Duncan’s Ditty of the Day # 5

Yes I changed my name – see the “About” page.

But HBOG’s Ditty of the Day wouldn’t have any decent ring about it. So Duncan will live on to some extent. I have no idea what Big Dunc’s musical tastes are, probably not “laid-back”. Not Lieutenant Pigeon, either.

I digress. The last ditty recalled the early days of punk, and how the likes of the Sex Pistols were a sorely-needed antidote to both the clown-like excesses of the glam-rockers and the terminally dull ramblings of the prog-rockers.

In an America dominated by AM radio things on the surface carried on as usual, but they had their own new wave (as punk transmogrified into), and in my humble opinion it was even better.

They had an advantage. They already had the Velvet Underground. Lou Reed gets my vote for most influential musical personality over the last fifty years, and the Velvets’ influence was to be clearly seen in New York, centred around the CBGB’s club in the Bowery. Many well-known names started there and then, including Talking Heads, the Ramones, Patti Smith, Television and, not least, Blondie.

This was the time when I first met my future wife. Good times (still) and good music in the background. I could pick from several but one track in particular represents pure pop with an edge.