A new book sheds light on the birth of punk in New York City fifty years ago – National
Fifty years ago, a series of events on both sides of the Atlantic conspired to give birth to a new strain of rock that was paradoxically both revolutionary and reactionary. It was branded as “punk rock.” Over about 12 months, it demonstrated an aesthetic, an attitude and a sense of fashion, although punk split into two distinct flavours. In the U.K., punk was political, an assault on the class system and sometimes violent. But in New York, it was more art than angst. More than a few poets, writers and painters were part of that original scene.
NYC punk’s epicentre back then was CBGB, a former biker bar on the ground floor of a flophouse hotel filled with the broken, addicted and indigent. From a small scene that began coalescing in late 1973 and early 1974, many a legend was born. Together...






