Ken Schafer

A Young Person's Guide To Punk Rock - The Buzzcocks

For me the most brilliant punk was also some of the most brilliant pop music. The Buzzcocks had a damn fine sense of what made a song great...

A Young Person's Guide To Punk Rock - Siouxsie & The Banshees

Not all punks were guys. Siouxsie Sioux was part of the Bromley Contingent along with Sid Vicious and Billy Idol and started a band called Siouxsie and The Banshees very early on. At the start I think the band was more a concept - a desire to be in a band rather than a band in fact.

But after a while they got the hang of it and became on of the few bands to move out of the early punk days and have successful careers as "punk" became "new wave".

Hong Kong Garden was always my favourite from the early stuff:

A Young Person's Guide To Punk Rock - The Undertones

Punk for me (I was a teen when it all started) was always very much about my generation. At the time I don't think I noticed how incredibly young we all were.

Behold the zit-filled faces of The Undertones, looking like they had to ask their mums if it was okay to go out on a school night to shoot this video for Teenage Kicks:

And because the Internet is making everything instantly available, here's footage of the band actually recording the song:

It's quite incredible that what is arguably one of the best pop songs ever just happened to be used as an example of how records are made!

Yes, I do mean it when I say I think Teenage Kicks is one of the "best pop songs ever". Who can argue with lyrics as unpretentious as this:

Are teenage dreams so hard to beat Everytime she walks down the street Another girl in the neighbourhood Wish she was mine, she looks so good

I wanna hold her wanna hold her tight
Get teenage kicks right through the night

I'm gonna call her on the telephone
Have her over 'cos I'm all alone
I need excitement oh I need it bad
And its the best, I've ever had

I wanna hold her wanna hold her tight
Get teenage kicks right through the night

I wanna hold her wanna hold her tight
Get teenage kicks right through the night

I only saw The Undertones once, opening for The Clash but I've always had a soft spot for them.

A Young Person's Guide To Punk Rock - The Sex Pistols

For most people, the Sex Pistols were punk rock. We loved the Pistols but I never connected with them the way I did with The Ramones, or The Clash or even The Buzzcocks. The Pistols were one of the few influential bands of the time that I didn't see live and I think that always made them a bit more of an abstraction for me. Punk was so much about the live experience it was harder to identify with a band you hadn't seen live.

Now we would have seen the Pistols live had they come anywhere near Canada. Malcolm McLaren ("The Manager" as Johnny refers to him) was determined not to do anything by the books and booked the first (and only) US tour in the deep south, playing dive bars and honky tonks rather than hitting the major urban centres that had already established punk scenes.

A Young Person's Guide To Punk Rock - The Ramones

Of all the classic punk songs, I think "Blitzkrieg Bop" by The Ramones is probably the most recognized song these days.

This footage was taken at CBGBs - the New York City dive where many of the NY punks got started.

I never got to see the Ramones at CBGBs but I was lucky enough to see them very early on at one of Toronto's most famous dive bars - the El Mocambo.

The show was absolutely packed but we where there early enough to get a spot directly in front of the stage. So close we could see Joey's face despite his eternal mop-top and downward glare.

Johnny dropped a pick at one point and I snapped it up. I've still got it in a box in the basement. Johnny knew a thing or two about posterity and was nice enough to have "RAMONES" inscribed on all his picks making for instant memorabilia.

A Young Person's Guide To Punk Rock - The Clash

Dear Young Person:

If you're going to understand Punk, there is no better spot to start than "White Riot" by The Clash.

The Clash didn't invent Punk but to many they are "The Only Matter That Matters".

It was tradition at Clash concerts in the early days that they would end shows with White Riot. Fans would storm the stage, all hell would break lose. While I think you can find better video of The Clash in action, this footage gives you a sense of the frenzy and chaos that was a Clash gig.

It's amazing watching Joe Strummer just barely holding things together - at least for a little while.

A Young Person's Guide To Punk Rock

A few weeks ago Lucy and I were in the car when she asked if I had The Clash on my iPod. Turns out she's really getting into punk these days. We went from The Clash to The Ramones to Iggy Pop in about 10 minutes (all hail the three minute pop song) with both of us bopping in our seats with the windows down in the parking lot at the mall. We must have looked like demented bobbleheads.

Her interest got me thinking about Punk and what a profound influence it has had on my life. Punk Rock absolutely changed my life. It is surely one of the all time top five things that shaped me into who I am.

I'm not sure "the kids these days" know much about Punk though. Green Day seems to pass as Punk and I guess from 2007 that make some sense. But there was Punk. There was the Punk that shaped me. And I feel like sharing it with any of you who might be interested.

Welcome to "A Young Person's Guide To Punk Rock".