- cross-posted to:
- music@lemmy.ml
- cross-posted to:
- music@lemmy.ml
Featured song: Rumble by Link Wray and The Ray Men (March 31st, 1958/Cadence Records/New York, NY)
I find myself commenting about punk history a lot in this place. Seems a lot of you have questions and misunderstandings about the genre. Thought I'd throw my hat into the "Post something every day" ring, but with an informative twist. Of the things I'm encyclopedic about, punk history might be the one thing I'll never run out of stuff to say about.
To begin, I'd like to answer the most hotly debated question in punk rock: Who was first? There are a number of oft-cited answers but this one's mine.
It's winter, early 1958, in Virginia. While trying to lay down a guitar-centric version of The Stroll by The Diamonds, Link Wray's amp makes a noise it's not supposed to. Might have been some faulty electrics, might have been some bizarre environmental variables. All we know is that nobody had ever heard distorted guitar like this before, and that the world just wasn't the same afterward. The resulting instrumental, originally called 'Oddball' becomes a crowd favorite, with audiences requesting it multiple times a night. It also becomes one of Link's favorites, because he gets to make that noise again.
But it's never quite the same as that first time. Whatever the circumstances led to this early distorted guitar, they were too arcane for 1958 to fathom. Legend has it that Link destroyed a number of speaker cones trying to replicate the sound. Including the studio speaker he used to demonstrate the original sound to producer Archie Bleyer. Bleyer didn't like the song, didn't see the appeal. However, his stepdaughter was enamoured with it and convinced him that it should be released on Cadence Records.
When you listen to the song, are you picturing a bunch of 50s teenagers squaring off for a fight in an alleyway? If not, why not? Also, what would you call those kids with the greasy hair and leather jackets rolling around in gangs? Would you call them punks, per chance?
Phil Everly of The Everly Brothers noticed this too, and suggested the title Rumble because it sounded like a street fight. In fact, this imagery was so powerful that, to this day, Rumble remains the only instrumental to ever get banned from US airwaves. Despite being banned, it reached #11 on the R&B charts.
Rumble is my pick for first punk rock track because it was the first to mix ideas about punks and ideas about rock. When The Ramones got together 16 years later, they based their look and feel on the street toughs that came to mind when people heard the song in '58.
Further reasoning:
- "Punk is about being ugly." - Jehangir Tabari
Sure, Michael Muhammad Knight isn't the guy to tell the story of punk and Islam, but he made a good point there. The whole point of Rumble is that an electric guitar wasn't supposed to sound like that. But Link went ahead with it anyway, because despite being "ugly" it was cool and slightly menacing. What's more punk than that?
- They banned an instrumental!
It's the hysteria surrounding rock music and juvenile delinquency in its barest form. Rumble was so in-your-face for the time that it got banned for indecency despite having no lyrics. It pissed off parents across the nation and what's more punk than that?
Recommended Reading: None (homework is for squares, anyway)
Recommended Viewing: Rumble: The Indians Who Rocked The World (2017)
Tomorrow, Punk Goes West
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Love this song. When I first learned it on my guitar I remember strumming it on a loop for a whole hour, just zoning out and thinking about whatever and listening to my own playing.
The first time I ever heard this song was a friend playing it on acoustic guitar. I immediately asked him to teach me.
Addeundum I: The First Punk Fan
When I brought up Archie Bleyer's stepdaughter, I thought about getting into how there's something sexy about punk. But to say that she was thinking about sex when she heard that song is presumptuous on my part, and also creepy as she was probably a teenager at the time. This moment of self-crit provided a more interesting point about punk rock. If we are to accept that Rumble is the first punk rock song, that means the first outspoken punk rock fan was a teenage girl.
So to everyone who says women don't belong in the scene:
FUCK YOU, WOMEN BUILT THE SCENE
We're gonna argue sooooo fucking much when established punk music and not like...whatever someone thinks the first example of early punk is. Beautiful Delilah by the Kinks is my go to.
Are we, though? I've just laid out the case for Link Wray & The Ray Men being the first and people seem to be on board. As for what we recognize as punk these days, the only band we absolutely can't move forward without discussing is The Ramones. But I'd never call them first.
I mean when you get into punk bands considered punk. If the Crucifix, Discharge, Antisect Tour of Scandinavia and it's effect on Swedish dbeat we're gonna have to throw down
Hell yeah, I was just playing this a few minutes ago. Like on guitar. Great "baby's first" punk guitar song.
Man, I can't wait until you get to The Fugs and 'Freakout' music.
I've read "Please Kill Me" a few times over the years but that's about it.
I have that book too. Along with Our Band Could Be Your Life and The Ongoing History of New Music, it's probably the source I'll be cribbing from the most.
I suppose 1991: The Year Punk Broke, too but my central thesis is sort of a rebuttal.
I'd recommend getting Perfect Youth: The Birth of Canadian Punk, and Inner City Sound: Punk and Post-Punk in Australia. Both very good books.
I also have a copy of Perfect Youth. I'm a big Sam Sutherland fan, probably the only guy I'd be comfortable seeing take over The Ongoing History of New Music.
Thanks for the other one though. Love The Birthday Party.
I’m down with that. Nice piece, enjoyed it!
Rumble is ominous and sexy at the same time (which is probably why Jimmy Page loved it so much). Pretty heavy, swinging dirge for its time. Ultra cool that Link Wray is indigenous. Have been meaning to see the film but haven’t yet.
Where do Gene Vincent, Eddie Cochrane rank? To me Little Richard, as a gay black man wearing makeup and basically inventing high energy R&R, has very real punk elements.
Looking forward to your next installment.
Gene Vincent factors mostly into UK punk, the ones who took that stance on stage where they seem adversarial to the audience. Admittedly I don't have the best knowledge of Eddie Cochrane or Little Richard, for that matter.
I was considering scrapping the whole thing to make the argument that I Put A Spell On You was the first punk song, but it doesn't really focus on guitar. Screamin Jay Hawkins got more punk as time went on.
I'm real nervous about getting to gay punk. I want it to be good but my LGBTQ+ history is kind of empty outside of the times it crosses over with punk history.
Great post. I can't wait for tomorrow's post. I'd never heard this song or the history behind it.
