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The History of Punk on the Lower East Side

 
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Anklepants



Joined: 18 Sep 2006
Posts: 24
Location: Adelaide, Australia

PostPosted: Mon Sep 18, 2006 11:42 am    Post subject: The History of Punk on the Lower East Side Reply with quote

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 oclock
the grey ship titanic forget to realign rock
husbands and wives, little children lost their lives
wasnt it sad, wasnt it sad, when that ship went down"

Smiths plan began to work as foretold
this weird music began to take hold
that sparked and interest in these forms of life underground from the norms
and soon millions of folk records were being sold
By the early sixties, Dylan bios(?) Phil Ochs
were doing intellectualized copies of The Old Folks
Then one strange folk band downtown called The Holy Modal Rounders
Began to make it more anarchistic, with weird voices and drug jokes.

"Moms out their, switchin in the kitchen
and Dads 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 ballad on a cloud.
singin' euphoria"

In '64 that was, then in '65, Lou Reed and John Cale and the Lovelo 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 chasing our women around?
'Pa-pa-pardon me sir, nothing could be farther 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 record by Harry Smith doing the Punkiest songs yet to exist
Lo-fi noises shed about poetry, sex and drugs

"I don't have a bedtime, 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"

Smith recorded two live Fug sessions
include 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

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

"Im 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"

Nothing could steam New York’s strange folk-punk tied
In '68 came David Peal on the Lower East Side
He recorded an album on the streets, screaming and sloppy
Danny Feilds signed him to Electra
sold almost a million copies
With songs like "I like marijuana"
and "Up Against the Wall, Motherfucker"

"Oh Mother, where is my father?
Where is my brother?
Theyre 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 doesnt sound like punk or anything else but it sounds great

"Obsoletion tosulation
Delectronic evocation
The sounds of reality
Spinning magnetic fluctuation
Wave on wave configuration
I 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 Feilds brought them to New York
and had John Cale from the Velvets record them
Almost 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 Peals second album came
with some amazing songs and some a little lame
In most pre-punk historys, Peal gets forgot
coz he was a hippy singing songs about pop
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
Peal 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 like of demonstration
We gotta change the world before annihilation
Gonna get a rifle and Im gonna get a gun
I am out to kill you and Ill have a little fun
I am out to murder you, Im going to attack
Your the monkey on my back
I wanna kill you
Kill, Kill, Kill
I wanna kill you
Kill, Kill, Kill"

In '71, Lester Banks 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 linear notes of it
Though punk-rock would soon come to mean something different
from less {???} Lenny thunk
(They meant raw 60s punk songs)

"I feel depressed, I feel so bad
Coz your the best girl that Ive ever had
I can't get your love, I can't get affection
Poor little girl, psychotic reaction"

Lenny Kaye was also a guitarist who began playing music
with an Eastside 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 somebodies sins
Gloria, Gloria"

'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

"Your a prima ballerina on a springtime afternoon
Change on into the 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 "

The 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 Voidiods
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 fascinatin to observe what the mirror does
but when I dine 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"

'74, CBGB's starts having punk shows
With Television, Patti Smith and The Ramones
'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


First post, a few inaudible words, but i reckon thats pretty much it. Amazing rhyming here.
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hamlet



Joined: 05 Jan 2006
Posts: 456

PostPosted: Mon Sep 18, 2006 4:01 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

The History of Punk on the Lower East Side
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?"

Smiths 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
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"

In '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"

Smith 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
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

"Im 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"

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 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 historys, Peell 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"

In '71, Lester Banks 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 reaction"

Lenny 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"

'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 "

The 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 Voidiods
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"

'74, CBGB's starts having punk shows
With Television, Patti Smith and The Ramones
'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


I'm not sure what the Silver Apples or David Peel are singing but here are a few corrections from someone close to the scene. Thanks for transcribing this!!


Last edited by hamlet on Mon Sep 18, 2006 7:09 pm; edited 4 times in total
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Dav
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Joined: 30 Oct 2005
Posts: 2890
Location: Rennes, France

PostPosted: Mon Sep 18, 2006 4:06 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

awesome! biggest piece of work since Ema's will oldham horror!
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Anklepants



Joined: 18 Sep 2006
Posts: 24
Location: Adelaide, Australia

PostPosted: Tue Sep 19, 2006 9:55 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Thanks Hamelt for those corrections. Most of the names/lyrics were done purely through google searching, and that can only be so helpful, especially with such an undocumented subject. Good work
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jack fe



Joined: 08 Apr 2006
Posts: 865

PostPosted: Tue Sep 19, 2006 5:50 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

*claps anklepants*
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moe



Joined: 29 Apr 2006
Posts: 326
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PostPosted: Tue Sep 19, 2006 9:56 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

respect
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hamlet



Joined: 05 Jan 2006
Posts: 456

PostPosted: Sat Dec 09, 2006 3:10 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Sounds like a great idea for a radio show. Hope it will be posted on-line so the world will be able to hear it.
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Anklepants



Joined: 18 Sep 2006
Posts: 24
Location: Adelaide, Australia

PostPosted: Mon Dec 11, 2006 5:18 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

awesome. thanks ph!L
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theme



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PostPosted: Sun Sep 07, 2008 12:57 am    Post subject: List of Songs Reply with quote

Anthology Of American Folk Music (Edited By Harry Smith)

"The Titanic" (also known as "It Was Sad When That Great Ship Went Down" and "Titanic (Husbands and Wives)") is a folk song and children's song most known for being sung in the United States at summer camp. "The Titanic" is based on the sinking of the RMS Titanic which sank on April 15, 1912 after striking an iceberg.

The Holy Modal Rounders - Euphoria
Lou Reed and John Cale - I'm Waiting For the Man
The Fugs- New Amphetamine Shriek
The Fugs-Tuli Kupferberg's amazing nihilist song 'Nothing'
the godz- Contact High Wit Da Godz(??)/White Cat Heat
The Velvet Underground- I'm Waiting For the Man
David Peel and the Lower East Side- Up Against the Wall (Motherfucker)
Silver Apples: Oscillations
The Stooges- 1969
David Peel- "Lower East Side"
David Peel "I Want To Kill You"


Nuggets: Original Artyfacts from the First Psychedelic Era (Lenny Kaye)

Count Five: psychotic reaction
Patti Smith: Gloria
the New York Dolls: Personality Crisis
Richard Hell(& THE VOIDOIDS): Blank Generation
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