Although the Ramones had shown the way back in 1976 with “I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend”—one of the sweetest punk rock songs of all time—a lot of true believers didn’t want punk to get real when it came to matters of the heart. To sing about everyday life and relationships was seen as awfully bougie, and certainly not edgy enough to be truly punk. (As much as I like Television Personalities’ 1978 anthem “Part Time Punks,” it’s a perfect example of this kind of ridiculous thinking: Ordinary people can’t be punk! They’re so … ordinary!) Certain punk icons were getting passes—Bad Brains’ “Sailin’ On,” Patti Smith’s “Free Money,” pretty much every song by X—but mostly the gatekeepers were doing a lot of mental gymnastics in the late ’70s and early ’80s, like labeling anything that got too emotional (or too brainy, for that matter) “new wave.”
Would many people in 2022 argue that Blondie’s debut album or Talking Heads’ 77 aren’t punk classics? Probably not, but it was a different time, with a much narrower understanding of the music.
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