March 19, 2012

WHAT ON EARTH



While I have long contended that what happens to old punks is REGGAE and GRAD SCHOOL, if we get lucky*, since I have "Natty Dread" on endless loop in my head today, I fear that I am actually having a Samsa-like transformation into a frat boy.

Oh, Natty, Natty...



Please advise.



*This is, of course, a relative concept.  The living may envy the dead.

8 comments:

  1. I was always under the impression that old punks go country. X, Mike Ness, um... others...

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    1. This is a good point. Maybe it's just "roots music" in general, with all the attendant racial, class, and gender politics so often elided in punk itself. What is your thought on the slogan IT'S ALL FOLK MUSIC for what we're talking about, especially given the old school PUNK BEATS HIPPIE standpoint?

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  2. I'm not much for slogans in general. And I have to say that I really dislike the term "folk music" for many reasons. But I think there are a number of strong correlations between punk - and much of rock in general - and older, traditional - or traditionally-styled - music that grew/grows out of social situations or popular traditions. Thematically but also stylistically. Joe Strummer and Billy Bragg are maybe the two highest-profile cases in point I can think of, but the work of my friend Tim Eriksen ("the only musician to have shared the stage with both Kurt Cobain and Doc Watson") also speaks to this point.

    So I guess IT'S ALL FOLK MUSIC makes sense to me, but only with a ton of clarifying footnotes, which sort of diminishes the catchiness of a slogan.

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    1. Yep. In the sense that "folk music" is struggle music, that's one thing--but in the sense that class-privileged white people loooooooooooooooove to coopt all things "oppressed" without changing the realities of entrench social inequality, that's another.

      I like slogans that are hilarious and make people uncomfortable. I am not so crazy about the "folk music" thing because I think it is a convenient way to elide real politics, although much "folk music" directly confronts, challenges, and changes real politics.

      On reading this, I guess I'd have to say that I am also pro-slogans that have a LOT of footnotes.

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  3. I would also suggest that the privileged have a long history of co-opting f**k music for purely musical purposes (i.e., not political, at least not political in terms of social inequality) as well. F**k purism is a form of cultural fascism. And "f**k music" as a category is also, I think, a way to elide (or avoid) real politics within a musical venue.

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    1. AGREED ON ALL COUNTS.

      Now on to other important questions:

      What do you think of Billy Bragg's "Tender Comrade"? I must know.

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