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Wednesday, September 23, 2009

England in the 70's

Posted by david_o at 8:11 AM

England in the 70’s was miserable. Awful. Black. Monotone. Dirty. It was the worst of times. It was the best because I was young. I had some money (student grants and the dole in the summer – I pity kids these days) and I was invincible (well not really. I was stupid really). The country was in the middle of a depression. The 60’s, swinging London stuff didn’t really make it ooop north until the 70’s. If you went to sleep in the 30’s and woke up in the 70’s you wouldn’t have seem too much change. England really didn’t start to modernize until the 90’s – when they discovered food, and design, and architecture, and heating. It was all very Withnail and I (if you haven’t seen it you are missing out on one of life’s true treats). The whole country was scruffy! So I fit right in. It’s no wonder I loved the Brinsleys so much. They were bright. Cheerful. Danceable. If they weren’t playing we’d have to go see John Entwhistle’s band, or Steve Gibbons, or Focus. Or Jack Bruce Solo projects. Or Curved Air (oh my God). Yuk. It wasn’t until Punk hit that the country really woke up. It changed everything. I lost 18 inches of hair. I discovered Jonathan Richman – pretended to like the Velvet Underground (didn’t really understand them until last year but I definitely heard them then). I hung on for dear life to my country-rock obsessions and ended up trying to square that with going to see the Stranglers. I saw Emmylou Harris at her first English show in 75 and Bruce Springsteen (the future of rock and roll) the same year. In 12 months it was all gone. Destroyed. Replaced by sweaty clubs and three chords. Most of what what called Punk that I saw in Birmingham was horrible (Surburban Studs anyone) but it meant everyone suddenly had to try harder – change or die, Once the Ramones/Talking Heads tour took place it was all over. Love it or hate it. Punk opened up the world for everyone involved. Reggae was always popular in the UK but after punk it was massive. Joe Ely toured with the Clash. Rockabilly was fun again. We could all join in. I started to realize I could too and started playing. I wanted to be in the Records not the Pistols mind. But it made it all seem doable. Available. As I said most of what you saw was crap. But they were up there doing it, making it happen. I look at the state of music today – with American Idol and its sheer availability and realize that was a time that will never be recreated. We went through many generations of change in popular music in basically 10 year cycles. 56 – Elvis, 66 – well everything, 76 Punk, early 80’s Rap, 90’s Dance music, 00’s nothing. Nada. It’s all too easy and all too fragmented. You can’t create the buzz you did when you changed a country – or the world (or the white middle class world you live in). The access is great – I wouldn’t have been inspired to waffle on like this without the connectively and sheer availability of music that we have today – and there’s great, great music out there still being made but…am I being cynical, boring or just too old to think that the idea that you can change the world through music is outdated and music as a cultural force is over. Dead. Sure you can bring people together (Live Aid/Earth whatever it was) but it was to see Madonna and Pink Floyd reform and we all went home to Chiswick or Long Island afterwards. Maybe I’m looking in the wrong place. Maybe the century of American influence is over. I think it is. It’s a small world and getting smaller and people have more important things to do – like consuming.  

 

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