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lirik lagu history of punk on the lower east side – jeffrey lewis

ok. this is august 26th 2004. we’re gonna try and go through this in one live take
the complete history of the development of punk on new york’s lower east side from 1950 to 1975

we start with harry smith in 1950, a beatnik weirdo living in new york city
his huge collections were insane, of easter eggs and paper airplanes
and rare records, he had around a million and sixty
to change america through music was his hope
and to make some money because he was broke
he compiled a triple decker collection of songs from his records
released as the smithsonian anthology of american folk

“on monday morning just about 9 o’clock
the great ship titanic began to reel and rock
husbands and wives, little children lost their lives
wasn’t it sad, wasn’t it sad, when that ship went down”

smith’s plan began to work as foretold
this weird music began to take hold
that sparked an interest in these forms of life underground from the norms
and soon millions of folk records were being sold
by the early sixties, dylan, baez, phil ochs
were doing intellectualized copies of the old folks
then one strange folk band downtown called the holy modal rounders
began to make it more anarchistic, with weird voices and drug jokes

“moms out there, switchin’ in the kitchen
and dads in the living room, fussin’ and a-b-tchin’
i’m out here, kicking the gong for euphoria
euphoria – when your mind starts reelin’ and a-walkin’
inside voices start squealin’ and a-squawkin’
floating around on a ballad on a cloud
singing euphoria”

in ’64 that was, then in ’65, lou reed and john cale in a ludlow street dive
had a similar musical spin, also on acoustic guitar and violin
with even more new york street drug jive

“hey white boy, what ya doing uptown
hey white boy, you chasing our women around?
‘pa-pa-pardon me sir, nothing could be farther from my mind
im just waiting for a dear dear friend of mine
im waiting for the man'”

in ’65 the rounders met other beatnik intellectual thugs on east 10th street
who call themselves the fugs

in april, they record by harry smith doing the punkiest songs yet to exist
lo-fi noisy shit about poetry, sex and drugs

“i don’t have a bedtime, i don’t need to c-m
for i have become an amphetamine b-m
if you don’t like sleeping, and don’t want to screw
then you should take lots of amphetamine too”

smith recorded two live fug sessions
including tuli kupferberg’s amazing nihilist song ‘nothing’

“monday nothing, tuesday nothing
wednesday and thursday nothing
friday for a change a little more nothing
saturday once more nothing
fucking nothing, sucking nothing
flesh and sex, nothing
church and times square, a whole lot of nothing
nothing, nothing, nothing”

the fugs were real poets with real topics to speak out
and through the underground scene this crude music could leak out
beginning the punk idea that anyone could do it
without need much musical ability to it
and this new crude music was labeled freak out

in ’66 the fugs signed to new york label esp

the same label put out a band called the godz, with a ‘z’
the godz accomplished the feat of making even the fugs music sound sweet
with the least musical folk-rock racket in history

[godz-like strumming, moaning and meowing]

far from the west coast hippy scene, new york underground music was far from mainstream
it was intellectual but noisy and hectic, and then the velvet underground went electric
and made folk-punk even more beautiful and more extreme

“i’m waiting for the man
twenty-six dollars in my hand
up to lexington 125, feel sick and dirty more dead than alive
i’m waiting for the man”

nothing could stem new york’s strange folk-punk tide
in ’68 came david peel on the lower east side
he recorded an alb-m on the streets, screaming and sloppy
danny fields signed him to electra
sold almost a million copies
with songs like “i like marijuana”
and “up against the wall, motherfucker”

“oh mother, where is my father?
where is my brother?
theyre at war, theyre at war
you made them join the dirty u.s. army
you told them all a filthy white lie
you gave them all the bullshit and baloney
and now my brother and my father are gonna have to die”

strangest of all on east 10th street in ’68
were the duo silver apples, who managed to create
two futuristic alb-ms of noise, rhythm and poetry
creative to the point of underground obscurity
it doesn’t sound like punk or anything else but it sounds great

“oscillations, oscillations
electronic evocations
of sound’s reality
spinning, magnetic fluctuations
waves on waves configurations
that dance between the b-lls of sound
and bind my world to soul”

the stooges were a freak out band
in detroit and folks ignored them
until danny fields brought them to new york
and had john cale from the velvets record them
almost acid rock was turning into progressive
the stooges, instead, pushed the raw and aggressive
and iggy pop sang about degradation and boredom

“well 1969 okay, all across the usa
another year for me and you
another year with nothing to do
another year for me and you
another year with nothing to do”

in 1970, david peel’s second alb-m came
with some amazing songs and some a little lame
in most pre-punk histories, peel gets forgot
cause he was a hippie singing songs about pot
but his second alb-m was the first alb-m
with the real sound that electric punk rock became

“we are from the lower east side
we don’t give a d-mn if we live or die
we are from the lower east side
we don’t give a d-mn if we live or die”

and even though it was seven years before
it was something the clash would do
peel mixed punk with reggae
in the amazing song “i want to k!ll you”

“you’re called the people of the future generation
you’re called the people in a world of aggregation
you’re called the people in a life of demonstration
we’ve gotta change the world before annihilation
i’m gonna get a rifle and i’m gonna get a gun
i am out to k!ll you and i’ll have a little fun
i am out to murder you, i’m going to attack
i am going to k!ll you, you’re the monkey on my back
i wanna k!ll you
k!ll, k!ll, k!ll
i wanna k!ll you
k!ll, k!ll, k!ll”

in ’71, lester bangs first writes the word ‘punk’
to describe ’60s enthusiastic teenage rock junk
’72, lenny kaye puts out the ’60s garage comp. ‘nuggets’
and coins the phrase ‘punk-rock’ in the liner notes of it
though punk-rock would soon come to mean something different
from what lester and lenny thunk
(they meant raw 60s punk songs)

“i feel depressed, i feel so bad
coz your the best girl that ive ever had
i can’t get your love, i can’t get affection
poor little girl, psychotic reaction”

lenny kaye was also a guitarist who began playing music
with an eastside poet named patti smith who would use it
to mix wild poetry with simple rock stuff
like the fugs in a way, but less rough
a postmodern way to take high art and low art and fuse it

“jesus died for somebody’s sins not mine
gloria, gloria”

’72, ’73 was when the new york dolls start
mixing trash and drag fashion
with a pure rock and roll heart
that david johansen and johnny thunders sound
mixed old-style simple rock
with the new new york underground
and sorta defined the moment when
stupid on purpose became the new smart

“you’re a prima ballerina on a springtime afternoon
change on into the wolfman howlin at the moon
all about that personality crisis you got it while it was hot
but now frustration and heartache is what you got ”

the lower east side began punk fashion as well
with ripped clothes and spiked hair
worn by a poet named richard hell
hell was in television, the neon boys
the heartbreakers, the voidoids
and he wrote the song that gave the new
’70s punk generation it’s first anthem yell

“i was screaming get me out of here before i was
even born, it’s such a gamble when you get a face
it’s fascinating to observe what the mirror does
but when i dine it’s for the wall that i set a place

i belong to the blank generation but
i can take it or leave it each time
i belong to the _______ generation but
i can take it or leave it each time”

’74, cbgb’s starts having punk shows
with television, patti smith and the ramones
’75, punk fanzine begins and the whole thing moves over to england
england steals all the credit
that’s how it goes
the end

this is jeffrey lewis, jack lewis, our friend tyler
thank you

- jeffrey lewis

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