The musicians Joey Ramone crowned as the very first punks: “They made music that evoked those emotions”
An early use of the term “punk” in the context of describing crock ‘n’ roll came from Lester Bangs, who, reviewing The MC5’s debut album for Rolling Stone in 1969, criticised the record and described the band as looking like “a bunch of 16-year-old punks on a meth power trip”.
Bangs, named “the godfather of punk journalism” by writer Clinton Heylin, inadvertently changed the course of how “punk” was used. The term dates back to Shakespeare, who used the term in his works The Merry Wives of Windsor and Measure for Measure, in the context of it being synonymous with a prostitute. “Punk” grew into a more generalised, negative connotation, used sparsely by the music press to describe something or someone unfavourable. Bangs’ use of the descriptor, however, signalled a difference: whether Bangs intended it or not, “punk” was beginning to define the burgeoning sound and attitude that, from its beginnings, were polarising.
In 1975, Bangs wrote a letter to a friend that acknowledged he had “influenced a certain minuscule subculture of teenage misfits with rock ‘n’ roll fanaticism and sometimes literary aspirations, who like to think of themselves as ‘punks’”.
“Punk” became a term that could be attached to just about any musician with a supposed edge: Jim Morrison was described as having a “street punk-choir boy voice” in the Cincinnati Enquirer. Fort Lauderdale News described a band as the “lowest point in bad taste: the rock band of young punks at a remodelled nightclub which hung a placard on the bass drum with a phrase containing a four-letter word”.
The Detroit Free Press asserted, “There are two types of kids: good kids and punks.”
Seemingly, “punk” was equal parts hated and intriguing, a label placed on musicians and their sound when there was little else to use in its place, to describe its complexity.
Since “punk” began to proliferate across music journalism and beyond, the term shifted from an all-encompassing definition for guitar rock to a highly contested word, debated in its authenticity whenever one dared to use it. But if anyone could declare what “punk” truly was, it would be one of punk’s greatest voices, Joey Ramone.
As the Ramones’ frontman, Joey’s recognisable croon soundtracked the genre’s sound. As his bandmate, bassist Dee Dee Ramone described, “All the other singers [in New York] were copying David Johansen (of the New York Dolls), who was copying Mick Jagger… But Joey was unique, totally unique.”
Joey’s punk ethos was summarised as such: “To me, punk is about being an individual and going against the grain and standing up and saying, ‘This is who I am,’” he once proclaimed. As a child, he was fanatical about The Beatles, The Who and David Bowie, coming of age at a time when their interpretations of rock ‘n’ roll radicalised and shocked listeners around the world. Naturally, Joey took notice, as he would later adopt a similar mindset of creating music that felt authentic, above all else.
“To me, John Lennon and Elvis Presley were punks,” he continued, “Because they made music that evoked those emotions in people. And as long as people are making music that does that, punk rock is alive and well.”
“Punk” may very well be contested until the end of time, but if Joey’s definition accounts for anything, it is the spirited, individualistic approach to creating music that gives the term its timelessness.
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