A Bukowski sighting (1 Viewer)

poetlizard

Founding member
I was flipping through a Men's Health mag last night at the library.. and there were a couple of quotes to jumpstart the new year.. among them was this:


"You begin saving the world by saving one man at a time; all else is grandiose romanticism or politics."


Charles Bukowski


Thought is was funny to see a quote from Bukowski in a magazine such as this..
 
Bukowski THE BRAND is coming or already upon us.
Dropping the name seems to give any page some credibility.
He is the "Keef" of poetry-minus the falling out of a tree having a blood transfusion or performing for the blind.

Separate thought (should be a separate thread I suppose)
Interesting question (at least to me) is Bukowski a noun or a verb.
 
Bukowski THE BRAND is coming...
At this point I think it's more a case of someone who really digs Bukowski being in a position to throw that in there.

I was really shocked when I first heard a Ramones song in an ad or the Stooges Search and Destroy as the only audio in a Nike commercial, but if you think about it, the first wave of punks are all in their 40's or (perish the thought) early 50's now. With goatees, eyeglasses and soft little bellies and important jobs all over the place, even in advertising.

In the world of journalism (if a men's health magazine is journalism) I wouldn't be surprised if there are a lot of folks out there waiting for the perfect opportunity to drop some Bukowski on an unsuspecting public. To us, seeing it will bring that strange shock of recognition, and to someone who's never heard of him, maybe it will pique their curiosity.

As unlikely as "Bukowski as a brand" seems, it's nowhere near as unlikely as the Stooges as a brand (see below), so it won't surprise me if/when it happens. There is always a new generation looking for a template to model their rebellion on. ;)

stooges9ey2.jpg


stoogesIg9.jpg
 
they're some wonderful pics: thanks for throwing them in! i remember seeing iggy on a late night british tv show called "the word." he was wearing plastic see-through jeans with the fly undone and his pubic hair showing. ha. on british tv! i ask you. :D
 
I remember Iggy jumping on me and my pals at a concert in 1982 (25 years ago) and saying while in our arms "man the chiccks here have great tits.

I also recall Iggy on some late night talk show Sam Donaldson or someone equally prosaic discussing Dionysian ethics and the joys of vaccumming.
By the end of the interview you could tell Iggy had made a new fan-no dummy this Mr Osterberg
 
if you think about it, the first wave of punks are all in their 40's or (perish the thought) early 50's now. their rebellion on. ;)

yeah, I just found out that Patti Smith.
not trying to get into an arguement whether she is a punk or not, but in my mind she is.
christ, 60!
not that it's bad to be 60, it just seems like it should always be be 1976 for her.
but I digeress.
 
Patti Smith ... christ, 60!
Well, then she is old enough to have been a hippie in the late sixties!
I love her music. I have all the albums with The Patti Smith Group. After that period her music became somewhat "softer", unfortunately (imo)...
 
Yes, she was a little older (not much) than most of the first wave of punks in New York, and her band was already established when the CBGB scene was just taking hold. But I wouldn't knock her out of the punk rock class. She's definitely punk, and was certainly an inspiration to many of the musicians that are more commonly thought of as "punk."

Everyone knows punk started in Detroit in 1969 anyway, when the first Stooges album came out. ;)
 
Everyone knows punk started in Detroit in 1969 anyway, when the first Stooges album came out. ;)

Actually, I would argue that "Kick Out the Jams" by the MC5, which preceded The Stooges album, contained the first hints of punk. You got the city right, though. Of course, there is no right answer.
 
The only reason I'd argue against the MC5 is that their music was sort of typical of the era. They had the Detroit, fuck-you-hippies-we're-burning-this-joint-to-the-ground attitude, but the music always fell short for me.

The Stooges was off the fucking wall as far as the sound of the thing is concerned. The reviews of it at the time pretty much universally called it an unlistenable piece of crap. Which tells you that it was different, if nothing else.

But yeah, I guess the first Alice Cooper (Detroit again) album in 1969 was also called an unlistenable piece of crap, but it sure wasn't punk.

And you're right, there is no right answer.
 
Well if there is no right answer then I'm going to say Carburetor Dung by The Count Five. Or Boom by The Sonics.

Maybe it was the Nuggets compilation from 1972, a bunch of one-hit garage bands, that Lenny Kaye (so it was Patti Smith after all!) put together.
 
that Nuggets compilation is stellar.
I haven't listened to the Sonics in a while. oversight. thanks digney.
 
But "Psychotic Reaction" by The Count Five was very real, and an great song to boot.

With the possible exception of Harry Smith's "Anthology of American Folk Music,""Nuggets" is probably the best compilation ever (I still have my vinyl copy though I don't even have a working turntable anymore). And then there's The Kingsmen's version of "Louie Louie"... another percursor to punk rock.
 
Reading you guys getting nostalgic for your lost youth in the late 70s - early 80s is making me feel freaking ancient. By then, I was established in a career, a working man, with kids to feed. I heard about punk bands but was too busy, too tired to check it out. Now, I too have a certain nostalgia for the 80s. But my lost youth is back somewhere in the Sixties. Bunch of babies! Rock on...
 
Reading you guys getting nostalgic for your lost youth in the late 70s - early 80s

that's funny, david, (reverse side of the coin) it makes me feel young!

i was always given to believe punk originated in london, that it was a british phenomenon. (now i'm going to get it!)
 
malcolm mcclaren managed the new york dolls and fell in love with the image of richard hell and went back to london to replicate those things the best he could.
a little like euro disney.
so, new york. in my opinion.
but england has a way of making american music sound very good and very hip and sometimes play it better.
 
The dress that most people associate with punk (and that some goofy kids continue to sport to this day) was first merchandised in London (by McLaren as hoochmonkey9 pointed out), but that look was taken from the streets of New York.

The music though, has roots long before Richard Hell or John Lydon (or the Ramones) came up with a "look" that people could latch on to. The New York Dolls did an English tour in 1972 that planted the seeds for British punk, and they were doing the same thing here in the states with their small tours and NYC shows.

But the Dolls music was rooted in the blues, which is why I go back to the Stooges whose goal, basically, was to make the loudest, most aggressive noise anyone had heard. Neither band were skilled musicians, and that kind of, "hey, if they can do it, so can we," attitude is what punk is all about.
 
I wouldn't argue too long or hard against The Stooges. But what about The Velvet Underground? Somewhere I read/heard that The Beatles inspired thousands to start bands but that everyone that heard The VU did start a band. I didn't, but I tend to be difficult (and realistic).
 
the velvet underground helped take the blues out of rock and roll. as mjp pointed out, that was a major step towards punk. a lot of people point to vu as the grandfathers of punk. definite major influences, anyway.
I dunno. I just like to listen.
 
At this point I think it's more a case of someone who really digs Bukowski being in a position to throw that in there.

I was really shocked when I first heard a Ramones song in an ad or the Stooges Search and Destroy as the only audio in a Nike commercial, but if you think about it, the first wave of punks are all in their 40's or (perish the thought) early 50's now. With goatees, eyeglasses and soft little bellies and important jobs all over the place, even in advertising.

In the world of journalism (if a men's health magazine is journalism) I wouldn't be surprised if there are a lot of folks out there waiting for the perfect opportunity to drop some Bukowski on an unsuspecting public. To us, seeing it will bring that strange shock of recognition, and to someone who's never heard of him, maybe it will pique their curiosity.

As unlikely as "Bukowski as a brand" seems, it's nowhere near as unlikely as the Stooges as a brand (see below), so it won't surprise me if/when it happens. There is always a new generation looking for a template to model their rebellion on. ;)



stooges9ey2.jpg


stoogesIg9.jpg

I think those are actually from The Metallic K.O. final Stooges gigs, aren't they? Or from the Raw Power days... humm.

Me and my brother we have hundreds of Iggy and the Stooges LPs and CDs (needless to say most bootlegs/picture discs/eps)

The Search and Destroy Nike ad was around the time of the Olympics of.... 2000? I was amazed. The ad was kickass, they even had a guy puking on the track after a race, and others falling down, if I recall... really the hard side of the life of track and field athletes.
 
The pics are from '72, pre Raw Power.

Funny I just saw a whole book of Stooges pics by this photographer a couple days ago. And I believe they were all from 1972.
 
I've got a book of photos of Iggy and the Stooges by Mick Rock, that 1972 era. But it doesn't include the photos you've posted. Those definitely look pre-72.
 
I agree that Punk started with Iggy but if you listen to the first Stooges album you can see the similiarity with what was called garage bands in the mid to later sixties, the Louie Louie/Hang on Sloopy bands and in fact, they were pegged as punk by some writer at that time.

The seventies usuage of Punk was started by John Holstrom and Punk magazine, who just thought it was a neat name for a paper, to cover the original rock scene of New York at the time which included The Ramones, Blondie, Talking Heads etc.

The punks in England all started after the Ramones first tour there when member of the Sex Pistols, Clash and others were in the crowd.

And yes, Malcolm, who was basically a clothes shop owner brought back his ideas from Richard Hell and did want him as the singer of the Pistols.
 
Funny, I noticed a "new" issue of Punk! on the magazine stands a week or so ago. Holstrom involved with it.

While going through the High Times microfilm at a local university I came across a Legs McNeil story, "I Remember Punk!". Didn't copy it as I was focussed on the Bukowski stuff. Came up with about 100 pages of it. Took a couple trips there and a few hours. Worth the time and effort.

Lastly, seems like the term "punk" was being bandied about before the Holstrom magazine. Rockandroll fanzines by Greg Shaw, etc., were trying to find a term to describe the Shadows of Knight, Richard and the Young Lions, etc. A 1974 Shaw publication is attached.

Bomp12.jpg
 

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