I reviewed Never Mind The Bullocks Here’s The Sex Pistols (released by Virgin on Oct. 28, 1977) for The Chimes, the student newspaper at SUNY Morrisville, Feb. 13, 1978, edition.
1977
1977: cover art
Fired up! Here’s the cover art for my next book 1977. Big thanks to my son Jack for another great design! Thanks too to Ravenna Press, who will be publishing the collection of drawings and poems this April.
1977 is about history and memory, about revising and forgetting. 1977 is about how I was a hippie and became a punk. 1977 is about the year I bought my first punk LPs at the House of Guitars. 1977 is about capturing that feeling we had.
Accounting
Chart shows the gender make-up of punk bands that I listened to c. 1977. You could count the women musicians on one hand — Moe Tucker, Patti Smith, Deborah Harry, Tina Weymouth. Later I heard the Slits (1979) and the Go-Gos (early 1980s ). In the 1990s my daughter showed me the light with Sleater-Kinney, The Gossip, Bratmobile, Bikini Kill. Punk got better over the years!
1977: Mix Tape (Track 15)
“When I Cannot Discern” describes that time between dusk and dark where all things are possible and affirmation still can exist. Like the time between “before punk” and “after punk.”
Samples by James “TV” Nugent.
1977: Mix Tape (Track 14)
“Hangdog” is for all punks who are now geezers.
Samples by James “Instant Hit” Nugent.
1977: Mix Tape (Track 13)
“An Awareness Grows” culminates in a line my Granny C. wrote on a newspaper article she clipped and sent me:
Samples by James “Prove It” Nugent.
1977: Mix Tape (Track 12)
What is it about certain objects that they have the power to recall people and things that have passed? “What’s Fallen Apart” was first published by Paper & Ink Literary Zine (UK) in the Birth & Death Issue.
Samples by James “Clash” Nugent.
1977: Mix Tape (Track 11)
“Manifesto” condenses history into a list of (mostly) paired concepts. It’s extracted from reading Blake, Ginsberg, Rimbaud, Genet, Burroughs, “Being & Nothingness,” and “The Rebel.”
Samples by James “1977” Nugent.
1977: Mix Tape (Track 10)
“A Pause Before Beatings Resume” was inspired by the sound a phonograph needles makes when it reaches the end of the record but fails to return and you’re already out.
Samples by James “Sonic Reducer” Nugent.
JB 