Saturday, August 2, 2008

What Is Punk ?

What is Punk ? - Martin Bisi -- with quotes by Lydia Lunch and Legs McNeil

So who am I ?
Let's go where the bio doesn't take us. 1977 - I'm in high school. I ride the subway at night instead of giving 100% to my homework. uhh.. 'Why ?' you ask. Graffiti. Yes that was my empowering activity as a young man. I was contributing to the prodigious chaos that decorated the subway walls and doors of the day. Tellingly, we called this 'bombing' the trains This visual assault of color and seemingly meaningless words, was for the average subway rider, a perfect metaphor for the unhinging of society in the late 70's - the urban blight era that will surely have a mythic place in American history, similar to the Wild West. Well, where does Punk come in ?