Punk/New Wave was a return to real Rock 'n' Roll. We grew up on The Troggs, MC5, The Standells, The Byrds, Shadows Of Knight, and The Stooges - and added our own angst to the mix. The Ramones lit the fire, as The Beatles triggered boys to pick up electric guitars. "Back Door Man", "Slash", and Greg Shaw's "Bomp!" fanned the flames, and Hollywood exploded into an inferno.
@MrJamesrnolan I've always thought of the Jam as mod revivalists in the same vein as the early Who or the Creation. Stylistically the Jam were very similar both musically and visually. I never considered them punk, they were too melodic and tight, but they had the same aggression.
I think we all have our crazy Kim Fowley story, but the truth is that if you watch this whole thing, between the nonsequiturs he really knows what he's talking about and is charming in a hip Count Dracula sort of way. I know from my own brief experience that his ego is gargantuan, but that's what has kept him going all this time, and it's hard to argue against.
Wow, it's amazing to see that Tom Snyder picked up on this pivotal change so early. Here they are arguing about the validity of the words Punk, New Wave, Power Pop. Twelve months later the trends would be well established.
"I have excellent news for the world. There is no such thing as new wave. It does not exist. It’s a figment of a lame cunt’s imagination. There was never any such thing as new wave. It was the polite thing to say when you were trying to explain you were not into the boring old rock ‘n’ roll, but you didn’t dare to say punk because you were afraid to get kicked out of the fucking party and they wouldn’t give you coke anymore." --Claude Bessy
Well.....you can call Tom Snyder a square but back then there was only 5 channels and no cable and NOBODY would have put these bands on for even a second. The only other talk shows were stuff like Merv griffin, Johnny Carson, Mike Douglas and Dinah Shore LOL. At least old Tom tried to put it out there. He also had a Lennon and Jagger etc. on the show back then. I even remember tom Petty being on there protesting his record company charging TOO MUCH for his new LP 6.99 I think !!! LOL
Fascinating hearing people discussing this stuff from the actual time, thanks for uploading! And for all his front, I think Kim Fowley actually makes the most insightful comments, especially in part 2.
My guess is that this was rare for the day for him to be on a TV interview. Print journalists were not on TV much before cable TV came along - back when there were four channels that were only on the air 18 hours a day... It would be interesting to here a more recent interview with Ghraham.
All I can see when I see Tom Snyder is Dan Ackroyd's Snyder from Saturday Night Live back in the 70's giving inept interviews with Mick Jagger and Paul Simon.
+Double R Films - Sorry, I have no clue, just took them from this "Shout! Factory" studio DVD. www.amazon.com/The-Tomorrow-Show-Punk-Wave/dp/B000BTD91W
@MrJamesrnolan while i understand your point they had the energy of 60s garage bands- punk was not invented in 1976- try 1965 in the garages ! New wave was tarnished later but when weller said it it meant bands like joy division wire the fall etc who were great- The clash and the jam become so much more than any label- in the end just great rock bands! so there ill agree 100%
@salvadory I'm more than acquainted with '60s garage rock,documented on Nuggets,Pebbles,and lesser known comps,as well as the Sonics,the monks,et al.,which is what I meant by "punk attack" By "punk's heyday" I meant that particular late '70s era the Jam came out in,not that punk was invented then.And exactly,for every Joy Division, Fall, Magazine, Wire, Cramps, that excelled '76-'80, there were later an equal number of safer, unchallenging bands called New Wave eating up record store shelves.
At least he conceded that he hadn't seen enough (punk bands) to conclude that's what punk was all about, because it really wasn't. Punks fucked around with nazi imagery like swastikas and iron crosses, but it was all done just to shock and offend older generations. Many punks were actually Jewish. A few years later most of the punks dropped that shit like a hot potato once it started attracting real, actual racists and anti-semites like the national front in the UK. By '78 they were organizing huge events like the 'Rock Against Racism' showcases with the express intent of differentiating punk from shit like the NF.
Later on it became two different things, but in the beginning (ie. prior to 1978) the terms 'punk' and 'new wave' were basically synonymous. After Seymour Stein from Sire Records released that press statement in '78 claiming that bands like Talking Heads and Blondie were new wave and bands like Sex Pistols and Dead Boys were punk (a tactic used to distance his roster from all the bad press that the Sex Pistols incurred in order to sell his more radio-friendly signings), the lines of division were made clear, and it fucked over a lot of great bands who *SHOULD* have been much more successful, like the Ramones for example. New Wave suddenly meant safe and unthreatening, but if you were deemed 'punk' it meant you were violent and were going to puke on everybody and roll around in broken glass. However before then there really wasn't much of a difference. By the 80's new wave pretty much just meant any band with synthesizers, skinny ties, and dance beats. The whole thing became codified, just like how the term 'alternative' was codified in the 90's.
As Claude "Kickboy Face" Bessy from Slash Magazine so eloquently put it in the Decline Of Western Civilization... "I have excellent news for the world. There is no such thing as new wave. It does not exist. It’s a figment of a lame cunt’s imagination. There was never any such thing as new wave. It was the polite thing to say when you were trying to explain you were not into the boring old rock ‘n’ roll, but you didn’t dare to say punk because you were afraid to get kicked out of the fucking party and they wouldn’t give you coke anymore."
@salvadory I know that's what he said,and he had every right to say that because it's what he believed at the time.I'm thinking about it more in hindsight. The Jam happened to burst on the scene in punk's heyday with a punky musical attack,but this is not necessarily labeling them Punk,as they had good melodies which improved as they progressed.There were so many mediocre acts under the New Wave banner it tarnished the label,so it's better to think of the Jam as a great rock band sans labels.
@bootieslaya You don't know what you're taliking about.. Here is Tom Snyder giving cutting edge exposure (perhaps some of the band's first national exposure) 32 years ago when it was brand new - ain an era when Blondie was first signed to a major label.
You have just expressed what I was thinking. I've based my negative opinions on Fowley on Runaway stories and was prepared to dislike him here. Instead, he seemed to make the best points and handled himself very well with Tom, who wanted to make fun of him and couldn't get away with it.
ALL COLOR PHOTOS which opened the show ARE MINE! That's a shot me w/the gun. Yes, Kim Fowley is bright but the weirdest, meanest, selfish, greedy, sexist, SOB. Guess you had to hear him. I know, he has fans, I've met them. But he was always sooo rude and lewd, whenever I saw/heard him.Check out my photos when I've rebuilt my site (again).
@MrJamesrnolan you need to watch the interview - weller himself says the jam are new wave and he rejects the punk label and dislikes it" Wellers own words!!!
Whoever wrote those notes for Tom was slightly incorrect. The New York punk scene was starting up concurrent with the Brit punk scene (The Ramones formed in '74 ; the Pistols were assembled by Malcolm McLaren in '75). Kim Fowley said "punk isn't entertaining or melodic"--a lot of kids, including this then-17-year-old would disagree. The Jam were punk in attack, melodic in structure and lyrically socialpolitical--to label them as "New Wave" paints them into a corner they never belonged in.
The meaning behind terms like punk and new wave in this context were still fluid and in the process of congealing when this interview took place. I was eventually able to swallow the bitter pill that the UK scene gets more credit and arguably deserves more credit because it blew up so big that it came within a pubic hair's width of becoming mainstream. The UK scene brought punk to the attention of the masses. The same cannot be said about the NY scene, it never became that big. The LA/Hollywood scene that was coming up at the same time as both of them ironically ended up being far more influenced by the UK scene than the NY scene.
@MrJamesrnolan agreed but people calling them new wave doesnt make them new wave- the new wave was initially tern to describe new british bands coming out who werent punk but werent typical rock- the term stuck in a social content and in music media- but bands like howard jones -kajagogo duran duran etc that were called new wave were in fact just crap- new wave became about synths funny hair but those like you and me know better- in the end the jam were just a great band- new wave or not!
By many accounts, Bill Graham was "an arrogant fuckhead" - it served him well. Bill Graham was not a journalist, he was a promoter (and so much more). Bill Graham is one of the most important figures in Rock & Roll history; he has a right to be arrogant. I suggest you do some googling and learn about Bill Graham's contributions to the history of Rock & Roll. His biography "Bill Graham Presents: My Life Inside Rock And Out" is an incredible read.
SO many LABLES. this is what made people hate the music business. at least they were straight forward about it though. they didn't disguise that they were TRYING to market music like that... this is insane!!!!!!!!! :(
I liked Tom Snyder although he was a real dink when he addressed Kim Fowley in my opinion. I'm a conservative Christian and see no reason to belittle Kim Fowley. I particularly like Kim and always thought well of him even though many think he was a creep. Kim was Kim and that's more than I can say about a lot of people who pretend to be someone other than themselves.
Richard Hell of the void oids was the first to wear safety pins, and punk, being someone who lived through it and saw most of the major bands and wore an individual style, i hope, was rebelling against the apathy of the music scene at the time, the rolling stones and rock stars, for brit punks the establishment who's top symbol was the queen represented the worst of everthing, punk failed as everthing is back to the same as what it was, hope shined for a while though.Fowley is a Mcclaren, a tit.
@Flattop box she represented the numb mindless white posh aristocracy that saw the new generation's economic struggle as a farse and an excuse to bicker and act edgy. We know that there were those who actually took the movement seriously, those individuals or artists never reached any publicity, because they began to avoid it and decided to create their own record companies.
What an odd collection of middle aged people to have as your guests. Snyder not to blame...the tides were changing...hard to adress the initial power of punk rock.
Fowley had been kicking around the fringes of the music industry since the early 1960's, latching on to every fad he could. He looks pathetic here, trying to look young and hip but just looking trashy and creepy.
Kim Fowley was pretty much the ultimate creep. I thought so way back then, and as the years rolled on and I started learning more and more vile details about things he did to people, it only reinforced every suspicion I always had about him.
No, history definitely hasn't "proved" that at all. All I know for sure is that you bought the great McLaren myth about punk - hook, line, and sinker. I suppose you also believe the single bullet theory.
sure sure, but did you know Little Richard a black southern man taught Mick Jagger how to howl, shout and dance around on stage. You Brits had no modern music until the 1960s, by then your record companies had already taken over the entertainment sector. Hard working Americans were the ones who produced the new styles and trends, the businessmen stole their ideas and whitewashed them. The 'Americans' you rave about are just the richer bourgeois socialists who act condescending towards the working class. The only time Britain got close to true Punk, was the very brief Oi culture, that reformed the negatives of the Sex Pistols. However that was quickly taken over by Neo-Nazi folk rock, and that garbage National Front pub brawling shit spread all across Europe and down to Australia/NZ then came to the US.
