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By
Sebastian
Dead Rebel Of The Week
~ Punk ~
This week’s Dead Rebel isn’t an actual person, yet I’m amazed it took so long to occur to me. A rebel in its truest sense… affecting both the world of music and socio-political structures everywhere for at least one full decade, and, according to some, even to this day. This rebel is so rebellious that people can’t even seem to agree whether it’s really dead or not. There’s still a world-wide movement going on, claiming it is alive and well. And don’t even try to determine when it was born to begin with, since that date is apparently even harder to settle on.
When it comes to this column, I usually prefer the approach of writing about real persons, rather than fictitious characters or random allegoric phenomena that could somehow be considered “rebels”, but this time I couldn’t help it. As I was thinking about possible candidates for this column, now that my number was up, some of the names that kept coming up included Johnny Thunders, Sid Vicious (even though our very own Skeletal Grace claims he was no rebel whatsoever – dumbass), Stiv Bators, Joey and Johnny Ramone, Wendy O Williams, and a bunch of others. So, smart as I am, I detected some common ground here. Obviously a little too late for ol’ Wendy but still… Why write a shit load of tributes to all those great and sorely missed artists if you can wrap it all up in one single article?
If you’re playing for The Exploited, stop reading now, or you’re going to be pissed… This week’s Dead Rebel is called "Punk".
Punk rock was a kick in the face of the musical environment back in the mid-70s. Back then there was basically just disco, with its bland, clinical patterns, and there was also progressive rock with its smooth, pompous arrangements. Music for the jocks and their preppy girlfriends, and music for the nerdy musicians. Compared to that, Punk was nothing but an ugly, savage, distorted mess. Music for the drop-outs and the rejects. It was brilliant: A bunch of simple chords and an attitude were enough to set the world on fire.
But Punk was an even harder kick to the face of societies everywhere. It doesn’t really matter what year you’re talking about, or what particular region you consider to have spawned the only “real” punk movement, it worked everywhere… no matter what it looked like or what it sounded like. It worked in capitalist societies and it worked in communist societies. Punk didn’t care what forms of government tried to keep it down, Punk flipped them all off just the same. Punk was the ultimate rebel without a cause. Never mind the UK – Punk was anarchy for the whole damn world.
Even though many people tried to accredit all kinds of sociological causes to Punk, in the end, Punk is neither political, nor a fashion statement or even something in between. It’s anti-political at best - along with being anti-government, anti-social and anti-whateverthefuckyouwantittobe. I’m a firm believer in the fact that Punk can’t be put into words. The closest I’ve come to succeed describing what Punk means to me is the feeling I get by listening to “Ain’t It Fun” by The Dead Boys at top volume, drunk off my ass, smashing up everything in sight and then having a good laugh at what I just did. And frankly, I think that definition isn’t any worse than any other I’ve heard.
Then again, I don’t really want to discuss the ever so popular question what Punk really means here - all the different developments prove that there can’t be one right answer. Aside from that, discussing what Punk is not has always been more fun anyway. Like contentment is not Punk. Following is not Punk. Agreeing is not punk; not even about Punk itself. Hell, even reflecting on punk is as un-Punk as it can get. Reflecting on Punk on the internet is even worse. I’m apparently not Punk right now. Claiming to be Punk is pretty un-punk anyway.
But if I really had to settle on one thing that most people would agree that Punk indeed is, I would probably pick ‘rebellious’. And that’s why I’m writing about Punk in this column.
That, and because I’m personally involved. Punk came into my life at a pretty early age. When I was a kid I never wanted to be a fire-fighter or an astronaut; I wanted to be a punk rocker. And so I bit by bit adopted some important traits that I haven’t abandoned to this day: trying to stick out no matter what, not caring too much about the future, standing up for myself, and most importantly… being pissed off at ALL times. Not always convenient, I agree, but I can’t help it. I barely even notice it anymore. I still thank, and blame, Punk for my less than exemplary development. My social skills are definitely Punk.
So, why is Punk dead anyway? Well, why don’t you just switch to MTV and look for yourself? It doesn’t matter if there’s a flourishing underground (there’s really not), the term is ruined forever by idiots who not only have no clue what it means, but don’t even care.
On this note… Good bye, old friend. May you rest in peace. Or not. Motherfucker. Come back. I dare you.
PS: Special thanks go out to people like Good Charlotte who did their best to make this tribute possible in the first place. Certifying them capable of killing punk would be giving them way too much credit, though. In fact, they didn’t even really help burying it. But they most definitely didn’t think twice about pissing on its grave and doing a little dance afterwards. Which was almost Punk again, if done consciously, like Johnny “Rotten” Lydon always did, for instance, but certainly not like those nitwits.
“Ain't it fun when you're always on the run
Ain't it fun when your friends despise what you've become
Ain't it fun when you get so high that you, well you just can't come
Ain't it fun when you know that you're gonna die young
It's such fun... such fun
Ain't it fun when you're taking care of number one
Ain't it fun when you feel like you just gotta get a gun
Ain't it fun when you j.j.j. just can't seem to find your tongue
Cause you stuck it to deep into something that really stung
It's such fun
Well somebody come up to me they spit right in my face
But I didn't even feel it, it was such a disgrace
I punched my fist right through the glass
But I didn't even feel it, it all happened so fast
It's such fun, such fun, such...
Ain't it fun when you tell her she's just a cunt
Ain't it fun when she splits and leaves you on the bum
Ain't it fun when you've broken up every band that you've ever begun
Ain't it fun when you know that you're gonna die young
It's such fun, such fun, such...
Having a real fun time, such fun, such fun
No Fun”
Why, yes. It most definitely is.
