Review of Punk: Attitude

Introduction

If you caught `Punk: Attitude` on the box then you`d probably think more kindly of it. It`s 90 minutes of aged punk rockers and their collaborators adding to the weight of their own mythology and significance via wall to wall talking heads and archival footage. Predictably it`s a little more ponderous and time-consuming than the original two and a half minutes of incendiary rock that used to suffice. Ironically, all of the original perpetrators are longer in the tooth and wider of girth than they were - and all, without exception, prone to long-winded analysis. In truth, many of the truly innovative exponents of the art are absent (either dead, missing in action or otherwise engaged) leaving just a dozen or so contributors to make up this oral history.

Director Don Letts is perfectly qualified for the task of interviewer. He was there at the heart of the action when Punk took a curiously British twist in the summer of `76, when Pub-rockers (including Strummer, then with the 101`ers) watched with amazement as The Sex Pistols launched theirs and Maclaren`s vitriolic take on the NY scene. As there were no Punk records to play, Letts would fill in between bands at the 100 club by playing rocksteady and dub reggae. Always an unlikely marriage (calming laid back reggae and the blitz of punk), it somehow worked and reggae`s influence on punk was officiated when The Clash covered Junior Murvin`s `Police and Thieves` on their debut album.

So here Letts has decided to take an almost academic look back at where and how the movement started, its enormous influence on art, culture and everyday life, and its self-destruction shortly after it began, leaving in its wake a series of confused, befuddled and half-assed punk bands that missed the point entirely (The Exploited , Cock Sparrer etc).

Letts quite rightly starts his journey in the US where garage punk bands were a feature of the late 1960`s, eventually spawning rock monsters Iggy and the Stooges and the MC5.

He tracks the New York scene from The Velvets, through Television, the New York Dolls, the Dead Boys, Patti Smith to the Ramones and Blondie. Contributors like Jim Jarmusch, Jello Biafra, Henry Rollins and David Johansen recall the influence and power of these early innovators and the influence they had on their own lives.

Letts then jumps the pond to discuss Malcolm Maclaren and Vivienne Westwood`s influence and their situationst aspirations. There are interviews with many of the earliest exponents of the scene, including Chrissie Hynde, Siouxsie Sioux (Banshees) , Polly Styrene (X-Ray Specs), Captain Sensible (The Damned), Paul Simonon and Mick Jones (The Clash) , Steve Jones (The Sex Pistols), Howard Devoto (Magazine) and Pete Shelly (Buzzcocks), as well as press commentators like Jon Savage.

The interviews are, generally, nicely shot and there is a reasonable amount of cutaway footage though rarely are the early live performances in synch with accompanying audio. Disappointingly there are no full songs or performances on the disc, despite some tantalising teasers - including footage of The Ramones at CGBG`s and Suicide (barely) alive somewhere in NYC. There`s also some great early footage of Iggy Pop in action as well as plenty of Clash, Pistols, Damned and Buzzcocks. But always just enough to frustrate - and never enough to satisfy. Whether this was licencing or just discipline to avoid an overly long documentary, it`s hard to tell. This does cover a lot of ground after all. But, sadly, you don`t get a glimpse of the fuller performances in the extras either which is a failing of the package here.

The documentary, for the sake of completion, not only digs back to the roots, but takes a look at the emerging scenes since - from Fugazi to Nirvana, and on the pop-punk of Green Day, Sum 41 and Blink 182.

It`s all shot nicely, and the only indication that you`ll ever get that it`s Mr. Letts asking the questions is when one of the interviewees mentions it. (`But you were there, right?`).

On balance, I found the most inspiring of the interviews came from fans of the first wave, Jello Biafra and Henry Rollins. Both are extremely sharp commentators and are animated in their enthusiasm for the movement and what it achieved. Rollins is intense to the point of twitchy
but you get the impression that he`s pretty evangelical about all things punk and his enthusiasm is completely infectious. It`s his analysis of the inevitable implosion of punk that seems the most astute, and it`s clear that he`s a man that has thought and talked a great deal about these issues.

Video

A very nice 16:9 anamorphic transfer of nicely shot digital video interviews and archive material of varying quality.

Audio

Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo. This is good quality broadcast standard sound and without exception nicely balanced and mixed despite the wide variety of interviewees.

Features

Perhaps sensing that this is, after all, just a standard talking-head documentary, Letts seems to have made a considerable effort to ensure that there`s a healthy dose of extras too.

PACKAGING
This comes in a card outer sleeve with
a double Amray insert holding the 2 discs. There`s also a printed family-tree that shows what an incestuous scene this was, as well as two facsimile editions (into a single booklet) of `Sniffin` glue`, the original hand typed and pasted UK punk fanzine. Issue 1 is here with Blue Oyster Cult on the cover (?!) as well as The Ramones, and issue 7 features an interview with Don Letts.

DISC 1
Disc 1, as well as including the documentary has a clever interactive function on some 50 scenes where you can press a button to access the `interactive family tree` - should you want to. The whole family tree is available as a separate feature too.

There`s also a text-based `where are they now` feature which runs to several pages and covers some 20 or so artists.

DISC 2
This disc is packed with small interview based featurettes, though in truth these really amount to `more of the same` - though `more` is the operative word here.

Henry Rollins interview - this is still heavily edited (with fades between cuts) but covers his interview and comments in full. Now on `talking tours`, he`s a real raconteur and has plenty to say.

Dave Goodman interview - this is an interview with the guy who used to rent out his PA to the London Pub-rock scene which merged into the punk scene. Despite being a self-confessed hippy, he helped the pistols record their first songs and has plenty to say about these early embryonic days of the UK scene.

Fanzines - Legs McNeil talks about his fanzine (`Punk`) whilst a series of contributors talk about the importance of fanzines to the punk `diy` ethic.

Women in Punk - Poly Styrene, Ari-Up (The Slits), and Siouxsie Sioux talk about the pioneering role that `punkettes` played in bringing women into a male dominated rock scene.

OTHER - all the contributors previously mentioned discuss (again but in more detail) Record Companies, The Attitude Spirit of Punk, The Influence and Origins of Punk, Punk on Culture and the Arts, UK versus the US, Punk Evolution, The Gigs/ Performance, The Punk Sound

Conclusion

For those, like me, who were 16 when Punk exploded into our lives, this may well prove to be a little disappointing. But then I don`t know what I expected. Perhaps to feel like I did then - to feel the exciting freshness and rawness of this new genre, kicking out the cobwebs of prog and corporate rock and bringing life and energy from the city to the suburbs.

But this is actually a rather straight-laced documentary, intelligently cut and nicely presented, with highly relevant commentators (those who truly deserved to be included in this oral history) all reflecting back on what was, after all, a few brief incendiary moments.

Despite a very thorough approach by Don Letts, it still feels uncomfortably like a `The Top 100 Punk moments ever` programme on Channel 5.

Letts credits himself as `writer` - despite the fact that this is a compilation of interview bites and cutaways. His editing decisions have certainly shaped this almost academic reflection, but in the final analysis, despite it being perfectly diverting, and frequently fascinating, I can`t imagine why anyone would want to watch it twice.

It`s certainly replete with a wide array of extras, but these turn out to be pretty much just more of the same.

I guess you could argue that its a `good` programme (like a `South Bank Show` special) and well worth a rent, but this really isn`t a worthwhile Christmas present for Dad, or your ex-punk husband or wife.

Far better to get them the recently released special edition of `London Calling` or one of the Ramones documentaries that are doing the rounds which are packed with performances that can be played again and again.