enjoy this Brian Looney writing
in the Scars Publications free 2011 PDF file chapbook: Punk Show
(click on the front cover image or the
title text to download the free PDF file)
There Was Punk Rock
Brian Looney
When the synthesizers were beeping their way into music, when the electronic bassists were droning through the songs, when the cocaine was lodged in the sham-artists’ brains, when the keyboardists tapped in their robotic tunes, when the consumerist noise zapped its way into an entire generation, there was punk rock.
When the stage-costumes were worn, and the hair was grown long and whorish; when the make-up was smattered, and the pink tongues lolled; when good music meant complex riffs and cheap party favors; when the lyrics became insubstantial and ignored the human condition; when profit bogged down all and prevented genuine feeling, there was punk rock.
When the whiny nineties rolled around, and the dirty millionaires played with holes in their arms, there was punk rock. When the big labels stole the street’s sounds and sold it on TV, there was punk rock. When emo crash-landed, and adults squealed like pigs, there was punk rock.
Punk’s been beaten, molested, violated, twisted, slandered, misrepresented, bought, traded, sold. But it has never died. It has moved in mutations, but its core has always survived. It still raises its ugly fists, unknown and underloved.