That same year The Velvets were causing a stir, Iggy Pop (pictured above) decided to form a band that would be completely unlike anything anyone had ever heard. After abandoning his stint as a drummer for Sam Lay, of the original Paul Butterfield Blues Band, he formed the Stooges in Detroit, with friends who could barely play their instruments. They had very little in the way of programmed musical knowledge to interfere with the ideas they'd be called upon to execute. Iggy Pop heard The Velvet Underground & Nico record at a party on the University of Michigan campus. At first he hated it. But after a few months, it sunk in. "That record became very key for me, not just for what it said, and for how great it was, but also because I heard other people who could make good music -- without being any good at music. It gave me hope" he said. The Stooges' 1968 performances consisted of an aural background for Iggy's body contortions, self-mutilation, diving into the audience and screamed insults at those who had come only to be entertained, not to become involved in the show. The Stooges' extreme bizarreness didn't make them popular like the Doors, who's antics they pre-dated. As a neanderthal version of the Velvet Underground, the band managed to achieve the distinction of the first true influence on punk. Ironically, they were signed by the major label Elektra, and their 1969 debut was produced by John Cale. It was highlighted by the classic "I Wanna Be Your Dog," and the pre-punk "No Fun." In "1969," they revealed the source of their outrageousness to be boredom, chanting "another year with nothing to do." They were bored with the music scene, and bored with being poor; a condition they remained in after not achieving anything above a cult status. Also from Detroit, MC5 (pictured below) articulated their boredom in a slightly more politicized and distinctly blue collar manner, coming to prominence in the 1968 Democratic Convention riots as figureheads of John Sinclair's White Panther Party. While their heavy sounding music was not particularly original (they were extremely derivative of the sound of The Who at that time), their attitude inspired many future punk bands, prophesizing the Sex Pistols' conflicts with EMI and Virgin. Like the Stooges, MC5 was scooped up by Elektra. They were soon embroiled in controversy over the lyric line "Kick out the jams motherfuckers!" When at least one record store refused to stock the album, the group responded by taking out a viciously declamatory ad in a local underground paper. Elektra was not amused, especially when MC5 went further and plastered "Fuck You" stickers bearing the Elektra logo over the record store's windows. Band and label parted company shortly after. By 1970, the provocative Detroit scene lured Alice Cooper away from San Francisco and Frank Zappa's Straight Records to claim the Motor City as their new home. Singer Vincent Furnier, who acquired the name "Alice Cooper" from a Ouija board, expanded upon the theatrics of the Exploding Plastic Inevitable and Iggy Pop's brand of Theatre of the Possessed with his own style of shock-rock. With a Theatre Of The Absurd stage show consisting of garish makeup, live boa constrictors and toy dolls meeting their death in electric chairs and gallows, combined with the new artistic credibility in the albums Love It To Death (1970) and Killer (1971), it became increasingly difficult to remain bored in Detroit. The collective music scene there became the most frequently cited influence of punk bands starting in 1975, and continuing through the next 15 years to many current post-punk bands. 
Back on the East Coast, an 18 year-old kid named Jonathan Richman was excited after hearing the Velvet Underground's 1970 farewell album, Loaded. He used to perform unaccompanied in a park in Boston until he formed the Modern Lovers because, said Richman in an immortal quote, "I was lonely." He also wanted to follow up his own revelation of Velvet Underground's lyrical terrain and manic drone, with the help of future Talking Heads keyboardist Jerry Harrison and future Cars drummer David Robinson. Again, former Velvet Underground maestro John Cale guided another young legend by producing the first and last Modern Lovers album in 1971. Richman abandoned the aggressive worship of sex, drugs and other decadent vices in favor of a fresh romanticism of the modern world. "Roadrunner" celebrated neon road signs, convenience stores and power lines in the spirit of The Velvet Underground's "Rock and Roll." "Someone I Care About" replaced sexism and macho egotism with sensitivity and respect. "I'm Straight" and "She Cracked" were uniquely eloquent expressions of angst. "Pablo Picasso," "Girlfriend" and "Government Center" displayed the playful humor that Richman would later become identified with. By the time punk was underway in 1977, Richman's teary-eyed optimism and fantasy came forth in the form of silly children's songs at a time punctuated by bitter nihilism. Nevertheless, the Modern Lovers served their role as a stepping stone toward the first punk era by further defining the possibilities of exciting minimalist electric rock and roll. (Click on More Punk To Continue) |
