London Calling
Mapping the British punk scene — influences and connections late-70s into the 80s — with The Clash at the center of the Universe (because that’s the way it was for me).
Chart from 1977: A Punk History coming from Ravenna Press (2018).
Blog
1977: Mix Tape (Track 06)
“Spleen” is a riff on a Baudelaire line from “Good Dogs” in his Le Spleen de Paris.
I sing in praise of destitute dogs, under-dogs, whether those who wander all alone through the tortuous ravines and gullies of the vast metropolis, or those who have said to some old outcast, with a wink of their witty, spiritual eyes, ‘Take me along with you, then perhaps we can make some sort of happiness out of our two poverties!’
Samples by James “I Wanna Be Sedated” Nugent.
ELVIS IS KING
Elvis Costello releases My Aim Is True on July 22, 1977. E L V I S I S K I N G E L V I S I S K I N G is repeated in reversed single letters in the black squares of the checkerboard pattern. 25 days later the King, Elvis Presley, dies on Aug. 16. It is a symbolic death — how bloated rock and roll has become — and ironic — just days after a new King is declared. That fall “Watching the Detectives” goes into high rotation in my dorm room at Mohawk Hall.
1977: Mix Tape (Track 05)
“Monk Bought Lunch” is about aloneness. About singularity. About the numbers 1 and 11.
Words by John Burgess. Samples by James “Son of” Nugent.
What I learned from Johnny Rotten’s autobiography (Part 1)
- He loved Sid like a brother.
- He’s still disgusted by Malcolm.
- He didn’t hit it off with Glen.
- He doesn’t blame Paul and Steve.
- He never fit Vivienne’s rubber pants.
1977: Mix Tape (Track 04)
I was 19 in 1977. “When You Spit On Me” expresses the accumulation of the boredom-apathy-indifference continuum of my teenhood.
Words by John Burgess. Samples by James “I’m So Bored” Nugent.
NY NY
Influences and connections. Mapping the NYC punk scene from the mid-70s. Chart from 1977: A Punk History coming from Ravenna Press (2018).
1977: Mix Tape (Track 03)
Wrote “Epicene” as an elegy for Lou Reed, who died in 2013. Issue Number 1 of Punk magazine called him “the original street punk turned fine artist.” Two reasons he still matters: Velvet Underground and Street Hassle.
Word by John Burgess. Samples by James “Velvet” Nugent.
The year started out so-so …
40 years ago today I was bored. Listening to Blonde on Blonde (Visions of Johanna and Sad-Eyed Lady of the Lowlands) on repeat. Drinking beer. Working as a stock boy at a small-town department store. Reading Camus and Sartre. Writing poems no one read.
