Punk Turns 30

Sun Studio, Memphis, TN On this date in 1977, Elvis Presley died. Do you remember where you were when you heard? I do. I was in my car, driving home from work across Sunset Blvd. and was making the left turn on La Brea up to my apartment at the corner of La Brea and Franklin - the Famous Lobotomy Apartment. I was listening to the AM radio station KRLA, as I often did. They played more than the usual number of Elvis songs in a row, and as one does, I asked myself, "what, did he die or something?" Well, yeah... he did. What, you may be asking, does Elvis Presley have to do with punk rock? Well - if you have to ask.... Elvis has everything to do with popular music - for every generation, but mostly, in the big picture, at the time he broke out, Elvis represented something unique in American popular culture for American youth. Yes, I could take you down one the road of those post-modern, socialist, Marxist type analyses of post-war youth culture and popular culture product...

August 13, 1961 - Berlin is divided. Just about everyone who became active in punk rock was just a child, and some were not quite born yet. Most of us in the Old Skool grew up under the shadow of the Cold War and the Berlin Wall. I post this photo of the Sex Pistols because they name-check the Berlin Wall in their humorous song, "Holidays In the Sun." Oddly enough, on this date in 1926, a major player in the Cold War, Fidel Castro was born. In 1521, the Aztec nation fell to an invading Cortez (the Killer). Not a good month in terms of peace and quiet, August...there was some rock n roll rumbling on this day in 1952. On this day in 1952, the original version of "Hound Dog" was recorded by Willie Mae (Big Mama) Thornton. It was the first hit for the song-writing team of Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller. (The also wrote "Kansas City," which was a hit for Wilbert Harrison, and I've got to say that the cute Beatle, Paul, sang a killer cover of it; ...