“I was a punk before you were a punk
You don’t believe me? Just step outside and see me baby
I was a punk before you were a punk
You want some action? I’ll put your ass in traction baby
I was a punk before you were
I was a punk before you
I was a punk before you were
I was a punk before you”
The Tubes (Spooner/Evans/Waybill)
With the release, in practically every format imaginable, of some TOO-long-awaited Forgotten Rebels tribute albums, not to mention an accompanying eBook even, I couldn’t help but cast what remains of my memory back to that good ol’ Summer of Hate, and….
“Let them brush your rock and roll hair.” You knew it when you saw it, a great mop of hair that just screamed “I wanna rock!” From pompadours to mop tops, mullets to shags, spiked, layered, tossed like a salad or greased back in a duckass – for the Baby Boomers, the hair was the thing.
Part 12 can be found here
Q: What happens when you take the breakout star of a television sitcom (Welcome Back Kotter) a short story written by British writer Nick Cohn called Tribal Rites of the New Saturday Night that ran in New York Magazine, a soundtrack written and performed by 3 brothers and a handful of dance club staples, and put the soundtrack and a single (How Deep Is Your Love) out in November and the movie just before Christmas in 1977?
Part 11 can be found here
In 1975 radio and the record companies were experiencing an almost mystical amount of musical innovation and genre-bending creativity, the likes of which hadn’t been seen since the mid ‘60’s. British Rock, Southern Rock, Pop, Soul, Dance, and Country all had a piece of the action, records were flying off the shelves, and radio was the focal point of teen attention, local music scenes, and pop culture in general. Musically it was a watershed year in many ways, and personally, it was the beginning of a short, but intense period in my musical career that began with a new band that, in Montreal at least, could do no wrong.
GOD SAVE MY SPLEEN
As the scholastic year invariably dragged on in Bullet Time TM, my best friend Gord and I continued writing songs with an eye to starting a new band by way of an interesting carrier pigeon solution. Because we only had homeroom and art class together, the only time we could actually work on melody was after school or on weekends with instruments in hand. But the lyrics were another pursuit altogether.
