One of my very favourite songs is Jeffrey Lewis's A History of Punk on the Lower East Side. From the early folk compiler Harry Smith through to New York Dolls he brilliantly runs through the story of the development of the music that eventually led to punk with little renditions of some of the standout tracks.
Here I've set out Jeff's words and included a download of as many of the songs or songs by the artists mentioned as I can - including, of course, a download of
A History of Punk on the Lower East Side itself. Check out Jeff's site
here"OK. This is August 26th 2004. We’re gonna try and go through this in one live take.
The Complete History of the Development of Punk on New York's Lower East Side from 1950 to 1975.
We start with Harry Smith in 1950, a beatnik weirdo living in New York City
His huge collections were insane, of Easter eggs and paper airplanes
And rare records, he had around a million and sixty
to change America through music was his hope
and to make some money because he was broke
he compiled a triple decker collection of songs from his records
released as the Smithsonian anthology of American folk.
....... On Monday morning just about 9 o 'clock the great ship Titanic began to reel and rock husbands and wives, little children lost their lives wasn't it sad, wasn't it sad, when that great ship went down?
>>> here's a few tracks either featured on Harry Smith's Anthology or by artists featured:Dock Boggs - Country BluesCarter Family - Worried Man BluesRichard 'Rabbit' Brown - James Alley BluesBuell Kazee - The Butcher's Boy (the Railroad Boy)Smith's plan began to work as foretold.
This weird music began to take hold
that sparked an interest in these forms of life underground from the norm
and soon millions of folk records were being sold.
By the early sixties, Dylan ,Baez, Phil Ochs
were doing intellectualized copies of the old folks Bob Dylan - Maggie's Farm (Live Newport Folk Festival 1965 - 1st electric performance)Joan Baez - Dona DonaPhil Ochs - Cops of the World
Then one strange folk band downtown called The Holy Modal Rounders
Began to make it more anarchistic, with weird voices and drug jokes.
..... Mom's out there switchin in the kitchen and Dad's in the living room, fussin' and a-bitchin' I'm out here, kickin' the gong for euphoria Euphoria - when your mind starts reelin' and a-walkin' Inside voices start squealin and a-squawkin' Floatin around on a belladonna cloud. singin' euphoria.Holy Modal Rounders - Boobs A LotIn '64 that was, then in '65, Lou Reed and John Cale in a Ludlow Street dive
Had a similar musical spin, also on acoustic guitar and violin with even more New York street drug jive
..... Hey white boy, what ya doing uptown Hey white boy, you chasin' our women around? 'Pa-pa-pardon me sir, nothing could be further from my mind Im just waiting for a dear dear friend of mine Im waiting for the man' In '65 the Rounders met other beatnik intellectuals thugs on East 10th Street
who call themselves The Fugs
In April, they were recorded by Harry Smith doing the punkiest songs yet to exist
Lo-fi noisy shit about poetry, sex and drugs
. ....I don't have a bad time, I don't need to cum for I have become an amphetamine bum. If you don't like sleeping, and don't want to screw then you should take lots of amphetamine too.Fugs - Nameless Voices Crying for KindnessFugs - I want To KnowSmith recorded two live Fug sessions including Tuli Kupferberg's amazing nihilist song 'Nothing':
..... Monday nothing, Tuesday nothing Wednesday and Thursday nothing Friday for a change a little more nothing Saturday once more nothing Fucking nothing, sucking nothing Flesh and sex, nothing Church and Times Square, a whole lot of nothing Nothing, nothing, nothing The Fugs were real poets with real topics to speak out
and through the underground scene this crude music could leak out
Beginning the punk idea that anyone could do it
without need much musical ability to it
and this new crude music was labeled Freak Out
In '66 The Fugs signed to New York label ESP
The same label put out a band called The Godz, with a 'Z'
The Godz accomplished the feat of making even The Fugs music sound sweet
With the least musical folk-rock racket in history
..... mrrrrr---ow meow Godz - Riffin'
Godz - Where?
Far from the West Coast hippy scene, New York underground music was far from mainstream
It was intellectual but noisy and hectic, and then The Velvet Underground went electric
and made folk-punk even more beautiful and more extreme
..... I'm waiting for the man, twenty-six dollars in my hand Up to Lexington 125, feel sick and dirty more dead than alive Im waiting for the man.
Velvet Underground - Waitin' For My Man (from lost 1966 “demo”/acetate version of the their first album)
Nothing could stem New York’s strange folk-punk tide
In '68 came David Peel and the Lower East Side
He recorded an album on the streets, screaming and sloppy
Danny Fields signed him to Electra
sold almost a million copies
With songs like "I like marijuana"
and "Up Against the Wall, Motherfucker" inside
..... Mother, where is my father? Where is my brother? They're at war, theyre at war. You made them join the dirty U.S. Army You told them all a filthy white lie You gave them all the bullshit and baloney And now my brother and my father are gonna have to die
Strangest of all on East 10th Street in '68
where the duo Silver Apples, who managed to create
two futuristic albums of noise, rhythm and poetry
creative to the point of underground obscurity
it doesn't sound like punk or anything else but it sounds great
.... Isolation Isolation (?) Electronic evocation The sounds of reality Spinning magnetic fluctuation Wave on wave configuration that dance between the balls of sound And find my world to saw (?)
The Stooges were a Freak Out band
in Detroit and folks ignored them
until Danny Fields brought them to New York
and had John Cale from the Velvets record them
Almost all acid rock was turning into progressive
The Stooges, instead, pushed the raw and aggressive
And Iggy Pop sang about degradation and boredom
.... Well 1969 okay, all across the USA Another year for me and you Another year with nothing to do another year for me and you Another year with nothing to do
In 1970, David Peel's second album came
with some amazing songs and some a little lame
In most pre-punk histories, Peel gets forgot
coz he was a hippy singing songs about pot
but his second album was the first album
with the real sound that electric punk rock became
..... We are from the Lower East Side We dont give a damn if we live or die We are from the Lower East Side We dont give a damn if we live or die
And even though it was seven years before
it was something the Clash would do
Peel mixed punk with reggae
and the amazing song "I Want To Kill You"
..... We call the people of the future generation You call the people in a world of aggregation You call the people in a life of demonstration We gotta change the world before annihilation Gonna get a rifle and I'm gonna get a gun I am out to kill you and I'll have a little fun I am out to murder you, I'm going to attack I'm going kill you Your the monkey on my back I wanna kill you Kill, Kill, Kill I wanna kill you Kill, Kill, Kill >>> here's the Clash covering the classic Pressure DropIn '71, Lester Bangs first writes the word 'punk'
to describe '60s enthusiastic teenage rock junk
72, Lenny Kaye puts out the '60s Garage comp. 'Nuggets'
and coins the phrase 'punk-rock' in the liner notes of it
Though punk-rock would soon come to mean something different
from what Lester and Lenny thunk
(They meant raw 60s punk songs)
..... I feel depressed, I feel so bad Coz your the best girl that I've ever had I can't get your love, I can't get affection O little girl, psychotic reactionLenny Kaye was also a guitarist who began playing music
with an East Side poet named Patti Smith who would use it
to mix wild poetry with simple rock stuff
like The Fugs in a way, but less rough
A postmodern way to take high art and low art and fuse it
..... Jesus died for somebody's sins but not mine Gloria, Gloria >>> you probably have just about everything by our Patti so I stuck this of her doing a Poem for Jim Morrison and Bumblebee
72, '73 was when the New York Dolls start
mixing trash and drag fashion
with a pure rock and roll heart
That David Johansen and Johnny Thunders sound
mixed old-style simple rock
with the new New York underground
And sorta defined the moment when
stupid on purpose became the new smart
..... You're a prima ballerina on a springtime afternoon Change on into a wolfman howlin at the moon All about that Personality Crisis you got it while it was hot But now frustration and heartache is what you got New York Dolls - Personality CrisisThe Lower East Side began punk fashion as well
with ripped clothes and spiked hair
worn by a poet named Richard Hell
Hell was in Television, The Neon Boys
The Heartbreakers, The Voidoids
And he wrote the song that gave the new
70s punk generation it's first anthem yell
..... I was screamin get me out of here before I was even born, it's such a gamble when you get a face It's fascinating to observe what the mirror does but when I die it's for the wall that I set a place I belong to the blank generation but I can take it or leave it each time I belong to the _______ generation but I can take it or leave it each time Richard Hell - Don't Die
74, CBGB's starts having punk shows
With Television, Patti Smith and The Ramones
Jemima Pearl & Thurston Moore - Sheena Is A Punk Rocker
75, punk fanzine begins and the whole thing moves over to England
England steals all the credit
That's how it goes
The End
This is Jeffrey Lewis, Jack Lewis, our friend Tyler
Thank you "
Labels: david peel, fugs, godz, jeffrey lewis, lower east side, new york city, new york dolls, patti smith, punk, ramones, richard hell, silver apples, stooges, the clash, velvet underground
