Part 12-1: I learned about punk rock in real-time through magazines

Kan Takagi 'Between Rock and Roll...'
Text : Kan Takagi / Illustration : UJT

The popular series from the literary culture magazine IN THE CITY, published by BEAMS, is back. A long essay examining 'rock and roll as imported culture' from the streets.

Danny Boyle of the movie 'Trainspotting' has dramatized the Sex Pistols, and it has begun streaming in their home country. What made the Pistols famous was the boat trip live performance during Queen Elizabeth's Silver Jubilee a quarter-century ago, and this year, for the Platinum Jubilee, 'GOD SAVE THE QUEEN'—using a new PV re-edited with footage from that time—has reached number one on the UK charts for the first time after being re-released for the umpteenth time.

John Lydon now says that anarchy was just a teenage neurosis, and Steve Jones, whose autobiography is the basis for this drama, is now 66 and says he doesn't listen to the Pistols anymore; both have negative opinions, but it seems the Pistols are popular again with Gen Z, who didn't know the Pistols in their prime.

It is truly moving to see young US rappers wearing Seditionaries reproductions. Although it's not for me to say, having been someone who wore punk clothes and rapped in 1986, ten years after the dawn of punk, it is honestly interesting that a visual mash-up with punk is now attracting attention on the front lines of hip-hop.

Until now, the most famous dramatic work featuring the Pistols as a motif was Alex Cox's 'Sid and Nancy: Love Kills,' but because the Pistols' music wasn't used, it didn't fully capture the Pistols as a band.

Perhaps because of that? After that movie was released, there were many cases where the original punk generation, led by John Lydon, released biographies as if to say, 'This is the truth!', and translations have been progressing recently. If you read even one of them, you'll understand, but I think that dramatizing the original punk era from 1976 to 1978 is not that difficult compared to other music movements.

It can be depicted in connection with the historical background, but above all, it should be easy to depict musically.

Jones, who played guitar for the Pistols at the time, must have practiced quite a bit since he switched from singer to guitarist, as he talks about in his autobiography, so I can understand his feeling of not wanting to listen to it now, looking back on those days (he recently uploaded a video of himself playing and singing! Bill Withers and such!). But simple songs, excluding riffs and solos, should be easy for actors with no musical experience to perform. Even so, although I assume the Japanese release of Danny Boyle's drama will happen eventually, it's been a long time since I've felt this teased.

Unlike glam, I learned about punk rock in real-time through magazines. I think the first time I saw the word was in Music Life, written by Haruko Mizukami, in 1975 or 1976. At the time, ML was heavily influenced by the popularity of Queen, Kiss, and Aerosmith, which were the main focus of the magazine, but there were also pages introducing music that the older generation was listening to or might be interested in. At one point, there was an article introducing new music and movements in New York, and I think that was probably when I first learned the word 'punk'.

New York was a longing of mine at the time. Since I started listening to rock because of the Beatles, my foundation was British, whether it was hard rock, prog, Queen, or Bowie, but because I loved movies, James Dean walking through Times Square with a cigarette in his mouth looked incredibly cool, and I had a raw, cool image of it. At the same time, live recordings from the New York live house Bottom Line were being aired on FM Tokyo at the time, and although it was mostly jazz, I listened to it often. I was deeply moved by Roberta Flack's singing. The sound of glasses and the murmur of the audience occasionally heard between songs... just the fact that it was a live performance from across the ocean made my imagination run wild. I imagined and longed for an intellectual image of New York, not the so-called John Wayne's America.

That new rock movement in New York.

At that time, German rock and reggae were also starting to be introduced, but popular genres other than idol-like bands were progressive rock, hard rock, and blues rock, and laid-back and crossover were hot topics. I wasn't interested in laid-back, and as someone who missed the boat on glam, just the idea of 'something new' made me feel like I could participate from scratch before even hearing the sound, and above all, I was attracted to the sound of the word 'punk'.

Rock starting with 'Pu' has a pop and explosive image.

Soon after, the Ramones' debut album was released in Japan, and at the same time, The Runaways were also released as punk.

Before long, punk began to be featured in every magazine, from music magazines to fashion magazines.

Among them was a magazine called 'ZOO'. The subtitle read 'Super Head Magazine'. The editor-in-chief was Mikio Moriwaki. It was originally a prog-oriented magazine. At a certain point, it started pushing punk, and a few years later the title changed to 'DOLL', becoming what was probably the first punk music magazine in Japan, and the comic that was in that 'ZOO' was the best.

(To be continued)

*Postscript:
The Pistols drama, titled 'Sex Pistols' in Japanese, has been decided for distribution in Japan too.
From July 13th on Disney+!