EVERY SCENE HAS IT'S DORKS

I've been reading a bit lately, mostly books that I'd forgotten I owned, some never read. Nothing too brainy, just rock stuff. Most of unread ones were picked up more for reference at a later date then a burning desire to read. Really, how many books do you need to read about punk rock before you start reading the same shit over and over. I've been saturated over the years and really had enough of the looking back. But, what the hell, after uncovering some of these in a recent move, I was in the mood for some light reading. One book The England's Dreaming Tapes, is a book of interviews that Jon Savage used for his history of punk book, England's Dreaming. Haven't read the latter, but this interview book is pretty interesting. Even though there's tons of repeated mentions of events, bands, records, cubs, etc., it's interesting to read different players' versions of the same events. How they differ in retrospect depending on the person's station in the punk hierarchy back in the day. 

I never much cared for the Damned, but I thought I was getting a bit more objective about them as the years have gone by. I still haven't ever bought anything by them. When reading Savage's book, I started with a random interview with Mary Harron, a friend of the Punk magazine crew who did time in New York and London in the mid-late seventies. After reading her interview, I remembered what initially turned me off about the Damned. "I thought the The Damned were so dreadful - some ludicrous pre-gothic thing. Music to me was about being minimalist - fast stage act, driving rhythm - or Television's guitar thing. Black, ironic lyrics. It certainly wasn't some nineteen-year-old painted up as Dracula." Ooh, sting like a bee!

~ NOTE: ALL MEDIA IS HOSTED BY THE BLOGS & SITES NAMED BELOW ~

Listen:
The Damned - Neat, Neat, Neat mp3 at Jorge Farah (?)
The Damned - New Rose mp3 at Midwestern Housewives
The Damned - Help (streaming) at YouTube
The Damned - Stab Your Back mp3 at Killed By Death Go there to get it.