Punk: Loud, Young and Snotty -- The Stories Behind the Songs

It has been over twenty-five years since punk rock transformed the landscape of music and popular culture, but the significance of the era continues to endure. Whether you take your Year Zero from The Stooges in 1969 or the heady bile of The Clash and Sex Pistols, it's impossible to overstate the importance of punk. This book examines the songs that encapsulated punks' message of dissatisfaction, anger, and integrity. From The Stooges, The Clash, and Sex Pistols through The Buzzcocks, The Stranglers, The Undertones, and The Damned to the later, artier punk of Joy Division, Wire, and The Fall, as well as the American front of Ramones, Suicide, Talking Heads, and Blondie, author Steven Wells dissects punk's nihilistic classic tunes. Why were The Clash “So Bored with The USA”? What made Johnny Rotten dismiss the Queen as “a moron”? What were the undertones of The Stranglers' seemingly benign “Golden Brown”? What “Psycho Killer” was the focus of the Talking Heads classic song? Why were the Bad Brains “Banned in D.C.”? And who was the Ramones' Sheena? All of these answers, dozens of photographs and more are provided in detail in Punk: Loud, Young, and Snotty.