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RE: We don't need your technical eliteism!!! Original Punk Rock blasts onto the scene [Metal Tree: 6]
I wanted to log off from steemit for today then I see this.. I see some of my favorite bands here, Clash being my favorite, Ramones in top 5.
I am not way into Punk myself, though I respect the music. I do enjoy The Clash quite a bit and I actually mention that in the post. I happen to play guitar and most punk is so simple it is hard for me to get into it. It's kind of like going to the store and buying coloring books already colored in by kindergarteners. THERE ARE EXCEPTIONS. Most of this is not that the music is bad. It is good. It is simply that I could play this stuff in my sleep for the most part. The Clash is one of those exceptions. They are skilled at their instruments and do some really interesting things. I also love the way the vocalist intentionally sings out of tune and all over the place in Rock the Casbah. It actually makes me smile and chuckle every time I hear it. It has ended up on mixed tapes, CDs, and in MP3 lists for family trips. :P
Ramones I respect for what they do, but I never really got into it.
That said. Some of my closest friends in Junior High, High School and even later were WAY into this scene so I heard it frequently. I was often one of the sole metal heads and flanked by punk rockers who had done the full spiked mohawk thing in a back woods rural part of Colorado. :)
Also with what I replied to you previously. I hope that you find I did the subject justice. I do respect it. It is also extremely important for its influence on some of my favorite music. It just wasn't personally my thing. The exception being The Clash, but I actually didn't start appreciating them until later in life after the scene really no longer existed. As I learned more about music (Initially I was a dual physics/music major in college) I would notice more and more things. It was the way he sang all fucked up in an intentional way that first caught my ear for The Clash.
I consider The Clash to be something more than your normal punk rock band. They started something special and their music is not only about punk rifs, they experimented with many music genres. You can notice some reggae elements, there is even some violin in some of their songs when they worked with Simon Dog, some classical piano in Rock the Casbah like you mentioned. Every one of the members of the group was a force to be reckoned with. Even though their vocals are not the best they had someting special when Mick Jones added his high pitched voice. This song for example, Joe starts then Mick comes and takes it away.
Yes I agree. They were distinctly different from the other bands considered Punk Rock. Heh... you could perhaps call them Progressive Punk if you read my closing for my post yesterday on Progressive Rock then why I say that makes more sense.
Progressive really just means they are not beholden to one style, and live free, and mingle and merge whatever interests them. The second word simply tells you the common style they tend to return to the most often.
So perhaps Progressive Punk. They never go quite to the technical extremes Progressive Rock acts tended to, I definitely can hear some Prog flavoring in The Clash. That might actually be a big part of why they appeal to me. I tend to really love Progressive acts regardless of what type of genre the root in.
You're right...they transcended the whole punk thing.
What is most impressive fact when you talk about Clash is how they managed to do some great music after Clash disbanded. Joe went to create decent solo tracks and later joined with Mescaleros and again he managed to get himself on the music map of the world. Mick Jones played in Big Audio Dynamite and after that Carbon Silicon. I must say that everything those two people created is made of music gold. Fun fact Clash would even come back together if not for premature death of Joe Strummer. They are my heroes :)
Well it is interesting you picked the only act in this particular post that frequently ends up in my own play lists. I bet you hit on it though when you made me think of progressive acts. I really get off on a few things 1) someone doing something no one else is doing (they do this), 2) Technical ability (in some areas they definitely do this), 3) Heavy stuff (not so much the clash, but I don't care because they checked the other two boxes). I tend to like something if it checks even one of those boxes.
Here is one to end this interesting discussion.
Also big props on your music series.