PUNK: Lonesome American Memoirs

Appendix I.

Musicology:

1. The Damned ‘Smash It Up’

From the album ‘Damned, Damned, Damned!’
Released February 1977

Lyrics:
We’ve been crying now for much too long
And now we’re gonna dance to a different song
Gonna sream and shout til my dying breath
Gonna smash it up til theres nothing left

(chorus)

Oooh ooh smash it up, smash it up, smash it up
Oooh ooh smash it up, smash it up, smash it up

People call me villain oh it’s such a shame
Maybe it’s my clothes must be to blame
I don’t even care if I look a mess
Don’t wanna be a sucker like all the rest

(chorus)

Smash it up (x5)

Smash it up, you can keep your krishna burgers
Smash it up, and your Glastonbury hippies
Smash it up, you can stick your frothy lager
Smash it up, and your blow wave hairstyles

(repeat verse 1)

(chorus)

And everybody’s smashing things now
I said everybody’s smashing things now yeah

2. The Ramones ‘Judy is a punk’

From the album ‘Ramones’
Released 1976

Lyrics:
Jackie is a punk judy is a runt
They both went down to berlin, joined the ice capades
And oh, I don’t know why oh, I don’t know why
Perhaps they’ll die, oh yeah perhaps they’ll die, oh yeah
Perhaps they’ll die, oh yeah perhaps they’ll die, oh yeah

Second verse, same as the first jackie is a punk judy is a runt
They both went down to berlin, joined the ice capades
And oh, I don’t know why oh, I don’t know why
Perhaps they’ll die, oh yeah perhaps they’ll die, oh yeah
Perhaps they’ll die, oh yeah perhaps they’ll die, oh yeah

Third verse, different from the first jackie is a punk judy is a runt
They both went down to frisco, joined the sla
And oh, I don’t know why oh, I don’t know why
Perhaps they’ll die, oh yeah perhaps they’ll die, oh yeah
Perhaps they’ll die, oh yeah perhaps they’ll die, oh yeah

3. The Buzzcocks ‘Autonomy’

From the album ‘Another Music In A Different Kitchen’
Released 1977

Lyrics:
it’s a thing that’s worth having yes i would.
buys you your life sir if it could.

i…i want you
autonomy.

it leaves us all wondering and it should.
risking something for the good.

i…i want you
autonomy.

yes i…i want you.
autonomy

4. Siouxsie and the Banshees ‘Christine’

From the album ‘Kaleidescope’
Released May 1980

Lyrics:

She tries not to shatter, kaleidoscope style Personality changes behind her red smile Every new problem brings a stranger inside Helplessly forcing one more new disguise

Christine-the strawberry girl
Christine-banana split lady

Singing sweet savages lost in our world This big-eyed girl sees her faces unfurl Now she’s in purple
Now she’s the turtle

disintegrating

Christine-the strawberry girl
Christine-banana split lady
22 faces…disintegrating.

5. Johnny Thunders and the Heartbreakers ‘Chinese Rocks’

From the album ‘L.A.M.F.’
Released 1977

Lyrics:

Somebody called me on the phone
they said hey, is Dee Dee home
do you wanna take a walk
do ya wanna go and cop
do ya wanna go get some chinese rocks? ( do you wanna go suck some chinese cock- typical Walter)

I’m living on chinese rocks
all my best things are in hock
I’m living on chinese rocks
everything is in the pawn shop

The plaster’s falling off the wall
my girlfriend’s crying in the shower stall
It’s hot as a bitch
I shoulda been rich
But I’m just diggin this chinese ditch

repeat chorus

repeat verse two

repeat chorus 2x

6. The Germs ‘Lexicon Devil’

Originally released 7″ 1978
From the album ‘GI’
Released 1979

Lyrics:

I’m a Lexicon devil with a battered brain
searching for a future the world’s my aim
so gimme gimme your hands gimme gimme your minds
gimme gimme your hands gimme gimme your minds
gimme gimme this gimme gimme that

I want toy tin soldiers that can push and shove
I want gunboy rovers that will wreck this club
I’ll build you up and level your heads
We’ll run it my way cold men and politics dead…
(Chorus)

I’ll get silver guns to drip old blood
Let’s get this established joke a shove
We’re gonna wreak havok on this rancid mill
I’m searchin’ for somethin’ even if I’m killed…
(Chorus)

Empty out your pockets- you don’t need their change
I’m giving you the power to rearrange
Together we’ll run to the highest prop
Tear it down and let it drop… away…
(chorus)

7. Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five ‘The Message’

Originally released 12″ single 1981
From the album ‘The Message’
Released 1982

Lyrics:

Broken glass everywhere
People pissing on the stairs, you know they just
Don’t care
I can’t take the smell, I can’t take the noise
Got no money to move out, I guess I got no choice
Rats in the front room, roaches in the back
Junkie’s in the alley with a baseball bat
I tried to get away, but I couldn’t get far
Cause the man with the tow-truck repossessed my car

Chorus:

Don’t push me, cause I’m close to the edge
I’m trying not to loose my head
It’s like a jungle sometimes, it makes me wonder
How I keep from going under

Standing on the front stoop, hangin’ out the window
Watching all the cars go by, roaring as the breezes
Blow
Crazy lady, livin’ in a bag
Eating out of garbage bins, used to be a fag-hag
Search and test a tango, skips the life and then go
To search a prince to see the last of senses
Down at the peepshow, watching all the creeps
So she can tell the stories to the girls back home
She went to the city and got so so so ditty
She had to get a pimp, she couldn’t make it on her
Own

Chorus:
It’s like a jungle sometimes, it makes me wonder
How I keep from goin’ under

My brother’s doing fast on my mother’s t.v.
Says she watches to much, is just not healthy
All my children in the daytime, dallas at night
Can’t even see the game or the sugar ray fight
Bill collectors they ring my phone
And scare my wife when I’m not home
Got a bum education, double-digit inflation
Can’t take the train to the job, there’s a strike
At the station
Me on king kong standin’ on my back
Can’t stop to turn around, broke my sacroiliac
Midrange, migraine, cancered membrane
Sometimes I think I’m going insane, I swear I might
Hijack a plane!

Chorus:

My son said daddy I don’t wanna go to school
Cause the teacher’s a jerk, he must think I’m a
Fool
And all the kids smoke reefer, I think it’d be
Cheaper
If I just got a job, learned to be a street sweeper
I dance to the beat, shuffle my feet
Wear a shirt and tie and run with the creeps
Cause it’s all about money, ain’t a damn thing
Funny
You got to have a con in this land of milk and
Honey
They push that girl in front of a train
Took her to a doctor, sowed the arm on again
Stabbed that man, right in his heart
Gave him a transplant before a brand new start
I can’t walk through the park, cause it’s crazy
After the dark
Keep my hand on the gun, cause they got me on the
Run
I feel like an outlaw, broke my last cast jaw
Hear them say you want some more, livin’ on a
Seesaw

Chorus:

A child was born, with no state of mind
Blind to the ways of mankind
God is smiling on you but he’s frowning too
Cause only God knows what you go through
You grow in the ghetto, living second rate
And your eyes will sing a song of deep hate
The places you play and where you stay
Looks like one great big alley way
You’ll admire all the number book takers
Thugs, pimps, pushers and the big money makers
Driving big cars, spending twenties and tens
And you wanna grow up to be just like them, huh,
Smugglers, scrambles, burglars, gamblers
Pickpockets, peddlers and even plan-handlers
You say I’m cool, I’m no fool
But then you wind up dropping out of high school
Now you’re unemployed,all null’n’ void
Walking around like you’re pretty boy floyd
Turned stickup kid, look what you done did
Got set up for a eight year bid
Now your man is took and you’re a may tag
Spend the next two years as an undercover fag
Being used and abused, and served like hell
Till one day you was find hung dead in a cell
It was plain to see that your life was lost
You was cold and your body swung back and forth
But now your eyes sing the sad sad song
Of how you lived so fast and died so young

Chorus:

8. The Dead Boys ‘Sonic Reducer’

From the album ‘Young, Loud and Snotty’
Released 1977

Lyrics:

I don’t need anyone
Don’t need no mom and dad
Don’t need no pretty face
Don’t need no human race
I got some news for you
Don’t even need you too

I got my devil machine
Got my electronic dream
Sonic reducer
Ain’t no loser
I’m a sonic reducer
Ain’t no loser

People out on the streets
They don’t know who I am
I watch them from my room
They all just pass me by
But I’m not just anyone
Said I’m not just anyone

I got my devil machine
Got my electronic dream
Sonic reducer
Ain’t no loser
I’m a sonic reducer
Ain’t no loser

I’ll be a pharaoh soon
Rule from some golden tomb
Things will be different then
The sun will rise from here
Then I’ll be ten feet tall
And you’ll be nothing at all

9. The Sex Pistols ‘Liar’

From the album ‘Nevermind The Bullocks Here’s The Sex Pistols’
Released 1977

Lyrics:

Lie lie lie lie liar you lie
Lie lie lie lie lie tell me why
Tell me why why d’you have to lie
Should’ve realised that you
Should’ve told the truth
Should’ve realised you know what I’ll do

You’re in suspension you’re a liar

Now I wanna know know I wanna known why
You never look me in the face
Broke a confidence just to please your ego
Should’ve realised you know what I know

I know where you go everybody you know
I know everything that you do or say
So when you tell lies I always be in your way
I’m nobody’s fool and I know all cos I know
What I know

Lie lie lie liar you lie lie lie lie
I think you’re funny you’re funny ha ha
I don’t need it don’t need your blah blah
Should’ve realised I know what you are

You’re in suspension you’re a liar
You’re a liar
You’re a lie
Lie lie lie

10. Motorhead ‘Love me like a reptile’

From the album ‘The Ace of Spades’
Released November 1980

Lyrics:

Knew I had to bite you baby when I first set eyes on you,
That moment turned me on, I can’t believe it’s true,
I like to watch your body sway,
I got no choice, I’m gonna twist your tail,
Love Me Like A Reptile, I’m gonna sink my fangs in you

Thunder lizard, stony eye, you got me hypnotised,
Hot tongue breaks in and out and I can’t believe my eyes,
And your soft white belly, next to mine,
Scaly baby, see you shine,
Love Me Like A Reptile, you’re murder in disguise,
Black mamba, murder in disguise

Baby you’re a rattlesnake, you know the way I feel,
Feel you crawling up my back, you’ve got no love to steal,
You know I’ve got my eyes on you,
You’re petrified, gonna stick like glue,
Love Me Like A Reptile, shock you like an electric eel

11. Depeche Mode ‘Photographic’

Originally released 12″ 1980
From the album ‘Speak and Spell’
Released 1981

Lyrics:

A white house, a white room
The program of today
Light`s on, switch on
Your eyes are far away
The map represents you
And the tape is your voice
Follow all along you
Till you recognize the choice

I take pictures, photographic pictures
Bright light, dark room

I said I`d write a letter
But I never got the time
And I`m looking to the day
I mesmerize at night
The years I spent just thinking
Of a moment we both knew
A second past like in empty room
It seems it can`t be true

Bright light, dark room

12. The Human League ‘Don’t you want me’

From the album ‘DARE’
Released December 1981

Lyrics:

You were working as a waitress
In a cocktail bar
When I met you
I picked you out
I shook you up
And turned you around
Turned you into someone new
Now five years later on
you’ve got the world at your feet
Success has been so easy for you
But don’t forget
It’s me who put you where you are now
And I can put you back down too

Don’t, don’t you want me
You know I can’t believe it
When I hear that you won’t see me
Don’t, don’t you want me
You know I don’t believe you
When you say that you don’t need me
It’s much too late to find
You think you’ve changed your mind
You’d better change it back
Or we will both be sorry

Don’t you want me, baby
Don’t you want me, oh
Don’t you want me, baby
Don’t you want me, oh

I was working as a waitress
In a cocktail bar
That much is true
But even then I knew I’d find
A much better place
Either with or without you
The five years we have had
Have been such good times
I still love you
But now I think it’s time
I lived my life on my own
I guess it’s just what I must do

Don’t, don’t you want me
You know I can’t believe it
When I hear that you won’t see me
Don’t, don’t you want me
You know I don’t believe you
When you say that you don’t need me
It’s much too late to find
You think you’ve changed your mind
You’d better change it back
Or we will both be sorry

Don’t you want me, baby
Don’t you want me, oh
Don’t you want me, baby
Don’t you want me, oh

Don’t you want me, baby
Don’t you want me, oh
Don’t you want me, baby
Don’t you want me, oh

Don’t you want me, baby
Don’t you want me, oh
Don’t you want me, baby
Don’t you want me, oh

Don’t you want me, baby
Don’t you want me, oh
Don’t you want me, baby
Don’t you want me, oh

13. Social Distortion ‘1945’

7″ single released 1981

Lyrics:

Atom bomb, TNT
New disease, poor city

Flying over Hiroshima, 1945
The city looks small from way up here
I wonder who’ll survive

Chorus:
Atom bomb, TNT
New disease, poor city

A blinding flash hotter than the sun
Dead bodies lie across the path
The radiation colors the air
Finishing one by one

Chorus:

14. Gang of Four ‘Anthrax’

7″ single released 1978
From the album ‘Entertainment’
Released 1979

Lyrics:

Woke up this morning desperation a.m.
What I’ve been saying won’t say them again
My head’s not empty, it’s full with my brain
The thoughts I’m thinking
Like piss down a drain

And I feel like a beetle on it’s back
And there’s no way for me to get up
Love’ll get you like a case of anthrax
And that’s something I don’t want to catch

Ought to control what I do to my mind
Nothing in there but sunshades for the blind
Only yesterday I said to myself
The things I’m doing are not good
For my health

Love’ll get you like a case of anthrax
And that’s something I don’t want to catch
Love’ll get you like a case of anthrax
And that’s something I don’t want to catch

What the other guy is saying:
Love crops up quite a lot as something to sing about,
Cos most groups make most of their songs about falling in love
Or how happy they are to be in love,
You occasionally wonder why these groups do sing about it all the time –
It’s because these groups think there’s something very special about it
Either that or else it’s because everybody else sings about it and always has,
You know to burst into song you have to be inspired
And nothing inspires quite like love.

These groups and singers think that they appeal to everyone
By singing about love because apparently everyone has or can love
Or so they would have you believe anyway
But these groups seem to go along with what, the belief
That love is deep in everyone’s personality.
I don’t think we’re saying there’s anything wrong with love,
We just don’t think that what goes on between two people
Should be shrouded with mystery.

15. The Specials ‘Little Bitch’

From the album ‘The Specials’
Released November 1979

Lyrics:

If you ever hear a noise in the night
Youre body starts to sweat
It shakes with shivers in fright
You go and sleep with your mother
She hates your guts
She knows that you love her
So she holds you tight
All through the night
Until the broad daylight
But when she doesn’t come home
You have to sleep alone
Then you wet your bed
And I think that’s sad
For a girl of nineteen
It’s more than sad it’s obscene

And your girlfriend’s sweet little seventeen
She’s got her layered hair
And her flared jeans
You know what that means
She’s just a little pretty
She shares your London flat
She thinks her bloke knows where it’s at
Although he stinks
And when it rains you wear your hat
And your plum coloured
P.V.C. wetlook mac
You tie your ginger hair back in a bun
You’re the ugliest creature under the sun

And you think it’s ’bout time that you died
And I agree
So you decide on suicide
You’ve tried but you’ve never
Quite carried it off
You only wanted to die in order to show off
And if you think it’s gonna bleed all over me
You’re even wronger than you’d normally be
And the only things you want to see are kitsch
The only thing you want to be is rich
Your little pink up-pointed nose begins to twitch
I know, you know, you’re just a little bitch

16. The Clash ‘Straight to Hell’

From the album ‘Cobat Rock’
Released November 1982

Lyrics:

If you can play on the fiddle
How’s about a british jig and reel?
Speaking king’s english in quotation
As railhead towns feel the steel mills rust water froze
In the generation
Clear as winter ice
This is your paradise

There ain’t no need for ya
Go straight to hell boys

Y’wanna join in a chorus
Of the amerasian blues?
When it’s christmas out in ho chi minh city
Kiddie say papa papa papa papa-san take me home
See me got photo photo
Photograph of you
Mamma mamma mamma-san
Of you and mamma mamma mamma-san
Lemme tell ya ’bout your blood bamboo kid.
It ain’t coca-cola it’s rice.

Straight to hell
Oh papa-san
Please take me home
Oh papa-san
Everybody they wanna go home
So mamma-san says

You wanna play mind-crazed banjo
On the druggy-drag ragtime u.s.a.?
In parkland international
Hah! junkiedom u.s.a.
Where procaine proves the purest rock man groove
And rat poison
The volatile molatov says-

Pssst…
Hey chico we got a message for ya…
Vamos vamos muchacho
From alphabet city all the way a to z, dead, head

Go straight to hell

Can you really cough it up loud and strong
The immigrants
They wanna sing all night long
It could be anywhere
Most likely could be any frontier
Any hemisphere
No man’s land and there ain’t no asylum here
King solomon he never lived round here

Go straight to hell boys

Table of contents
Chapter 1, Chapter 2, Chapter 3, Chapter 4, Chapter 5, Chapter 6, Chapter 7, Chapter 8, Chapter 9, Chapter 10, Chapter 11, Chapter 12, Chapter 13, Chapter 14, Chapter 15, Chapter 16, Chapter 17, Chapter 18, Chapter 19, Chapter 20, Chapter 21, Chapter 22, Chapter 23, Chapter 24
Musicology, Errata