Subject: RE: Kate Rusby...Village Green Preservation
From:
GUEST
Date: 24 May 12 - 05:26 AM
I'm going to take considerable issue with Mike's post above (sorry, Mike!)
"It amazes me that so many music fans (and music journalists)of a certain age remain so nostalgic about the punk era. Punk was absolutely of its moment, and that moment is long gone.
Punk was 'of the moment', but equally it's didn't exist in a vacuum. It had antecedants going way back: the feral southern hillbillies with their raw early rock and roll; garage rock from the Kingsmen's Louie Louie to the 13th Floor Elevators' 'You're Gonna Miss Me' to every trash rock 45 in between; the likes of the Velvet Underground, the Stooges and the Modern Lovers. In the UK, it was also influenced by elements of glam rock and by the pub rockers like Dr Feelgood.
If you (like me) had been 14 when punk hit, you too might have fond memeories of great records by the Adverts and the Clash and Subway Sect and the Pistols and countless others. You too, like me, might still play and love those records.
There was a lot of 'year zero' posturing, but why not? The bands were young, loud and snotty and wanted to distance themselves from the turgid soft rock and increasingly grandiose cocaine-driven megalomania that was prevalent at the time. That tendency has always existed in rock music, which has had to re-invent itself numerous times to keep from going stale.
"Village Green Preservation Society" embodies the longing for continuity which underlies these (and many other) expressions of nostalgia.
No it doesn't. It is an unapologetic sideswipe at all that. At his best, Ray Davies was a scathingly sharp songwriter and a great punk precursor. Hopefully Kate Rusby knows that. I suspect the makers of Jam and Jerusalem don't. And I don't 'get' Kate's version at all, but luckily it's such a good song that it would take a lot more saccharine than Kate gives it to ruin it...
Nostalgia (along with history, heritage,and the past in general)was something that punks wanted to stomp into the ground and then puke over. They weren't trying to celebrate or connect with the past, but to deface and destroy it.
Again, there was an element of that - but the best of the punk musicians knew their music history and their influences, and would readily acknowledge them. The position you're putting across was true (to an extent) for about five minutes.
So it seems paradoxical for people to get all misty-eyed now about the glory days of 1976, and the wonderful musical heritage which those heroic pioneers have given us to cherish for posterity
It's one of the most vibrant periods of rock history. The thing is that not only were there some great records, but punk, with it's democratising aversion to muso noodling suggested that anyone could have a go, and also ushered in a huge peak in the sort of independent DIY recordings we take for granted now (The Desperate Bicycles on releasing a single: It was easy. Now go and do it...)
If you want to be a nihilist, why not be a 21st century nihilist, rather than a nostalgic cheerleader for the nihilists of yesteryear?
There was far, far more to punk than nihilism. There was also humour, politics, energy and some great songs...
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sj
