And Bowie and Roxy Music and Eno and Kevin Ayers and Can and Faust and the Modern Lovers and Patti Smith and the Voidoids and Suicide and Television and Talking Heads and Alternative TV and Ultravox and The Only Ones and The Fall and The Psychedelic Furs and Throbbing Gristle and Cabaret Voltaire etc.
I call them that sometimes, depending on the song. I think the question is whether they were called punk rock way back then. Lenny Kaye did in the liner notes for the Nuggets comp in 1972. I'm pretty sure that Dave Marsh used the term around the same time.
Malcolm McLaren wasn't a member of the Sex Pistols. He was their manager. Is your knowledge really that poor? And Warhol wasn't a member of the Velvet Underground either. Moving on...
Fact. It underpins the sound of the original 1972 'Nuggets'. It was a retroactive term for 60s garage rock "Louie, Louie". "Punk rock" wasn't use to describe contemporaneous music until 1976 with John Holmstrom & Legs McNeil's "PUNK" magazine. Though there might be some use before, in 1975, please add...
Trillin' Trollin' What are you looking for? There are about 20 posts here that have amazingly rich information for you about the development of punk rock and the connections between the VU and the SP. The VU DEFINITELY influenced the SP, directly and I directly. If it makes you feel any better, we all know that the VU did not achieve even a sliver of international interest the SP achieved and maintained for a 2 year period. Everyone will agree on that. The rock narrative is tired, yes, but it is backed up by 1,000s of pieces of journalism. Many documented historical facts. I think you need to bang on some drums, or pots and pans, and make some music of your own now.
Can we stop this nonsense that the Velvet Underground influenced the Sex Pistols. There is zero evidence to back this up. Either musically or factually. John Lydon even said he didn't like them. None of the autobiographies of Glen Matlock, Steve Jones or John Lydon cite them as an influence. There is nothing there!
Nirvana - Nevermind Sex Pistols - Never Mind The Bollocks Oasis - Definitely Maybe Slayer - Reign In Blood Black Sabbath - Black Sabbath
The point is, even if Dave Vanian or whoever didn't mention the Velvet Underground by name, their influence was all over the place in the music many of the original punks were listening to and the idea that bands weren't influenced by the VU until late 80s indie is nonsense. Even the Plastic People of the Universe, behind the Iron Curtain in Czechoslovakia, were covering Velvet Underground songs in the late 60s/ early 70s!
Without Warhol there would be no McLaren. No McLaren, no SP. Do you need the VU to be Dr. Frankenstein and form SP from a glob of mud, will that make you happy?
They were actually all fans of ABBA, Sid even got starstruck when he met them at an airport. The riff for "Pretty Vacant" was also inspired by ABBA's "S.O.S.".
None of the Sex Pistols have said they were influenced by the Velvet Underground. Either in interviews or in their autobiographies. Why do you think you know better than the actual Sex Pistols themselves? Utterly bizarre. I'm pretty sure John, Glen, Steve and Paul know better than you. Don't confuse opinion with fact.
Original London punk group Subway Sect were most definitely influenced by the Velvet Underground by the way!
If it's 'certain parts of music' why say 'music'? if it's the best songs of all time of the English speaking world why say the best songs of all time? if it's the best Rock albums (with assorted Jazz ones) why say the best albums of all time? was the 60s a golden era for music or are we thinking just 'Rock music' when we say that? Don't you see a pattern there? an alarming lack of awareness of a world outside one's own confines and taste? or worse, an absolute lack of respect for those outside those confines? (more like both attitudes are two sides of the same coin, anyway) --------------------------------------------- Even when I was a teenager, in the pre-internet era, eager to devour those Rolling Stone lists of best albums of all time to help my way through Rock music I couldn't help but notice the cultural imperialism implicit in naming those lists the best albums of all time, just so, with no qualification whatsoever. Does really people think that there's no talented musicians around the world that can produce 'best albums of all time' ? Don't get me wrong, most of my personal favorites are Rock and Jazz albums but that doesn't make me infer that there's no tango (Piazzolla!), flamenco, afrobeat, classical, you name it... albums comparable in artistry to the best Rock or Jazz albums. Or generally speaking musical artists as talented as those appearing in those lists?? Could you imagine having the monopoly on painters or sculptors, I wonder? Having said that there's no denying , comparatively speaking, the enormous sway of American vernacular musical styles around the globe during the 2oth century (though the reasons for that go beyond the artistic), their vitality and vibrancy,... Hey! what about Cuba? a poor, small country, in shambles most of the time... unbelievably influential nonetheless... but I'm digressing, that would take us to the Big Bang (musically, culturally speaking) of the African Diaspora, and who cares about that? who cares about being aware that many of those American styles are just part of a bigger phenomenon? Just digressing. I'm tired. Must go to bed.
Malcolm McLaren did not dictate the music the Sex Pistols made. Please do some research. The Sex Pistols were a self contained band.
I'll recaptitulate my point and say it was that first blast of the Beatles -- more than likely I Want To Hold Your Hand on the radio for teenage American boys -- that changed the game. This was fantastic, primordial music just for the young and not particularly hard to play. "And look at those chicks chasing them around! I want to be chased too!" And thus a whole new era of do-it-yourself rock and roll was born in a thousands of garages.
The Hit Makers and The New Sound were the albums. They were defined by singles and these albums that are essentially comps are them.
I've met Glen Matlock on several occasions. Even last year when I was co running the Louder than Words festival in Manchester. He cited the Small Faces, The Kinks and The Doors as being common ground in terms if influence. Never once mentioned the Velvet Underground. So this needs to be put to bed now. You're quite right about ABBA. Glen pinched from SOS for Pretty vacant.
But they covered The Monkees. They weren't influenced by then though. There are no self-contained artists. Sorry if that is upsetting news to you.
Oh, right McLaren didn't dictate the music to the SP. Right, he didn't influence them either. Boing!!!!