Punk
(druggy) lyrics are delivered, these groups lack the sheer aggression so closely associated with punk and are evidently aiming to conjure up a completely different sound world.
By the late sixties, however, it was Detroit bands, the Stooges and the MC5, which became foremost in the development of ‘punk rock’. The Stooges’ 1969 debut was unlike anything else around at the time, with music critic, Mark Deming adding that ‘the band managed the difficult feat of sounding ahead of their time and entirely out of their time, all at once’. 41 While the album generated some attention in the underground press, their music was ‘too weird and too dangerous to break into the mainstream’. 42 Indeed, the Stooges, in a decade so musically dominated by optimism, ‘pushed rock’n’roll farther and deeper’ than ever before ‘into the nihilistic canyon’. 43 The bleakness of their vision is reflected in the song’s lyrics, such as in the album’s opener, 1969 , which explores boredom and aimlessness (Last year, I was 21 / I didn’t have a lot of fun / And now I’m gonna be 22 / I say, ‘ oh my ’ and ‘ boohoo ’ ). Everything about the music reinforces the pervading sense of cynicism-laced swagger – the rhythm section is primitive and stomping; the fuzztone lends Ron Asheton’s ‘brutal’, ‘concise’ guitar runs a cold, biting quality; and Iggy’s ‘vividly blank vocals’ give a off a ‘wealth of palpable arrogance’. 44 The profoundly punk sensibility of this record is only compounded by Iggy’s alienatingly antagonistic showmanship, which involved him ‘smear[ing] steaks and peanut butter on his body, cut[ting] himself with glass, and div[ing] into the audience’. 45 Iggy Pop has often been dubbed the ‘godfather of punk’, and this record most certainly lives up to his epithet, clearly making the record deserving of the title ‘punk rock’. 46 The MC5’s 1969 seminal debut album, Kick Out the Jams was recorded live in Detroit's Grande Ballroom, with it being suggested that no live recording has captured the primal elements of rock more than the MC5’s inaugural effort’. 47 The band’s attitude is undeniably ‘punk rock’; the titular track begins with Rob Tyner’s revolution -inspiring call, ‘ kick out the jams, motherfuckers! ’ , the profanity of which resulted in Hudson’s department stores refusing to stock the album. 48 The LP was recorded amid great social unrest in America – discontent was brewing over the Vietnam war, and Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination had sparked nationwide rioting. 49 As such, the record reeks of youthful frustration and rebellion. Indeed, the MC5 was a highly political band, whose blunt, outspoken mode of political criticism – often relying on shock factor – was surely an influence on punk rock. Controversy surrounded the band; their manager was John Sinclair, founder of the militant leftist organization, The White Panthers , and their provocative onstage stunts included ‘removing their clothes and burning the U.S. flag’. 50 The music itself is equally as incendiary, with one critic describing the record as an ‘aural attack’. 51 Yet it is the record’s sound, however, which most threatens its status as ‘punk rock’ – the drum
41 allmusic.com, The Stooges – The Stooges , [online]. 42 open.spotify.com, The Stooges , [online]. 43 Robb, PUNK ROCK: AN ORAL HISTORY , 40. 44 allmusic.com, The Stooges – The Stooges , [online].
45 open.spotify.com, The Stooges , [online]. 46 Robb, PUNK ROCK: AN ORAL HISTORY , 40. 47 popmatters.com, MC5: Kick out the Jams, [online]. 48 rollingstone.com, 500 Greatest Albums of All Time: MC5, ‘Kick Out the Jams’, [online]. 49 popmatters.com, MC5: Kick out the Jams, [online]. 50 variety.com, John Sinclair, Former MC5 Manager and Activist, Dies at 82 , [online]; time.com, Rock: The Revolutionary Hype , [online]. 51 popmatters.com, MC5: Kick out the Jams, [online].
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