Combat Rock: A History of Punk (From It's Origins to the Present)

By BookCaps

Bands from Jimmy Eat World to Green Day have one thing in common--they would be nothing without punk.

This book explores punks earliest roots and takes the reader all the way to the present--from Second Wave and New Wave to Oi! and Punk, it's all here. Along the way, you will read all about the feuds, the gossip, and the rock and roll partying.

HistoryCaps is an imprint of BookCaps Study Guides. With each book, a brief period of history is recapped. We publish a wide array of topics (from baseball and music to science and philosophy), so check our growing catalogue regularly to see our newest books.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookCaps
• Release date: Jul 26, 2012
• ISBN: 9781476200040

BookCaps

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Book preview

HistoryCaps Presents:

Combat Rock

A History of Punk

From It's Origins to the Present

By Lora Greene

Golgotha Press

By HistoryCaps/BookCaps Study Guides

© 2011 by Golgotha Press, Inc.

Published at SmashWords

About HistoryCaps

HistoryCaps is an imprint of BookCaps™ Study Guides. With each book, a brief period of history is recapped. We publish a wide array of topics (from baseball and music to science and philosophy), so check our growing catalogue regularly (www.bookcaps.com) to see our newest books.

Introduction

In the waning days of the 20th century, disaffected kids with no prospects accidentally started a revolution. What began as a new way to pass the time would go on to influence thousands, maybe even millions of people across the world, people who had been left behind by a world obsessed with a pretty narrow notion of success. Some of these kids became household names, some of them became nothing remarkable, but all of them were forever changed by this strange new music called punk rock.

Where did punk rock come from? Where is it going? There are a hundred different answers to these questions, none of them right or wrong. But maybe by exploring some of the signposts along the way, this book will shed a little light on what punk rock meant to the people whose lives were changed by it. Whether first discovered in 1977, 1989, or 2012 (and beyond), punk rock meant a lot of different things to a lot of different people. Lester Bangs, the legendary music writer and early supporter of punk rock, summed it up more succinctly than most:

At its best, punk represents a fundamental and age-old Utopian dream: that if you give people the license to be as outrageous as they want in absolutely any fashion they can dream up, they'll be creative about it, and do something good besides.

Chapter 1: The Birth of Punk

Garage Rock and The British Invasion

While the true origin of punk rock has been a topic of heated debate in certain circles, practically since the term was coined, one listen to any of the thousands of one-off garage rock singles that sprung out of the post-war American suburbs makes it pretty clear.

For the first time in history, huge numbers of young families packed up and moved away from crime-ridden cities all across the USA in search of a new American Dream. Predictably, their children got bored pretty quickly, and with the disposable income afforded this newly-minted middle class, a lot of these kids begged for electric guitars and drum sets. A fuse was lit.

These kids retreated to their garages and formed raw, visceral bands with names like The Seeds, The Electric Prunes and The Knickerbockers. Most of these teenagers had little idea how to play their newly gifted instruments, but that certainly didn’t stop them. They performed at school dances and county fairs, and a lot of them recorded a song or two in a real live recording studio before disbanding, growing up and getting real jobs. These bands mostly had the records pressed themselves in small batches and sold them for a dollar or two at their shows, presaging the DIY movement by decades. Only a few groups garnered any commercial success: The Kingsmen hit the charts in 1963 with the ubiquitous Louie, Louie. The Trashmen had a sizeable seller with Surfin’ Bird.

The main thing that separated these groups from the popular acts of the day was geography. While big cities like New York, Los Angeles and Detroit were home to some of the best-selling rock n roll groups, most of the garage rock bands originated in second-tier cities. The Knickerbockers hailed from Bergenfield, New Jersey. The Shadows of Knight were from Arlington Heights, Illinois. The members of Nazz were the pride and joy of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Despite its limited commercial appeal, record company