The Seven Ages Of Rock Pt 3 "Blank Generation" from lee grant on Vimeo.
In 1975, New York City was near bankruptcy and no fun at all. London was little better. In this tale of two cities, from the worst of times came the best of times: punk rock. Punk went back to the roots. If people saw a show they should get the feeling that they could do that themselves; that is what rock & roll is all about. Punk was DIY; the bands invented themselves and the punkers made their own clothes.
The Ramones sang about the street life experiences of kids in Queens. The Sex Pistols started with covers of mod classics by The Who, but of course they soon went DIY too in that respect, although that didn't prevent Glen Matlock from letting ABBA's "SOS" inspire him for the guitar riff in Pretty Vacant.
Punk was class rage. "The New York punks were bohemians or aspired to be, and the London punks were yobs or aspired to be." According to Sex Pistol Johnny Rotten the indignation wasn't put on; "We suffer and you can fuck off for it."
Punk was about doing new things and punk girl bands like Siouxsie and the Banshees and the Slits were new in a new way; Viv Albertine said "We wanted to do our own girlie whalloping thing and punk was open enough for us to do that." And Patti Smith wasn't only about music, but about language too, almost like a free style rapper; "Spitting out something that goes right into your head."
When the Sex Pistols went to the US, they wanted to show them what punk was really about, but instead it destroyed them. They had no fun, so they decided to take that to the extreme in their last show in San Francisco in 1978, playing a typically raucous show, and ending (as an Encore) with a cover of The Stooges song 'No Fun'. Before going off stage, Johnny Rotten remarked "Ever get the feeling you've been cheated?" Rotten later commented: "That was directed to the whole world, including us."