There is a big secret about The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle: most punks
don't like it [1].
And the reason is simple: The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle is an attempt
by Malcolm McLaren and Jamie Reid to dig a grave and bury both the reputation
of the Sex Pistols as well as the expectations of their fans.
Of course, Wattie Buchan didn't get it: and still doesn't get it, even in
2024.
Suggest that punk is anything less than alive and kicking and he'll give you
the same mouthful of abuse as spewed out in 1981, grounded in his unshakeable
conviction that punk's not dead.
II.
For those who aren't familiar with the name, Wattie Buchan is a former
squaddie turned punk rocker, born in Scotland in 1957. He is best known as
lead singer and frontman for the Exploited, who, in 1981, released an album by
the title of Punks Not Dead [2] - one that, even lacking an
apostrophe, would quickly become a slogan graffitied on walls (and leather
jackets) the world over.
In part a reaction to snobby music critics writing for the NME who now
privileged bands categorised as post-punk, the album title also
challenged the anarcho-hippie band Crass who famously included a track on
their album The Feeding of the 5000 (1978) entitled 'Punk Is Dead'
[3].
If this track is lyrically more sophisticated than that given us by Mr Buchan
and friends - sung by Steve Ignorant, I'm guessing it was written by Penny
Rimbaud - it is equally naive in its militant idealism and, ultimately, the
discussion around punk - what it is and whether it is alive or dead (as well
as who is and is not authentically a punk) - becomes extremely tedious and
futile; especially when it's almost 50 years after the event.
One thinks of the phrase two bald men fighting over a comb ...
Messrs. Buchan and Ignorant in 2024
(aged 67)
Notes
[1] Obviously, I'm paraphrasing the opening line to Leo Bersani's famous
1987 essay 'Is the Rectum a Grave?', which can be found in
Is the Rectum a Grave and Other Essays (Chicago University Press,
2009), pp. 3-30.
The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle was
released as a soundtrack album in 1979 (Virgin Records) accompanying the
film of the same title that finally arrived in UK cinemas in 1980, dir.
Julien Temple. Click
here to play the
title track.
[2] The Exploited, Punks Not Dead (Secret Records, 1981). To
listen to the title track: click
here. For those
who may have trouble understanding the lyrics: click
here.
[3] Crass, 'Punk Is Dead', from the album
Feeding of the 5000 (Crass Records, 1978): click
here to listen
to a remastered version of the track on YouTube (with a video by Jay Vee
which conveniently includes the lyrics to the song).
Punk Is Dead is also the title of a
collection of essays edited by Richard Cabut and Andrew Gallix (Zero
Books, 2017), about which I have written in a post dated 27 June 2021:
click
here.
