2 September 2013 (Day 245) – Other Acts From The NYC Late 70s Punk Scene

After a rather busy weekend, I returned to work ready to embrace something a little downbeat.   On scrolling through my iPod I arrived at one of the lesser known acts from the New York City Punk Scene of the late 1970s.   This was a group of disparate acts that played at only a handful of venues within Greenwich Village and notably at the now sadly non-existent CBGB’s nightclub.   These days, most people have heard of the scenes biggest lights, The Ramones, Blondie, Talking Heads, Patti Smith and Television but how many know of the following?

(# 571) Suicide – Suicide (1977)

Very few acts have been known to divide audience opinion as electronic duo Suicide, Martin Rev and Johnny Vega.  Tracks essentially consist of Rev’s organ/synth, a drum machine and Vega’s Elvis Presley influenced vocals.   Despite this combination of sounds not exactly being to everyone’s taste, there are a number of out and out classics on this, notably the oft covered Ghost Rider and Rocket U.S.A. and closing track Che.  But it is the 10 minute Frankie Teardrop that could qualify as the definition for “acquired taste”.  Lyrically, it would not sound out of place on a Bruce Springsteen album and The Boss himself has stated how it influenced his songwriting on his Nebraska album.   Like Bruce’s output from this era, this minimalist and claustrophobic track tells the sad story of a factory worker who lost his job, but Vega’s vocals raise it to the truly terrifying.  Unfortunately I only have a copy of the album as it was originally released.  If you want to know how badly some audiences reacted to the band live, listen to 23 Minutes Over Brussels, a bonus track on some reissues of the album.  This documents and entire Suicide set in Brussels before an already hostile audience, which takes matters into it’s own hands during Frankie Teardrop. 

(#572) Richard Hell And The Voidoids – Blank Generation (1977)

Hell was an original member of Television as well as Johnny Thunder’s Heartbreakers.  He formed The Voidoids with future Lou Reed guitarist Robert Quine, Marc Bell (subsequently to become Marky Ramone in The Ramones) and Ivan Julian.  Collectively they recorded this album which is one of punk’s all time classics.  It is a thrilling album choc full of great songs and inspired ragged playing.  Love Comes In Spurts, Down At The Rock And Roll Club and Liars Beware are simply great rock tracks.  Even then, such tracks are surpassed by the magnificence of the title track, a rant against the seeming cultural wasteland into which he and his generation had been born.

(# 573) The Dead Boys – Young Loud And Snotty (1977)

Although they were a product of the Cleveland underground scene, the Dead Boys relocated to New York City apparently at the behest of Joey Ramone.  This was the debut album and is led off by this band’s major claim to fame, the awesome and frequently covered out and out rocker Sonic Reducer.  Unfortunately most of the rest of the album wastes the band’s undoubted power on really juvenile lyrics, especially on Caught With The Meat Ion Your Mouth, I Need Lunch and Nothin’ To Do.  Look past this – and I rarely take lyrics seriously – and it is a cracking album.  A fine live version of Hey Little Girl (also covered by The Divinyls as Hey Little Boy) is oddly placed in the running order.