Episode #14: Proto-Punk

With last episode (New Wave) exploring the aftermath of the punk explosion, this week I thought it would be interesting to look at what preceded it. Obviously named after the fact, proto-punk was a broad label used to characterize a wide variety of music in the late 1960s and first half of the 1970s. It referred to any music that was difficult to categorize, namely music that was considered avant-garde or on the fringe of popular music.

Here is a fairly representative sampling, ranging from the glam rock of David Bowie, New York Dolls and Brian Eno to more straight-ahead garage rock of The Dictators and MC5. And then there is the godfather of what would become punk music: Iggy Pop. His unbridled (and at times reckless) energy foreshadowed the visceral force that punk would come to embody. And let’s not forget the brooding punk-poets Lou Reed and Patti Smith. While more sonically conventional than, let’s say, The Iggy & The Stooges, their dark and dynamic lyrics are what truly set them apart.

It should be noted that the first and most important band of the proto-punk scene was The Velvet Underground. With their songs depicting the gritty realism of New York’s underbelly of renegade artists, drugs and daring sexual activities, the album The Velvet Underground and Nico is considered today to be one of the most influential rock records of all time as its fingerprints can be seen all over glam, punk, grunge and noise-rock.

Regardless of how you categorize each individual artist/band here, the common thread they all shared is that they challenged the conventional norms of the music of their time by employing new approaches to instrumentation, arrangement and lyrical content (and stage presence, which for some showcased their outrageous sense of style, i.e. New York Dolls and David Bowie). This would provide the fertile ground for punk rock to emerge in the late 1970s.

Give it a listen and enjoy.

Track listing:
1) Kick Out The Jams (2:52) – MC5
2) Down On The Street (3:43) – The Stooges
3) I’m Waiting For The Man (4:37) – The Velvet Underground
4) The Thrill of It All (6:20) – Roxy Music
5) Vicious (3:01) – Lou Reed
6) Panic in Detroit (4:25) – David Bowie
7) Looking For a Kiss (3:18) – New York Dolls
8) The Next Big Thing (4:23) – The Dictators
9) Death May Be Your Santa Claus (4:56) – Mott The Hoople
10) Marquee Moon (10:47) – Television
11) I’m Straight (4:19) – The Modern Lovers
12) Dum Dum Boys (7:13) – Iggy Pop
13) Redondo Beach (3:26) – Patti Smith
14) Here Come The Warm Jets (4:05) – Brian Eno