The “anti-pop” Neil Young tour that helped invent punk rock
Nobody can seem to agree on the one sole creator of punk rock.
Debates surrounding the origins of the genre have waged on for decades, pinned to everybody from Screamin’ Jay Hawkins to Patti Smith. Not many, however, would cite Neil Young as the true pioneer of punk rock.
Long before bondage trousers, safety pins, and gobbing came into fashion in the mid-1970s, Young made his first marks on the music industry as a part of the hippie boom of the previous decade. Alongside Buffalo Springfield, the Canadian artist’s output pushed the boundaries of an already rich and expansive era, continuing with the decision to embark on a solo career in 1968.
Coincidentally, the abrasive tunes of punk gurgled up from the bowels of culture to provide a foundation for the garage rock movement, confident with pioneers like The MC5 and The Stooges at the helm. However, Young’s work during that period tended to be much more mellow. His 1972 masterpiece Harvest, for instance, was a folk rock triumph, building upon his early experiences with Buffalo Springfield and his collaborations with Crosby, Stills, and Nash; there was none of the abrasive, rock subversion which was building in clubs like CBGBs at the time.
Still, one of the prevailing reasons for Young’s ever-enduring impact on the music world is his penchant for reinventing his sound, incorporating everything from those timeless folk efforts to old school rockabilly into his work. During the mid-1970s, that journey saw Young unapologetically adopt a distinctly experimental, anti-pop approach to music on the controversial classic Tonight’s The Night.
A crowning jewel of Young’s discography, imbued with a kind of subversive power and raw spontaneity, the album is now rightfully hailed among his greatest work, but its initial release in 1975 certainly alienated some of Young’s pre-existing fans. After all, it was quite the departure from his previous work, and that disparity became clear during the songwriter’s tour of the album. Nevertheless, the tour did earn Young a new breed of fan, including architects of the punk age, like the Sex Pistols.
According to Young’s manager, Elliott Roberts, Sid Vicious once cited Young’s Tonight’s The Night Tour as a major influence, “because it was so dark and raw and anti-pop and he had done none of his old songs.”
Reflecting on that transformative tour, Roberts told the Neil Young Appreciation Society’s Broken Arrow publication, “The fans booed it after they thought he was gonna do another half of the show when in fact the show was over.”
Adding, “And on some level it was that anti-pop attitude that people interpret as the start of the punk movement which was an aggression and hostility. “
If you look at the dates of the UK leg of the Tonight’s The Night tour, in 1976, Young’s appearances did coincide with the early days of the Sex Pistols and the blossoming punk scene of London. Although the Buffalo Springfield songwriter wasn’t as overt in his punk influence as the likes of Iggy Pop or the New York Dolls, his unapologetic anti-pop sensibilities during that time were certainly adopted by the harbingers of the punk revolution, Sid Vicious included.
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