new thread
From my understanding punk rockers hated long hairs during the 1970s and to some extent during the 1980s, but the animosity no longer exists between the two groups.
granted, punks had a reason to be angry. they were tired of hearing the same old hippie era music which is now considered "classic Rock" music.
I don't think they were angry at long haired guys because they had long hair, but because of what they represented at that time and the punks wanted change.
I think change is good. today's "classic rock" enthusiasts are more than likely to be sporting short haircuts. I know a few and none of them have long hair.
I hope long haired guys become more common among the various independent music scenes instead of feeling comfortable with the metal and classic rock scenes.
if a long haired guy considers himself a nonconformist he will go on an adventure and check out various scenes even if the band members may not appear to be long hair "friendly". appearances can be deceiving.
I like various musics and play an instrument. Yet I do enjoy metal very much.
I can personally testify that I was chased down the street by punks who didn't like my long hair. This would have been in London, some time in the early '80s.
As far as I could tell, they didn't like us. Why, I neither know nor care.
Punk really broke in the UK only in 1976, no earlier IMHO. Even then, that is the year I started college, and we had zero punks on campus, and near zero guys with short hair, and that hadn't changed even by the time I graduated.
I also remember reading disparaging comments by Julie Burchill in the NME (New Musical Express), which I was still reading at that time because it covered heavy rock. She was more against the music than the hair, but I still hated her for it.
It is true that all this is in the past. OTOH, I don't think many of the people who listen to punk now were even born at the time. I know my daughter wasn't.
The first thing I would mention is, at the age of 61,
many of the "punk" rock songs from back in he day are now
considered "classic rock." it's part of the history of rock
from the 1950s on.
I would also mention that when i was in college we had a lot of rock bands in for concerts, mixers, etc. and a number of them
were "punk ro0ck" bands. I noticed no hated of long hairs.
They were very happy that we wanted them for our events, that they got paid, and that we provided lots of people to help load and unload their gear. They didn't really care that some of us
had long hair. Paying gigs are good no matter who is paying them especially when it is a college crowd.
I would also mention that many of these punk rock acts covered many of the songs from the hippie era.
I don't think the bands disliked us. For that matter the band I was in started during that era, although it wasn't punk by any of stretch of the imagination. No, it was the punk fans that disliked us, egged on by trashy journalists like Julie Burchill!
You mentioned this woman before. Who was she and who did she work for?
note: there were peace punks, who opposed the right-wing nazi punks, but they emerged late in the scene. the original "punks" were made up of bored guys who formed their own bands such as The Ramones and of course, The Cramps and these bands were very fond of 1960s music and never expressed any animosity towards the hippie era folks. in fact, I recall reading that Joey once considered himself a "hippie". I think the original punks were just garage punks, playing mostly an updated version of 1960s Garage Rock mixed with the energy of what became known as punk.
here is another example:
You are right, but the punks who pursued me down the street were the spiky haired variety. I'm quite partial to the Ramones myself, but the people I am talking about dismissed them as "not real punks", apparently mainly because of their long hair. Those sort of people knew nothing about the MC5 (generally creditted with founding punk music). Their idea of punk music was the Sex Pistols and the Clash.
The Sex Pistols were manufactured by Malcolm Mclaren. they were "the monkees" version of Punk rock.
The Clash are vastly overrated imho.
in regards to the proto-punks, you mentioned the MC5, there was also Iggy Pop/Stooges and Velvet Underground, but I would also suggest going back to the early to mid-1960s and check out some of the bands from Washington state such as The Sonics and of course some of the more well known garage rock bands of the era.
those idiots chasing you probably misunderstood what it was all about and with their Beavis and Butthead mindset decided to actually behave like real violent punks.
If interested, check out the Sonics debut album, released in 1965.
You must be referring to the Peace Punks.
Yes, bands such as The Ramones and Cramps, who were more Garage Punk, not the anarchist punk types covered songs like this.
There are longhairs in other genres, you just have to look for them. Enjoy this 10 year old video of Boney James re-doing an old Daryl Hall and John Oates classic!
Punk legend Henry Rollins definitely went against the grain of that scene in the early 80's by growing his hair long. He did this, in part, because of the animosity many punk music fans were displaying toward their long-haired metal brothers. I am glad to see a greater value being placed on authenticity today, rather than on external appearances, though I wish the world was more like it was then, in many other ways.
--Val