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Sto caricando le informazioni... I Was a Punk Before You Were a Punk (edizione 2004)di Chris Walter
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The year is 1981 and the dangerous phenomenon known as hardcore punk rock has arrived in Winnipeg with a bang. The new bands, with names like Personality Crisis, The Unwanted, and the Stretch Marks, are an aggressive and rowdy bunch who vow to smash things up at all cost. What could possibly be better than punk rock? Why faster punk rock, of course. Take a beer-soaked and nihilistic journey-back to the time when danger drove a Trans-Am, and a day without a fight or a foot chase was rare indeed. Take a trip back to the day when punk rock was not available at the local mall; when a mohawk and a black leather jacket was a standing invitation to rumble. "The Yankees had recently elected Ronald Reagan as their president and now we really had something to fear. Ironically, if it hadn't been for ol' Ronnie, hardcore might never have exploded the way it did. I had never concerned myself much with politics, especially American politics, but there was something about the doddering old cowboy actor that really scared the fuck out of me. And I wasn't alone. Punks the world over were afraid that Bonzo would mistake real life for the films and set the nuclear birds in flight at the first wrong sign from his Ouija board. Hardcore bred quickly in this dangerous political climate, and conditions were ideal for social unrest. To us, the problem was too large to ignore and compelled us to speak up, even if we did have a regrettable habit of repeating shop-worn clich?s such as "Reagan Sucks" or "Fuck Authority." Misguided rhetoric aside, the youth of North America had a cause and a very real adversary. From every state and province the bands sprung up, brandishing cheap guitars and an urge to raise some hell." Non sono state trovate descrizioni di biblioteche |
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This book is or was one of his most well-known. It is more young in feel, less world-weary, though, at times, more choppy in narrative than the other books . It is evokes the ideals of punk in its depiction of the excitement of youngsters at-once finding themselves part of and source of the generation of a new genre. As the book progresses a more difficult and darker side becomes apparent and deepens as hardcore punk develops fully, becomes influential if not well known (though almost flatly rejected by rejected and misunderstood) and inevitable forces take their toll.
I feel I have come away from this book seeing punk rock in a new light. I see in the youthful enthusiasm at the outset a germ perhaps of what all rock music should or should’ve been about. I like the fuck-it-we’re-going-to-have-fun philosophy and see it, still to this day, in my late-middle-age, as maybe an essential ingredient to life.
There is the other side of this story, not such an easy one. It is about conflict with those in society who would not allow self-expression, who would prefer their own pretensions to dominate others. I did not know that punk was a hard lifestyle. Back in the day I saw it as filtered through the media to myself and others as being akin to new wave and/or as being may one of: a) a pretentious style b) perhaps perverse or c) an incompetent slur, in other words a sham. I merely had the suspicion that it in fact had a very serious side. The suspicion became more plausible as hardcore became prevalent, but remained a suspicion because the closest you could get to it in mainstream media was the Sex Pistols, Clash or the various supposedly alternative stylistic adaptations created by the British music press, including “post-punk”. I did not know that punk was a lifestyle fuelled by hard-drinking and with violence integral . I doubt I would’ve been able to handle this environment if I’d known.
As in his books based in Winnipeg, I recognize many of the places and band-names referred to and, though I was not involved in the scene at time, I well-remember on the periphery of my former middle-class landlocked inner-city vision, the many strangely attired characters drinking at house parties and posters everywhere. I hung out with many people who were messed-up, was somewhat messed-up myself (suffered from mental illness) and recognize them as well in many of his real-life characters.
I picture punkers fighting with rednecks and jock-rockers, hauling their equipment around the country, persevering for years as a “niche” form of entertainment and view it, whether conscious-or-not, as a battle for self-expression amidst indifference, a political battle. Though I would not want to emulate that lifestyle then or now I see the importance and significance and admire Chris for bringing it to us now from his vantage point. ( )