Punk Rock Did Not Save My Life

There's a great line in Chuck Klosterman's book Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs about a guy coming up to him at a funeral and telling him that punk rock saved his life, which leads Klosterman to ask why his friend didn't just buy some Black Flag records instead of wasting time in chemo. I like Klosterman's humorous approach to that situation, but I also envy the guy that owed his life to punk. I've never been that enamored with a genre of music that I feel the need to openly say that it was my salvation.

Recently I picked up a book called A Cultural Dictionary of Punk (1974-1982) that is actually set up like a dictionary (ABC order and all that jazz) but is filled with a non-linear history of punk, which has given me a much deeper respect for punk's roots before it was branded and Hot Topic-ized;a dictionary doesn't help the cause much either, now that I think about it.

There are great entries for songs like "Dot Dash" by Wire, but there are also wonderful sections dedicated to punk writers and zines and to the politics of the era which lead to the punk scene becoming the force that it was, as well as a fascination with 50's greasers and that era of life as a blueprint for living - Think "What're you rebelling against?" "Whaddya got?" from The Wild One - and a resentment towards hippies, apparently.

The whole book is fascinating and I recommend it to anyone who has never understood punk or just needs a new emergency contact number, because apparently punk will be there for you.

(1975) Lester Bangs and Peter Laughner - Seventeen

(1977) Richard Hell and The Voidoids - Blank Generation

(1978) Generation X - Kiss Me Deadly

(1978) The Undertones - Teenage Kicks

(1978) The Clash - All the Young Punks (New Boots and Contracts)

(1978) Wire - Dot Dash

(1979) Gang Of Four - Damaged Goods

(1980) The Jam - Going Underground

(1980) Dead Kennedys - Kill the Poor

(1981) Government Issue - Anarchy Is Dead

(1981) Ejectors - Hydro-Head

(1981) Black Flag - Six Pack