When I was a teenager, my mother had some strange ideas about punk rock, namely that it was somehow "evil" or some shit, I don't know exactly WHAT she thought of it, but she was very much against it.
I didn't understand punk rock too well myself, what I did know at the time was that I generally liked punkers, but because my mother was so dead set against it, and because I was deathly afraid of my mother (she hit pretty fucking hard, after all), I didn't explore punk rock much beyond the prefunctory Suicidal Tendencies album, which, after hearing "I Saw Your Mommie (and Your Mommie's Dead) my mother smashed all to shit, along with Motley Crue's "Shout At the Devil."
Now, at the time, the Motley Crue album represented the greater loss to my somewhat limited LP library. Yes, I was a metalhead, no, CDs didn't exist yet, but unlike my metalhead/LP cohorts — many of whom still attempt to live "back in the day" — I grew out of that shit, and now I consider the era to have been one of the worst eras musically that has ever, or is likely to ever, exist. My apologies to Rush, the only exceedingly excellent rock band from "back in the day." Rush, along with AC/DC and the occasional Iron Maiden are the only long-ago favorite bands of mine that I can still listen to today without feeling vaugely stupid for having worshipped them. All of those other bands suck ass, which brings me to my mother's fallicious dislike of punk.
Of course, I can't go off on the subject of punk rock without mentioning politics. I, along with a vast number of my politically apathetic generational age mates, never really understood punk, at least not until after 9/11 and we all suddenly sought to gain deeper understandings of the political processes and dealings that has left the US such a disliked country worldwide.
Article comments
1 - godoggo
You can always get a weave.
2 - D.B. Cooper
lol....a well written, interesting take Melisande. I loved the detail and laughed several times. Having grown up in the 1980s, I could relate to much of this. I saw a lot of bands in back in the day, including X, The Clash, Black Flag, Minor Threat, TSOL, The Butthole Surfers, Youth Brigade, The Misfits, The Gun Club, The Circle Jerks, so on and so forth......These days it was all a haze, however, I watched a fantastic documentary on The Sex Pistols called The Sound and the Fury -- I hope that's right. It details the early days of punk rock during the 1970s in England. It is quite profound, and it took me back to a time I had nearly forgotten. For a brief moment, I felt the anger again. Worth a look.
3 - D.B. Cooper
My apologies - The Filth and the Fury....
4 - DAD
good job dude, a good read, though i was not in the 80's i am a "punk", i do have the blue hawk and i am 20 and i do make 50,000. a year and u are the first person that i have ready to see as much into the punk calture as u did, i get alot of flack from people because of all these people on "tv" dressing like punks, punk is not a style nor can u just be it u are or u arn't and i am happy to see people still live the same as they did in the 80's....Rock'on Fucker