25 Years of Punk : VH1 and Spin Magazine

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25 Years of Punk : VH1 and Spin Magazine

This is typical VH1 fare about the history and evolution of Punk Rock. 25 Years of Punk : has the same signature style of editing as VH1’s “Behind the Music” series. What this means is a lot of the same bits of footage repeated in small bits with way too much camera time given to contemporary (rock) industry “experts”. And while most VH1 productions may be about bands that you can’t stand, they are still entertaining for the most part. The difference here is that the subject matter and source material is excellent. 25 Years of Punk : suffers from the constraints of the hour-long format, especially with the extraneous footage and poor editing decisions. It really should have been a miniseries, but it’s still fun to watch. Lou Reed as you narrator has a pretty monotonous delivery prone to occasional humorous enunciation. 25 Years of Punk was coincidentally planned for release almost exactly at the time of Joey Ramone’s untimely demise, and is very similar to VH1’s Ramones piece.

As with most scholarly takes on the subject, 25 Years of Punk : starts with the Velvet Underground, the MC5, Iggy and the Stooges, the New York Dolls, etc. Why do they blur out Iggy’s mouth gestures? Apparently because it was somehow more offensive than say, your average Jerry Springer show. From there it moves on to the NY scene at Max’s Kansas City, and later CBGB’s. Enjoy snippets of wonderful footage of the heavies, as well as rarer footage of bands like the Dead Boys and Wayne County. Witness Henry Rollins getting bleeped for (favorably) describing the Ramones as sounding “…like four retarded guys playing music” followed by documentary footage of Dee Dee backing him up. Also worth seeing is an interview with some NYC elite socialites who decided to slum it at CBGB’s after reading about it in the New Yorker. If it weren’t real, you’d think you were watching a bad Hollywood character actor.

The show changes focus to the UK scene, with all the usual footage. There are couple of things of interest like an unlikely shot of the Slits and Joey Ramone’s statement that the Sex Pistols were a good band, but the Clash was a great band. Safety pins, fashion and Sex Pistols footage take over for a while, and you’ve seen it all before. The Pistols die and the Clash get their props. Meanwhile, 25 Years of Punk dips into the 80’s hardcore and indy scene in the U.S.. Included with brief footage from “Another State of Mind” is Black Flag, Fear, Minor Threat, Suicidal Tendencies, the Dead Kennedys, the Bad Brains, and a million mosh pits. Segue to the midwesr and we talk briefly of the replacements and Husker Du. Imagine Lou Reed talking about Minor Threat and the straight edge movement. There’s a little sarcasm there, too bad he didn’t go into greater detail. Skate rock also makes an appearance, although to skateboarding footage that is pretty much from a later era than it’s beginnings. 25 Years of Punk talks briefly of racist skinheads and then moves on to “New Wave” before Flavor Flav ushers in the era of college-alterna-indy-rock festers and the boil that was Nirvana breaks open to mass acceptance. Green Day gets vibed hard, the Buzzcocks and Iggy Pop are in tv commercials, and Rancid raises the flag and carries on before the whole thing abruptly ends. It’s almost as if they ran out of time in the editing room.

25 Years of Punk is by no means comprehensive or flawless, but it is worth watching. Most of the footage is rehashed, but there are occasional brief surprises. 25 Years of Punk tries to do too much in too little time. If you are the sort that cares about the details, you can look forward to brief, contemporary comments by the likes of John Doe, Lee Ving, Keith Morris, Legs McNeil, John Holstrom, Jayne County, Tim Armstrong. Billy Idol, Jane Weidlen, Joey Ramone, Johnny Ramone, Tommy Ramone, Danny Fields, Wayne Kramer, Henry Rollins, Iggy Pop, Alice Cooper, Bob Gruen, Malcolm McLaren (wanker), Roberta Bayley, Chris Stein, Hilly Kristal, Tina Weymouth, Lenny Kaye, Thurston Moore, Lee Ranaldo, Jimmy Destri, Deborah Harry, Mike Ness, Paul Cook, Dave Grohl, Steve Jones, Joe Strummer, Scott Ian, Handsome Dick Manitoba, Zack De La Rocha, Billy Joe, and Lars Frederiksen.

Check it out. It's always fun when punk rock is on TV

by kilwag

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