Pure Punk Picks
Out In The Streets – The Shangri-La’s
If you ask me what the most underrated musical genre is? I would, unequivocally say- “Sixties Girls Groups.”
There was a lot of early sixties music styles that were modest in aspirations, but still- artistically, really great!
But towards the end of the sixties, with the hippie movement- that I, generally dislike, though I must acknowledge- produced some amazing stuff as well- The Doors, Jimi Hendrix, The Beatles, The Stones, Janis Joplin, Sly & The Family Stone, Santana- all tremendous art!
But, unfortunately, the not so great artists of the time (Greatful Dead, Jefferson Airplane, Crosby, Still & Nash) tried to negate all the earlier, greater stuff that was happening just before them, as being too commercial- not to be taken too seriously.
So girl group bands, Motown, surf instrumental and garage rock were looked down upon as not as artistically worthy as the hippie bands music.
Meanwhile, the bands like the Grateful Dead, Quicksilver Messenger Service (Andy Bang’s old band) and The Jefferson Airplane who were mostly, serving up a bunch of noodley, nonsense garbage- were revered.
Blondie, especially in the early days, had influences of girl group, garage and surf in their music and was a direct assault on the Grateful Dead/hippy vibe before them. And the fact that they actually, did come up with some great work, just represents the validity of all the genres they encompassed.
I really think of sixties girls groups, though they seem to have been controlled by men, as a predecessor to the riot grrl movement of the nineties, who in reality- were girl groups, too. And in my mind you can’t get any closer to the original sound of the punk scenes than the riot grrl movement.
And I love a lot of the sixties girl groups music. The New York Dolls and Blondie were influenced by them, obviously, but The Damned’s first great single
“New Rose” (the very first British punk single) starts out with a quote from The Shangri-La’s “Leader Of The Pack.”
And for me this band is one of the best bands of all times. And, I feel, this was their best song. (And BTW The Dolls and Blondie both covered the song I’m reviewing).
I’m sure lots of you are laughing at me- picking some emotional, sentimental tune from the early sixties and having the nerve to label it a “Pure Punk Pick.”
I respect your opinion, but then I think- if we were somehow sitting around a table with Joey Ramone, Johnny Thunders and Deborah Harry (No! she’s still with us), then your opinion would be the odd one out.
If you check out not only this band but a lot of the sixties girl groups music, you might find a wealth of well-written pop songs that are just not fluff, but true and heartfelt and powerful. And aren’t those the same adjectives I often use writing about punk?
“I wish I didn’t care. I wish I’d never met him. They’re waiting downstairs, I know I’ve got to set him free. He’s gotta be- out in the streets. His heart is out in the streets.”
And writing these lines or hearing them nearly always makes me cry. And I’m not entirely, sure why.
But maybe it’s the acceptance of letting someone go to follow their artistic pursuit that you know you can’t follow. You’d like to change them and keep them in a more conventional, safe life that you want them to live, but you realize it would kill them, kill their heart. Because “the street” reflects what is real and gritty and expressive within them and they have to follow their heart, their desire out onto the street.
He can’t settle for a mild, mediocre lifestyle- he needs the urban, raw, dangerous, uncompromising feel of the streets. And though, punk eventually became quite suburban, its’ early start was in the city streets of New York, Boston and London.
I feel my heart is out on those streets. In the pavement of the city blocks I’ve walked, many times, upon in Allston, Boston, Cambridge and Somerville- starting back over forty years ago. I feel those steps were not only taking me to shows that I wanted to see but also, away from a conventional life that I knew I couldn’t follow, but where my heart, there out in the streets, was leading me to be.
And though, this song has a somber tone and a somewhat sad ending, it also has a happy one, a liberating one, because one of the main characters is free to pursue his life as he was destined to, as how it was meant to be.
I’ve taken my own heart, in the last couple of years, I’ve taken it out for a stroll, a walk and shown many of you- who I am! Or at least, who I perceive myself to truly be.
“He use to act bad, he use to but he quit it. It makes me sad ’cause I know he did it for me. And I can see, his heart is out in the streets.”
Artists can’t just live inside themselves, they have go out and experience life and reflect, not only on themselves, but the life they see around them. They need to be out in the streets!
The joy and pain, the great and the pathetic, the holy and the damned need to be witnessed and explained.
This is a great, passionate, moving song to me and is as real and as punk as any song I’ve written about before.
Because this song- it’s gotta be!
Life and art cannot breathe, unless it’s free-It’s heart, my heart is out in the streets!
(And I’m not gonna quit being bad.)
(Slimedog)
