The First Punk: The band Noel Gallagher said invented an entire genre
Punk rock as a concept isn’t something that could have been thought about. From the moment that Sex Pistols began in the late 1970s and Ramones started tearing up venues half a world away, it was more of a visceral reaction to the kind of prog-rock pretentiousness clogging up the airwaves around the same time. Noel Gallagher may have considered himself a card-carrying member of punk rockers, but he thought that the genesis of the genre lay in Pete Townshend.
Before the punk movement had even gotten underway, there was the psychedelic side of rock and roll. In an era when everyone was talking about how everything was great and that we needed to come together in harmony, The Who was looking to just kick out the jams and make the loudest music possible.
Because let’s remember…the arrival of the band dates bands like MC5 and The Stooges by quite a few years. By the time Iggy Pop started strutting across the stage, Townshend had already developed a science out of taking his guitar and smashing it to pieces by the time they took to the stage.
Just like bands like Sex Pistols, Townshend also rebelled in his own way. Since the band wasn’t going to get anywhere playing the same types of R&B covers, Townshend’s anthem ‘My Generation’ was the archetype for what punk rock was supposed. The genre may not have had a name yet, but let’s call it for what it is. A song based on just two chords and singing about how angry you are at the world? He may not have claimed to be the father of punk, but a musical blood test may be in order.
Either way, the band’s music was more than enough to influence Noel just as much as his favourite Beatles songs. While Liam did his best impression of John Lennon crossed with John Lydon, some of the gargantuan songs in the Oasis canon feel like they are indebted to the way Townshend uses chords, like the pure swagger in ‘Rock and Roll Star’ or turning ‘All Around the World’ into the kind of rock opera a la ‘A Quick One While He’s Away’.
When the band were first given accolades for their work, even Noel had to bow down when talking about Townshend, remembering in Supersonic, “Pete Townshend was one of my idols; if there wasn’t Townshend and The Who, there wouldn’t have been punk rock”. Even in a world full of prog rock, Townshend still found ways to work around the conventional ways of writing music.
Sure, he may have traded in his punk rock ethics for grandiose operas like Quadrophenia, but Townshend never forgot about that spirit behind every great tune he created, turning in songs that were just as emotional as they were when he was in his 20s. It’s not that hard to pinpoint the trajectory of his music, either, becoming a favourite of The Jam’s Paul Weller, who would become one of Noel’s idols as well.
Then again, punk rock was never intended to be just a genre of music. It was a state of mind that you were either born with or you weren’t, and as far as Noel was concerned, Townshend was the kind of rock and roll father figure that any aspiring musician should see themselves in.
