I Couldn't Make it as a Punker:

 

I Couldn't Make it as a Punker:

That's the last line in a 1982 song by The Vandals, a punk rock band, entitled “Urban Struggle”. OK, I was not really trying to be a punker and there did not seem to be a lot of people from the 60's in the punk crowd but I was into punk music. The back half of the 70's for me were to rock what the early 60's were to rock-n-roll. For me, in the mid and late 70's much of the rock music I was hearing had became bloated, more self indulgent, and rather boring. Sure there was still some edgier good music coming out of the rock world but there was an awful lot of music acts like Foreigner, Styx, Eddie Money, Boston, Hall and Oates, Captain and Tennilie and Journey, not to mention all the disco music. There were certainly some good songs but in general their music was not particularly interesting to me. There was still music from the likes of Billy Joel, Paul Simon, Doobie Brothers, Elton John, the Lindsey Buckingham-Stevie Nicks version of Fleetwood Mac, as well as Stevie Wonder, but the newer music makers who were getting air time on the radio stations were not grabbing me. The edge seemed to be gone.

Around this time I looked past much of the new rock music and instead devoted most of my listening time to Reggae, Rockabilly, and “Outlaw Country” music along with some old blues and R&B stuff. As a reaction to where rock seemed to be going (or maybe that should be not going) grew a sort of back to rock-n-roll roots movement which was called “punk rock”, a term once used to describe the garage bands of the 60's. So in the latter half of the 70's punk music started hitting the scene and that was followed by a second wave labeled “new wave”. It didn't catch my attention at first as it was not being played anywhere I was hearing music but once it did I jumped on the bus.

Punk rock music broke through in 1976 with the release of the American punk rock band Ramones first album simply titled “Ramones”. The album is largely credited as being the album that started the “Punk Rock” revolution, at least in America. It was not initially particularly successfully here. It didn't crack the top 100 album pop chart list. But the album's influence and subsequent popularity make it one of the most important and iconic Punk Rock albums of all time. I've heard people, disc jockeys, refer to the album's first track, “Biltzkrieg Bop” as the song that started it all, and I have to say it is still a favorite song of mine. The Ramones album is in the top 50 of the Rolling Stone's list of the greatest albums of all time. The album cover itself is also considered one of the great rock album covers. Like I said this album was not a particularly big seller when it came out but it opened the door for the punk music revolution that would follow. England's notorious punk band the “Sex Pistols” put out their legendary debut album (“Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols”) the next year.

I first started noticing punk music in1978 when I heard Devo's ”Are We Not Men?” album at my friend Larry's. I had recently moved to SF and it was about that time that I also remember first hearing the Ramones. At that time I was going dancing at discos. Consequently I was hearing a lot of disco music which I thought was OK but not anything to get excited about. The radio station I was generally listening to was KSAN, which played some good stuff but not really much of anything you might call punk. The only friend I had in SF who was also into music was my roommate Mark. The music we were discovering was from people like Boz Scaggs, Dire Straits, The Cars, Tom Petty, and The Police. I was also finding some interesting stuff from people like Lou Reed, Patti Smith, Iggy Pop, and David Bowie. That was as close as I was getting to the punk scene. I had my toes in the water but had not yet jumped in the pool.

After I married Kathy my brother Pete came west and he introduced me to the music he was listening to. Although we are about a decade apart in age, we have similar musical tastes. He was way more up on the punk/new wave scene and he introduced me to true punk rock. Together we discovered a local radio station, KFJC, that played all kinds of stuff but the main focus was on punk rock. After that, punk and new wave dominated my listening and music purchases. KFJC became my go-to station and my source for new music. Some of the prominent punk Bands I remember liking were The Clash, Dead Kennedys, The Jam, New York Dolls, Husker Du, The Buzzcocks, The Stranglers, Generation X, X, Toy Dolls, The Stooges, The Vibrators, and of course Ramones and Sex Pistols. On the more new wave side I was also listening to Talking Heads, The Pretenders, Joe Jackson, Elvis Costello, B-52's, and The Police.

Me and Pete getting ready for  a 3 legged race

Pete and I frequented clubs in the area that featured punk rock bands. These included Mabuhay Gardens in SF, – The Stone (AKA The Keystone)in both SF and Palo Alto and St James Infirmary in Mountain View. One evening I went to Mabuhay to hear the English punk rock band 999. It was not a heavily attended show. At some point I needed to answer nature's call. While at the urinal I got into a conversation with the guy next to me about 999 and a few other punk bands we liked. He looked young and that was because he was. It turned out he was just 17. I was like 32. When I came out of the men's room I looked a little more closely at the event's other attendees. I felt like I was probably the oldest person in the place and in most cases it was not really close. I realized punk rock was the music of another generation – it contained the angst and rebel protest of the current gen much like rock in the latter 60's did for my generation. If I had had any illusions about being a punker they were dashed as I now could see I was too old to ever be a genuine punker no matter how much I liked the music.

I continued to devote a large portion of my music listening listen to punk and new wave music well into the mid-80's. I still listen to some today but then I listen to all kinds of things. I am a fan of Green Day, a current punk rock band well, not exactly current as I think about it, they hit the scene at least 25 years ago but they seem current to me – I guess that's what happens as you get older. That 999 show wound up to be just the first of numerous music shows where I felt like the old guy in the crowd, older than most of the other attendees. Of course I'm getting to the age where I'm the old guy or at least one of the old guys wherever I go whether I'm at a show, the movies, the golf course ,or even the grocery store, not to mention family gatherings. I guess this happens sooner or later if you live long enough.

I consider myself lucky to be a child of the 60's and would never even consider trading that to be of the punk rock generation but I do like and appreciate what they brought to the music world.