by Punk: An elusive beast, a mystery so often adorned in leather and hair gel, but the punk attitude stems back much further than Johnny Rotten and Co.
The term punk has always been famously hard to describe. Billie Joe Armstrong once tried his best to define the movement, but all he did was play further into the mystery that surrounds it. “A guy walks up to me and asks, ‘What’s punk?’ So I kick over a garbage can and say, ‘That’s punk’,” he explained, “So he kicks over a garbage can and says, ‘That’s punk?’ And I say, ‘No, that’s trendy’.”
If we’re going to look at when the word officially found form, we divert our gaze towards the back end of the 1970s, towards bands such as the Ramones and the Sex Pistols. Ramones brought a new attitude to music, one that leaned into chaos and had a ‘we don’t care’ edge to it. Meanwhile, Sex Pistols did something similar, but also played into politics massively within their music, as the songs spoke about anarchy, bringing down the monarchy, and dismantling the upper class.
This is what we consider the origin of punk, and the themes that seem to bind such acts together are recklessness, showmanship, innovation and an ability to make music that speaks on behalf of those who can’t speak for themselves. Because of these pretty clear-cut characteristics, while we might associate punk music with the ‘70s, the punk mentality existed long before that, and can be seen decades, even centuries, before the actual birth of the movement.
A great example of this is Frank Johnson, a musician who was born towards the end of the 1700s and was performing throughout the turn of the century. His style was otherworldly, as he took well-known songs and re-invented them, turning them into much more upbeat and energetic jigs, rather than the stripped-back and sombre numbers they were prior.
Here, we already have a comparison towards punk, as both artists in both periods of time were praised for their innovative musical approach. While bands like the Sex Pistols took the basics of rock music and made them sound thrashier, dirtier and less rehearsed, Johnson took sentimental songs and turned them into foot-stomping jigs.
Johnson’s music was incredibly ahead of its time; there was no one out there presenting songs in the same way that he did, and he was celebrated as a genius because of it. Some people have even listened to his compositions and opined that he was playing a rehashed version of jazz 100 years before the genre’s documented origin in New Orleans (although this is hotly contested).
Of course, it wasn’t just the music itself, but it was how Johnson performed. Homer Jackson, a modern visual artist, spoke about the other Johnson’s performance style and how unique it was back then. “He definitely wasn’t composing jazz, but the notes on the page are not the whole story,” he said,“When he performed, people described his playing as inventive, with embellishments, distortions and soul-stirring energy. When we performed his pieces, it was so easy to see how you could ‘get happy’ with that music, in the African American way, and make it swing.”
His performance style was so well regarded that one night, when he was playing at Masonic Hall in Philadelphia, a newly installed gas mount started a fire that caused the building to collapse. Rumours began circulating that it was Johnson’s “hot” playing style which started the fire, and given his reputation, those rumours became relatively substantiated.
Finally, while he wasn’t considered a political musician, his presence in the musical world doubled as a political statement. During periods of segregation, his music brought people of different skins together, as Johnson played to mixed crowds, preaching the unifying nature of good music.
Innovation, a good performance style, and speaking up for those who could not speak for themselves…tick, tick, tick. While he might not have been playing music that emulated the sound of the Sex Pistols, there is no escaping the fact that Frank Johnson was a true punk, and he was changing music long before it was cool.
