Punk Turns 30

Flyer by Dawn Wirth Andy Warhol coined that term "15 minutes of fame" and whether he was a visionary about the way of the postmodern world or whether he merely picked up on and articulated a fledgling phenomena, he had his finger on THEE meme of the 20th and now 21st Century. Everyone who wants to make a splash in the public eye is looking for that 15 minutes ... On August 6, we celebrate what would have been Andy's 81st birthday. It difficult for me to wrap my around the fact that my late mother was born just two years before Andy. They're in and of the same generation - but one rarely thinks of their mom as "hip" and "trendsetting," although my mother was an artist and fashion designer... she was also my mom, the disciplinarian... but I digress. Andy Warhol, in the 60s, mid-wifed the precursors of punk rock, The Velvet Underground. John Cale He was their patron and he designed that famous album cover with the banana - The Velvet Underground ...

This photo is included in the book by Holly George Warren - PUNK 365 It was also exhibited at L'Univerre Gallery, Paris, France as part of Paris Photo, November 2007. It was part of a group show honoring Billy Name This photograph was taken on John Cale 's birthday in 1977 (March 9). On that day, he played the Starwood, a short-lived club in West Hollywood, California. By 1977, Cale was already a larger than life legend to me - not just for his part in the Velvet Underground, but for such stunning solo works as Slow Dazzle and perhaps one of the best records ever made by anyone, Paris 1919 . Little did I know in 1977 that five years later, I would have the opportunity to work with John Cale in my role at Island Records. That job enabled me to see countless more Cale shows in support of Music For a New Society and Caribbean Sunset . The job also allowed me to have one-on-one time with a man I deem a genius. While I probably spent only 24 hours in the aggregate with him, th...

I am proud to announce the publication of this book because there are 3 Punk Turns 30 photos inside! The folks at Harry N. Abrams did a beautiful job of putting the hard work of all the photographers and of the author, Holly George Warren together in a compact, substantial piece of coffee-table quality art book. A must! Makes a great gift! Here's the blurb from Amazon.com (who I am sure would want you to buy it from them, so let me leave you with this link to its page on Amazon ) Book Description Thirty-plus years ago a dark rumble of noise gurgled up from the Lower East Side of New York City, made its way across the Atlantic to Great Britain, zigzagged back over the pond to the West Coast, and exploded. Its name — Punk. In Punk 365, the most provocative photography documenting the performances, the looks, and the attitude has been gathered together, revealing reverberations that continue to shake up the status quo. Here we see it all: Pre-punk pioneers, the Stooges, the New Y...

It doesn't matter which artist you believe was the original, inadvertent inventor of punk rock - The Stooges are right up there among them... The New York Dolls are among them, as are the MC5. Lou Reed is also credited with being one of punk's godfathers. So, let's go back to the Velvet Underground, and their wall of heavy distortion, feedback, loud guitars, fuzzy amps, low-band thumping, reliable chick drummers and the passing Teutonic chanteuse. Throw some Andy Warhol in there for art's sake and voila - another punk precursor possessing the harbinger elements that would influence the people who we would later call "punk rock." If you go but one step into the credits for so much of what is considered important in rock n roll, and in the progression that gave us punk rock, you will always see that John Cale was present in a most important way. As a producer, Cale guided the musical outcome of important punk rock and proto punk debut albums by The St...

I have always believed that punk rock got both its art factor and its “ok-to-play-even-though-you-don’t-know-how-to” factor from the Velvet Underground. They were equal parts music master and music neophyte. While other bands of the era were still singing about relationships between boys and girls, the Velvets were singing about the psychological side of things…the personal demons and darkness at the edge of the soul, staring into the abyss of heroin addiction against a guitar riff as dirty as that needle on the intersection of Lexington/125. The 60s was a decade both beautiful and brutal – and it is reflected perfectly in the music of the Velvet Underground. This beauty/brutality dialectic has always been present in the music of the underground, whether it was rock n roll in its nascent years, or punk rock, which took that dialectic all the way to the mainstream. I mean… when Jaguar, a symbol of elite Britain selects The Clash’s “London Calling” to advertise itself…I guess we mus...

Poet, punk rocker, Mother... that's Patti Smith, who has always been each of those ever since I first heard "Horses" oh so many years ago. In the winter of 1975, I was a French symbolist poetry-loving student when my friend Bill, who worked at the cool indie record store in town, thrust a copy of "Horses" at me. He said I'd love it and there was nothing to lose, as it was produced by John Cale, former Velvet Underground member, and producer of the Stooges and solo artist of great acclaim himself. That was enough for me. John Cale was already a genius in my book. One listen was all it took. Patti's version of "Gloria," the song made famous by Van Morrison and Them began with her own poetic interpretation ideologies embraced by existentialists and gnostics alike and reminded me of Jean Genet. That it rocked hard and chaotically was a big bonus. Further...looking at the album cover, seeing her band...she had conscripted for her drummer,...