music critics writing between 1955 and 1967 (and even later).

"Rock 'n Roll: The most brutal, ugly, desperate, vicious form of expression it has been my misfortune to hear." - Frank Sinatra (a man who was personally acquainted with viciousness and brutality)

Well, I'm gonna stop defending punk here- it's just a shame the image worked so well that it stopped a lot of people from discovering some truly wonderful music.

 

 

richardh wrote: [QUOTE=Dick Heath] [QUOTE=richardh] I remember Chris Spedding.He had a few hits including the interestingly titled 'Get Out Of My Pagoda'.

Apparently having been an in-demand  session guitarist, best known for coming out for Nucleus and the Sharks - and not forgetting  stepping into Dave Gilmour's shoes for Roy Harper's HQ album  - he became a punk rocker of sorts hence Pagoda. Last heard as hired guitarist for Roxy Music .

Talking of who, spotted a new Phil Manzanera album in the shops yesterday, with Robert Wyatt amongst the list of guest musicians. And Robert Wyatt of all people, is a Mercury Music Prize nominee for 2004!!!