Punk - how did the 70s arena bands react?

How did the big arena / legacy artists of the 70s react to punk? What did Dylan, the Stones, Kinks, Who, Floyd, etc make of all that racket? Contemporary or otherwise quotes welcome!

i seem to remember reading somewhere that Pete Townsend used to show up at gig by The Damned in London and was into it. obviously Neil Young was really into it too.

Hahaha, all the rock books would have you believe they threw their arms up in the air and said, "Well, we're bloated dinosaurs now!"

Lindsay Buckingham reportedly believed he should have been IN the Clash

it's not *that* funny.. is it?

Frank Zappa's reaction can be heard on the Sheik Yerbouti album ("I'm So Cute"). Also, Animals was at least in part inspired by punks' publicly expressed disdain for Pink Floyd (except that, you know, Nick Mason produced the second Damned album).

i still remember how all those people fought and died to overthrow steely dan

They cried themselves to sleep atop beds stuffed with thousand dollar bills, i think ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_7IY2Z2gLTE&feature=related

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lL5Ftju5Qy0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ZclVGqCWws

http://static.rateyourmusic.com/album_images/065f7f4b06f9347e20f566eeb4f812d8/31711.jpg

Dang.

Well anyway:

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_KwLqyDtVKUA/SLLLEri_lfI/AAAAAAAAFbg/f3g2ukhtRdY/s400/pete_emptyf.jpg

Eddie Van Halen, onstage: "I wanna take this time to say that this is REAL WHISKEY here, the only people who put iced tea in Jack Daniel's bottles is The Clash, baby!"

television recorded marquee moon. i ain't waitin uh uh. yes drafted the buggles. genesis went super mega multi platinum. dylan went christian. neil went disco

^a selected history of rock and roll 1977 - 84

i still remember how all those people fought and died to overthrow steely dan

I have an uncle who lost his leg in that battle.

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_oIsyBgwDtaE/SCx_jqP0kZI/AAAAAAAAAAU/yfBQNn9f3-Q/S220/McBragg%2Bwith%2Bpipe.jpg

Emerson Lake & Palmer had perhaps the most interesting reaction. In 1977, they took us on a musical journey to a faraway land. A place called Love Beach.

http://www.progarchives.com/progressive_rock_discography_covers/94/cover_23121642009.jpg

IIRC orig version of "sheer heart attack" was both punker & faster than the live version above

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wearing_and_Tearing
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wPkS2lXoYKQ

starts out like a murmur, then it grows like thunder

down in the dark of the Speakeasy, Otway and Barrett were doing their final number. Townshend wans't listening; he wanted to get drunk, and he did, on only two shot of whiskey. He began ranting, preaching, punching friends, smashing glasses, generally going berserk.
At the bar, he spotted two punks. Townshend peered through the dim smoky haze.
"Who are those guys?" he asked Stamp.
"They're in the Sex Pistols, " Chris replied.
Townshend raced to the bar and pinned the hapless punks against it. "What the fuck are doing in a piss 'ole like this?" he sneered. At last, he thought, he'd gotten his hands on Johnny Rotten, the Sex Pistols' spokesman and singer.
Well, what the fuck are doing here?" one of the replied. Townshend lifted him off the ground by the collar.
"Uh, hello, Pete. Nice to meet you."
"Look, Johnny..." Pete began to snarl.
"no, no, I'm Paul Cook," said his victim, the band's drummer. This [he gestured at his companion is Steve Jones."
Jones was the guitarist.
Townshend sat Cook down, but his raving didn't cease, it was only ignited further by the ignominy of having made the touristy mistake of presuming that any old Sex Pistol must by Johnny Rotten.
" Rock & roll's going down the fucking Pan?" he shouted.
"you've got to take over where the Who left off__ and this time, you've got to finish the fucking job?" For long minutes, ranted. At the pinnacle of his tirade, Pete took outs check and ripped it to bits, threw the pieces on the floor, spat upon them, ground them beneath his heal, all the while spouting more invective, riddled with allusions to decadence, disgraces and disagreements that his listeners (which now included almost everybody in the joint) could have known nothing about. After a few minutes, he ran out of steam and slowed down enough for Cook to cut in with a question.
"Uh, Pete," he said cautiously, "the Who aren't going to breakup, are they?"
Walt does it matter if the Who break up? We're fucking finished? It's a disaster? We've compromised everything to bits, anyway. We're prostitutes."
"'Cause we really like the Who, don't we, Steve? They're our favorite group. Be a drag if they broke up."
Townshend groaned and cursed, let out a mighty "ArrrggggH?"
"I'm disappointed in, " he said, and left the club He walked only a few paces beyond the exit, then slumped in to a nearby shop doorway, out cold.

He awoke with a policeman boot in his midsection. Townshend's celebrated blue eyes flutter open, fight off the sin and a bitter headache. "Wake up, Pete," said the cop. "As a special treat, if can get and walk away, you can sleep in you won bed tonight."

And that's the rest of the story. *

*according to Dave Marsh

I used to think they were all oblivious to punk, at least from 1975 to early '78. Just ants grabbing scraps in their dinosaur footprints.

But over the years I'd hear stuff like Phil Lynott would party with the punkers. As I learned more about him, it made sense. Other stories I wonder if they're revisionist.

man, god bless xhuxk.

his links alone make me so sad that rock writing today is mostly just a bunch of 25 year old "google experts"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vWfnKb7nCJo

oops, better one, that looks and sounds like a warped video tape:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q6C_WSp3Lks

Genuinely thought that Dave Marsh thing was going to turn into slashfic by the end of the post

I recall seeing a Dave Bowie interview where he said "they all wanted to be rock stars, all those punks". And that Johnny Rotten was friendly with Mick Jagger.

Eddie Van Halen, onstage: "I wanna take this time to say that this is REAL WHISKEY here, the only people who put iced tea in Jack Daniel's bottles is The Clash, baby!"

― B'wana Beast, Thursday, December 17, 2009 1:20 AM

it was dave lee roth, at the 1983 US festival, I believe.

IIRC orig version of "sheer heart attack" was both punker & faster than the live version above

and was sung by roger the drummer, too.

There was a memorable clash between Bad Company and Vivien Goldman in Sounds in early 1977, where VG devoted the whole feature to raging against BC for their scornful, dismissive reaction to punk.

joe perry of aerosmith;s reaction to the sex pistols (he liked em):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j_5HzPB0H3M

damn that Zeppelin track kicks ass, I've never heard that before

From an interview I did about 1977:

Captain Sensible: I was standing on stage at the Roxy club and I saw two hippies standing out the back. I thought, What are they doing here? Then I looked a bit closer and it was Page and Plant.

Andy Blade (Eater): We were supporting. They did an interview that week. They said they’d gone down to check out this new punk rock craze and the Damned were great but Eater have got a lot to learn. And they were right.

I just happen to be reading "I, Shithead," the autobiography of DOA's Joey Shithead. One day in the early 80s, he gets a phone call out of the blue—from Randy Bachman of the Guess Who and Bachman Turner Overdrive. DOA had long played "Taking Care of Business" as an encore. When Bachman heard that DOA was recording a cover of the song for its new album, he decided he wanted to jam with band and joined them onstage at a gig in Vancouver. "It was smokin'," Shithead writes.

DOA also played a benefit with Pete Seeger and Arlo Guthrie. "Seeger said afterward he liked our set."

Yeah DOA were one of those archetypal punk bands who turned relatively slick hard rockers pretty much as soon as they had the chops for it

Springsteen responded okay: co-writing Because the Night; writing Hungry Heart for the Ramones (until Landau clawed it back); listening to Darkness now, you can feel the attack compared to what he'd done before (and when he came to tour it, wasn't he playing the songs at punk pace?).

re DJ Mencap - was it Julian Cope who said US hardcore was made by people who wanted to play Communication but didn't have the chops to do it properly?

Communication Breakdown, sorry.

(Tusk)

Also probably worth mentioning that Blue Oyster Cult put Patti Smith on their album (and had her co-write songs) in 1976.

Patti Smith was writing songs with BOC beginning in '72. I think she was fucking Allen Lanier or Al Bouchard, or both.

As alluded to above they didn't really have to react since punk was no commercial threat Stateside. The Sex Pistols did not break Billboard's Top 100 nor did the Clash until London Calling. Punk's whole media presence was pretty low; some people forget about that or find it hard to comprehend.
Most of the gossipy quotes about punks, supportive or critical, come from the UK.

This is good stuff, thanks. I realize the big acts didn't HAVE to react, I just wondered if any of them liked what they heard and were influenced (as has been cited upthread) or otherwise simply enjoyed punk. There's a good interview with Rick Emerson where he's talking about how it felt like overnight short songs were in and longer songs like his were out. And another with John Lydon where he says "The musicians weren't enemies even if the music was." Links:
http://www.johnlydon.com/nordoff_robbins.html
http://www.keithemerson.com/Gallery/2006Appearances/200603-KEandJR.html
http://www.bloggernews.net/19703

Btw, there's a long related thread somewhere around here about hundreds of aging AOR dinosaurs "going new wave" in 1983 or so, if anybody can figure out what it's called.

damn that Zeppelin track kicks ass, I've never heard that before

― southern dads get tuckered out, totally (Curt1s Stephens), Thursday, December 17, 2009 2:28 AM Bookmark

^^^

That thread xhuxk is talking about is a great read, but yeah, can't remember the title of it either.

1981 = year of 70s dino rockers w modren/wavo comeback LPs

1981 + year of 70s dino rockers w modren/wavo comeback LPs

how did you miss it?

but yeah, shortening the songs and wearing denim and t-shirts instead of white flares with unbuttoned dress shirt it part of it.

Billy Joel said whatever, it was still rock 'n roll to him.

Life in London is bittersweet
Spray canned slogans along the street
Some kind of revolution in the town
Oh razor blades and safety pins you look like a clown

-- Pat Travers, "Life In London," 1977

And, as Gorge pointed out on another thread a couple days ago, Travers was probably writing from experience, given that Topper Headon worked for him, pre-Clash. (Headon: "I got a gig with a guy called Pat Travers and I was sacked from him for not playing the drums hard enough" -- ha.)

I think you just mean "The Sex Pistols", like the spectacle and all. Otherwise I am really not interested. A lot of it is just rock and roll played by kids in torn clothing.

"I'm disappointed in, " he said, and left the club

hay u s steel, make sense one time plz

Yeah, I'm so in on the joke! Thank you for informing me of your games, it's so helpful of you!

you think yr mark e smith dontcha

What is the point of bullying people like this. I think I make perfect sense. I also think this dishonesty has gone on long enough, it has real life consequences.

subscribe me 2 ur newsletter

Again with the personal and threatening remarks. I guess having something intelligent to say about music is not a priority then. I'm not here for personal insinuations, I am here for intelligent discussion of music.

which 70s arena band were u in

It's called read the press, again let's talk about something of interest to everyone. Either that or explain your game why you can't stop seizing on one person, it's creepy.

i played basstar for llama in '76

lol @ "threatening"

No, he's just having one of those magical thinking delusionary periods where he thinks some girl/boy/individual he refers to as "they" that he has exchanged a couple of messages with and has projected all of his hopes and joys onto will somehow manage to be the human embodiment of everything his life has been missing so far.

FULE.

I get that all the time, I love bitchslapping and humiliating sentimental weak people like that. I mean when you can communicate and live like a real person not some sissy sentimental emotional freak maybe someone will care about you.

― i just like barbecue rib, whatever (u s steel), Wednesday, 1 September 2010 20:42 (1 month ago)

what a nice person!

this thread is

FREAKING ME
THE FUCK
OUT

Did you see that emblazoned on a t-shirt in Hong Kong?

Looks like you guys need to spend some time on Love Beach.

http://www.vinylrecords.ch/E/EM/Emerson_Lake_Palmer/Love-Beach/love-beach-10.jpg

Hey, get off my thread if you're not down with the topic!

I recall reading in Creem that Ted Nugent attempted to visit The Clash backstage at one of their Detroit shows, but was informed that the band wouldn't see him unless he cut his hair. A remorseful Joe Strummer lamented later, "That wasn't right. That would be like Aerosmith refusing to see me unless I had my teeth fixed."

And we all know what happened to Ted after that.

He went straight to Love Beach. And shot Emerson, Lake & Palmer with blow darts.

Good article on this subject: https://music.avclub.com/wearing-and-tearing-an-hour-of-classic-rockers-grappli-1826199125

Asked about punk in a 1991 Spin interview with Bob Guccione Jr., Zappa said:

I liked the attitude of punk, I didn’t necessarily like it from a musical standpoint; it is anti-musical. The whole idea was we’re gonna play shitty and fast and so what? The “so what?” part I always like. But anybody who’s against music I don’t like.

Even as late as 1990, Zappa thought punk involved “playing shitty” and was “against music”?

Yes's "Release, Release" sounds like a response to punk, at least lyrically, and the presence of a drum solo saying "Look who can REALLY play" ("Tormato" may be uneven - or, in the parlance of this medium, more "Infatuation Shoreline" than "Love Beach" - but the sequence of "Onward" into "One the Silent Wings of Freedom" is absolutely sublime).

"Sheer Heart Attack" is fucking awesome, and it leads one to wonder what would have resulted had Queen decided to make an entire punk-esque record.

Judas Priest adopted the leather.

Halford said that was more from "rough trade" (not the label)

though musically I think British Steel does a great job of embracing the brevity of new wave

i am also kind fascinated by this general topic - i think the paucity of known info and reactions by the big megastar people is weird - i dont think its too controversial to say that whether you liked it or not that the punk thing was one of the most significant cultural/ musical revolutions of the 20th century and the evidence would suggest many of these acts just lived in such a strange bubble that they just had no reaction to it or didn't know how to react - surely they actually knew about it and had an opinion - maybe they just were't asked the right questions - dont know

Zappa thought punk involved “playing shitty” and was “against music”?

We say noise is for heroes (heroes)
Leave the music for zeros (zeros)
Noise Noise Noise is for heroes (heroes)
Oh yeah

I enjoy tying to imagine the moment and feeling when Jon Anderson realized he’d been lapped

I love the old guys a lot more but kind of feel bad for them

Bowie was a 70s arena band during the era of punk. he headed full on into punk, or at least post-rock, with the Berlin stuff. recorded albums with Iggy Pop and Lou Reed.

T-Rex toured with The Damned and Blondie. apparently he was washed up and considered a one-hit wonder by then (at least in USA) but his final record "Dandy in the Underworld" is a great album w heavy goth/new wave vibes.

Good thread. That AV Club mix is interesting, though mostly abysmal. Wearing and Tearing has to be in the top 5 worst zeppelin tracks and some of the rest are comically bad.

Robert Palmer is the poster boy for "Established star who loved punk & new wave unrepentantly". I had forgotten about his cover of "I Dream Of Wires", it's damn good!

linda ronstadt's take on the ramones -- as academic deep dive into one fractional aspect of the rolling stones -- is interesting. not exactly wrong, per se.

Do you care for punk music at all?

Well, I like the New Wave stuff, and that couldn't possibly land in L.A., because nobody moves that intensely. So, of course, it would have to come to New York, because New York is in a similar situation economically. I mean, it's a similar sort of sociological greenhouse, so to speak, for developing this style of music. The punk stuff is not very musical nor very multifaceted. It seemed to me, when I saw the Ramones, for instance, that they had taken one facet of what Mick Jagger does, which is a kind of stance, maybe one move and maybe one little chip off of an emotional statement, and it was sort of limited to that. Mick Jagger has such a tremendous overview that is so many-faceted that it makes it sound so much more. But if you just take a chunk of it, it doesn't glimmer as much.

Are there any punk rock groups that you've thought made it?

Well, I like Television a whole lot, and I love Elvis Costello. Elvis Costello just touches my heart. The first thing that you associate with him is anger. But there's also tenderness and a great deal of humor.

Have you seen him perform?

I've seen him perform, and I was just mesmerized. I saw him at Hollywood High. I was in the back row and I had to stand on my seat through the whole thing. I mean, I wouldn't stand on my seat for anybody.

Robert Palmer rules

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