Etymology of "punk."

Legs McNeil, Lenny Kaye, etc.

I guess I'm asking WTF is wrong with Greil that he would say this: "along with editor Dave Marsh, he discovered, nurtured, and promoted an esthetic of joyful disdain...that in 1976 and 1977...would take the name he had given it: punk."

a whole lot is wrong with the dude, obvs. that is definitely the most wtf thing I've read of his though.

punk afaik = prison boytoy bottom throughout the 50s and 60s. then Legs decided to "reclaim" it, although I'm not sure if that concept existed in the 70's.

It's not something I'd fight for, but I'm pretty sure Kaye used it before Legs, though Legs big-ups himself for coining it as much as possible.

Who first used the term "punk rock" tho?

http://i29.tinypic.com/xq966t.jpg

also, Burroughs.

Why does Kanye West say "punk" for the first time in recorded history in "Gold Digger"?

http://www.heliumgasagents.co.uk/LargeImages/20263smiffy.jpg

http://www.2wentysfancydress.co.uk/acatalog/28187_1.jpg

I'm pretty sure "punk" was used as early as 1974 in a musical context, but it was to describe the 3-minute-pop glam that was the immediate precursor to post-Pistols punk.

from Jon Savage's England's Dreaming, interview with John Holmstrom:

"It was pretty obvious that the word was getting very popular... Creem used it to describe this early seventies music, Bomp would use it to describe the garage bands of the sixties; a magazine like the Aquarian would use it to describe what was going on at CBGB's. The word was being used to describe Springsteen, Patti Smith, and the Bay City Rollers. So when Legs came up with it (sic) we figured we'd take the name before anyone else claimed it."

I always thought the first time "punk rock" was used to describe music, it was in the liner notes of Nuggets. But I don't know about "punk" alone.

during the 70s rock writer Billy Altman was widely credited with coining the term "punk rock" in his college paper/zine circa 1970. greil marcus would've known about this, surely? don't know why he didn't cite it.

Nuggets first came out in 1972, and by that time the term was being used in Creem and probably Bomp too.

This solves so many problems. Work on this.

a Suicide flyer from 1972 advertised them performing a "Punk Music Mass". They got the term 'punk' from a Stooges article in Creem written by Bangd.

bangs i mean.

Bangs even writes (in his Clash piece) about hearing the word used and being out of the loop as to its meaning.

And yeah, Kaye used it in the Nuggets liner notes in 1972.

"Punk rock" as a term, that is, not "punk."

Oh, and Bangs' Creem article about the Stooges is from 1970, but it only has two mentions of the word "punk" in it. These include:

These are the folks that’re always saying: "Someday, somebody’s gonna just bust that fucked up punk right in the chops!"

and

and who never make fools of themselves the way that Stooge punk does, what with his clawing at himself, smashing the mike in this chops, jumping into the crowd to wallow around a forest of legs and ankles and godknows what else

That so doesn't count.

dave marsh coined the term "punk rock" in the may 1971 issue of creem, in reference to ? and the mysterians.

from a 2001 interview with marsh from rockcritics.com:

Scott: Are you happy to take credit for coining the phrase 'punk rock'?

Dave: Well, happier every year! It's funny because a bunch of different people, even Bob Christgau, called me up and said, Legs McNeil says in his book [Please Kill Me] that he coined the term. And I said, well, he didn't. This is when it happened--in my ? Mark and the Mysterians "Looney Tunes" column. And Legs McNeil was still, you know, learning how to lift his tone-arm at that point.

I buy it.

Legs has early-onset Alzheimer's.

early onset megalomania