Re: (TV) Re: Tom as a punk

[Jesse Hochstadt <jesseh58@yahoo.com>]

I really have no interest in calling Television punk - it's not very informative 
- but is Tom alone among "punks" in not liking the label? What did Blondie, the 
Ramones, et al. think about being called "punk"? I don't know, but they might 
also not have liked the label. Lots of people don't like being categorized. Were 
Mink DeVille, the Tuff Darts, the Shirts, and other "CBGBs" bands regarded as 
punk? I tend to view punk as a scene and an attitude that mutated (or was 
forcibly mutated) into a style.

I generally find it hard to label almost any musical performer(s) I like when 
someone asks me to describe them. Calling Richard Thompson a folk-rocker tells 
you next to nothing. Calling the Mekons or X punk bands tells you next to 
nothing. My sense is that the easier it is to categorize a band or musician, the 
less interesting they tend to be.

Which "guy who used to be in Blondie" are you referring to?



----- Original Message ----
> From: postitnote <postitnote@sbcglobal.net>
> To: tv@obbard.com
> Sent: Sun, May 1, 2011 12:05:23 PM
> Subject: (TV) Re: Tom as a punk
> 
> Yesterday I was reading some exerts from a book about the guy who used to  be
> in Blondie.  And he was saying how even when they traveled over to  England to
> tour they would run into w/ some of the other CBGB's crowd over  there and 
hang
> out w/ them.  But he mentions that Patti and Tom always  stayed apart from all
> the rest of the group, even back in the states they  didn't mingle much w/ the
> others.  Well, it seems to me like Patti did,  but not Tom.
> 
> I mean, I know when Tom's been asked about the CBGB's scene,  he will admit to
> not feeling much (any) comradery sp? w/ the other bands who  played there.  
And
> I don't think he ever saw himsself as a 'punk'.   He connected w/ Richard Hell
> and Patti cuz they were both literary, very  interested in books like
> him...smart people.
> 
> In one of his interviews,  he gets asked about 'punk' and he even says there 
no
> such thing, as all it is  is sped-up pop.  In another interview, when an
> interviewer was trying to  pin Television down to a genre, Tom said he 
prefered
> 'new wave'.
> 
> But  Tom never felt that he fit into the punk/CBGB scene.  And I notice that  
>he
> reads books about different composers and all.  He maybe feels more  of a
> kinship w/ people like that than the rock 'n roll world of his  contempories 
of
> the Blank Generation.
> 
> Would you guys agree w/  this?  This connects a bit to your  earlier
> conversation.
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