Re: (TV) Re: Tom as a punk

[postitnote <postitnote@sbcglobal.net>]

--- On Sun, 5/1/11, Jesse Hochstadt <jesseh58@yahoo.com> wrote:

From: Jesse Hochstadt <jesseh58@yahoo.com>
Subject: Re: (TV) Re: Tom as a punk
To: tv@obbard.com
Date: Sunday, May 1, 2011, 10:13 AM

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?

Oh, sorry.  It was Gary Valentine and the book is 'New York Rock: My Life in
the Blank Generation'.

Yeah, I wasn't as much interested in the category/genre of the band
Television,  but more Tom's fit into the scene.  I mean, I'm sure he musta
thought himself more as a bohemian than anything, right?  Although maybe when
Hell was in the band still, he might has seen himself a bit more punk, w/ his
torn shirt and all.  I don't think that lasted very long though.



----- 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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