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garystormsongs

garystormsongs

Tag Archives: Punk

“(The Cover of a) Punk Magazine” by Gary Storm and Extra Cheese

24 Friday May 2013

Posted by garystormsongs in Music I Love

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019890, 48 Thrills, 999, Allied Propaganda, Alternative Ulster, Anarchy in the UK, Auguste Pages, Aunt Helen, Biff Bank Pow, Big Hits, Big Star, Billboard, Bomp, Bondage, Bored Stiff, Boston Groupie News, Boston Rock, Brainwash, Cashbox, Chainsaw, Count Viglione, Cowabunga, Electronic Media, Eurock, Extra Cheese, For Adolphs Only, Fuggit, Future, Gabba Gabba Hey, Gary Storm, Guilty of What, Hard Korps, I Wanna Be Your Dog, In the City, International Anthem, Jamming, John Holmstrom, Kill Your Pet Puppy, Live Wire, Melody Maker, Mouth of the Rat, Necrology, Negative Reaction, New Age, New Beat, New Music Review, New Wave Journal, New York Rocker, NME, Oh Cardiff Up Yours, Oil of Dog, OP, Panache, Pig Paper, Private World, Punk, punk fanzine, punk magazine, punkzine, Radio and Records, Radio Free Rock, Record World, Ripped and Torn, Ripper, Rising Free, Rockers, Rolling Stone, Rotten to the Core, S'Punk, Scene, Search and Destroy, Shy Talk, Skum, Slash, Sniffin Glue, Syne, Teenage Rampage, The Good, Touch and Go, Trouser Press, UpBeat, Varulven, Woof, Worcester Rock and Roll News, Young Fast and Scientific, ZigZag

Video Text1Learn more about punk fanzines on this page:  Punk Fanzines

Learn more about music industry publications on this page:  Industry Publications

My song, “(The Cover of a) Punk Magazine” is a celebration of independent punk journalism.  It is also a wink and a nod to Shel Silverstein who wrote Dr. Hook’s hit, “Cover of the Rolling Stone.”

Punk rock was a return to the garage roots of real rock’n’roll.  It was a repudiation of the music industry of the late 1970s.

Thus, punk was a revolt against the inflexible control of the record industry by four colossal corporations:  Warner, CBS, RCA, and EMI.

Punk was also a mutiny against commercial top 40 and classic rock radio stations that stringently resisted any new sounds.

And punk was an uprising against the journalism that gave press only to music released by the four record company monoliths.

The punks said, We will create our own record companies.  And they did, and thousands of tiny labels, many with only a single 45 rpm in their catalog, popped up all over the world.

The punks said, We will find radio stations and clubs that will play our music.  And they did, and non-commercial radio and punk clubs became havens where the punkers could listen and dance to their music.

And they said, We will publish our own fanzines.  And they did, and thousands of rags, type set with scissors and glue and typewriters, printed by mimeograph and photocopy, and distributed by hand, popped up in thousands of towns.

My song, “(The Cover of a) Punk Magazine” is about this massive outpouring of punkzines.

On the pages linked to this post, I present, for your review and examination, all of the fanzines that are imaged in my song’s video.  Not all the fanzines are strictly punk magazines, but they were all part of the independent music journalism that the punks promulgated.  They can all be seen on this page: Punk Fanzines

I also mention in the song the bad guys:  the major commercial publications that, with few exceptions, never recognized the importance of the punk movement.  Images and information about some of the industry publications can be found on this page: Industry Publications

I hope that anyone who was responsible for any of these great fanzines realizes that my video, my song, and these images are a celebration of your accomplishments.  If you object to being a part of this project please contact me personally at oilofdog@inbox.com and I will remove you.

Please share my song “(The Cover of a) Punk Magazine.”

Elvis Costello

14 Saturday Apr 2012

Posted by garystormsongs in Music I Love

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Billy Strayhorn, Cole Porter, Duke Ellington, Elvis Costello, Gershwin, Irving Berlin, Less Than Zero, Mercer, Punk, Rogers and Hart, Saturday Night Live, Stiff Records, Watching the Detectives

So back in ‘77 Louie the Mad Vinyl Junkie gives me a copy of this weird album called A Bunch of Stiff Records.  It’s an anthology of several British rockers and one of them is this odd guy with glasses named Elvis Costello who does a fantastic song called “Less Than Zero.”  I’m the first to broadcast Elvis in this area, maybe in the U.S., maybe almost anywhere.  Pretty soon I’m hunting up singles like “Radio Sweetheart,” “Alison,” and “Red Shoes,” and his first album arrives like the grail many of us rock’n’rollers have been questing for years.

And then in December 1977 we gathered around the TV box to watch him on Saturday Night Live, and there he was, playing the opening chords to “Less Than Zero,” and suddenly he stopped the band, said “Radio Radio,” and launched right into it, and we couldn’t believe it, what an incredible song, and it smacked the whole morbid music industry right in the kisser, just like we always hoped somebody would do, and it got him banished from U.S. television for years thereafter.  It was as important as when Pete Seeger sang “Waist Deep in the Big Muddy” on the Smothers Brothers Show ten years earlier.

In the ensuing years it became apparent that Elvis was not merely a great progenitor of punk, a reviver of real rock’n’roll, a grouchy icon of the new music – he was all that, but even the wicked mountebanks of the music industry came to realize he was also one of the greatest songwriters who ever lived.  In the history of popular music his name will be listed along with Cole Porter, George and Ira Gershwin, Johnny Mercer, Rogers and Hart, Irving Berlin, Billy Strayhorn, and Duke Ellington.  He’s that great a songwriter.

There was the time Linda and I went to see Elvis in Rochester.  What a great show, and afterwards, as we were making our way to the exit, a member of the stage crew came up and handed Linda a backstage pass.  Cool!  Maybe we can talk to Elvis.  We followed the crew guy to the stage entrance and he turned around and said, wait a minute, pointing to me, he can’t go with you.  Well he’s my husband, said Linda.  Well forget it, he said, and he stalked off to find another cutie for the King’s pleasure.

I flash back to the first time Elvis came to Buffalo and did the song I’m listening to now, “Watching the Detectives.”  The show was at Buffalo State College, in a small restaurant-style room, and Elvis walks right out off the stage and on to the tables, and he crosses the tables until he comes to mine, and he reaches his hand to – Me!  I hand him my pen.  Re throws it down.  My cup. He slaps it away.  My hand.  He pulls me up on the table.  Help!  I’m trying to decide what to do.  I put my hands into the back pockets of my Wranglers, and stare him in the eyes, and wiggle my skinny ass back and forth to the rhythms of the song, as he sings, “It only took my little fingers to blow you away!”  HELP!!!

Elvis Costello, “Watching the Detectives,” Street Music Co. (1977).  From Elvis Costello & The Attractions, “Watching the Detectives/Blame it on Caine/Mystery Dance” (45 rpm EP), Stiff Records, Ltd., Buy 20 (1977).  Sleeve design – not credited.

Patrik Fitzgerald

04 Sunday Mar 2012

Posted by garystormsongs in Music I Love

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1970s, Patrik Fitzgerald, Punk, Punk Folk, Safety Pin Stuck in My Heart

Acoustic guitar, no drums, no bass, no electricity, no amps, no chords, no broken eardrums.  Pure punk.  In my experience, Patrik Fitzgerald, was the first punk folk singer.  And this is surely one of the first punk ballads:

I don’t love you for your tattered tie
I don’t love you, and I don’t know why
I just love you for that
Beat – beat – beat – beat – beating
I’ve got a safety pin stuck in my heart
For you, for you.

The messages of his songs are melancholy, bitter, and true.  He seems to sing glaring from the corner of a bare room.  My copy of his first record is autographed with the strange inscription, “There was a man from Okinawa . . . . .”

Patrik Fitzgerald, “Safety Pin Stuck in My Heart,” No publisher (1977).  From Patrik Fitzgerald, Safety Pin Stuck in My Heart, 45 rpm E.P., Small Wonder Records, Small Four (1977).  Art – Final Solution.

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