[	Current Mood	|	worried	]
[	Current Music	|	The Deviants - Disposable	]

Album: American Revolution
Artist: David Peel and Lower East Side
Release date:1969
Genre:: proto-punk, ska-punk, folk
Scene: New York

Album: Disposable
Artist: The Deviants
Release date:1968
Genre:: Psychedelic Rock, proto-punk
Scene: Ladbroke Grove

Album: The Deviants 3
Artist: The Deviants
Release date:1969
Genre:: psychedelic Rock, proto-punk
Scene: Ladbroke Grove

Album: The Belle of Avenue A
Artist: The Fugs
Release date:1969
Genre:: Proto-punk, psychedelic rock, folk, country
Scene: New York

The next musical post is about proto-punk.

the first album is "American Revolution" by David Peel and the Lower East Side. It's very New York, because Lower East Side is a district in Manhattan. This album totally sounds like punk, and particularly like ska-punk. The only problem is that the concept of "punk" as a music genre yet wasn't invented back then. So in some sense I'm now convinced that the birthplace of punk is New York City. The songs on this album are very political. They are antiwar, anti-police and pro-drugs. For the third song is just called "Legalize the Marijuana". And the chorus is just the words "legalize the marijuana" repeated. Another song "I want to get high" just sings "Going to buy his drugs \\ right in the park!\\ When it gets dark!". Another interesting song is "I Want to Kill you", where our jolly hippie-pranksters shout: "kill, kill, kill!". In this song there is lyrics: "I want to kill your mother and I want to kill your wife \\ I want to kill your father and his son, I'll take his life \\ I am very crazy, dear, I've got to do my job" But in the two final songs " Hey Mr. Draft Board" and "God" the band becomes more open with its antiwar agenda. The last song is an especially strong statement. It has prayer-like lyrics: "God, why do we have wars? \\ God, why do we have laws? \\ God, people are so strange \\ God, I am so ashamed \\ I am so ashamed". This continues in a very artistically sounding inner monolog ore prayer:"It's my life and you do what you want \\ People are hating and fighting for love \\ Pеople call me funny names \\ I don't undеrstand \\ You got to help the people who call themselves man \\ God, are you really square? \\ God, do you have long hair? \\ God, I don't really care \\ God, help me live my fear \\ Help me live my fear \\ I don't want to be your enemy \\ I want everyone in this world free \\ I don't give a damn if you're hip or square \\ Love is something everyone's got to share..." Overall this is a great album to celebrate 4th of the July.

The next band I want to write about are the Deviants. The Deviants were a British band and sometimes also classified as proto-punk. But I don't hear much punk in their sound. Especially in their second album "Disposable". it sounds much more like psychedelic rock, very much in the vane of their Ladbroke Grove peers Hawkwind. Even though this album tries to make some political statements. The third album "Deviants 3" has slightly more punk elements. For example, it opens with the banger "Billie the monster" with repetitive punk chords. By the way this is the last classical Deviants album before their reunion. Personally I don't like deviants that much. Maybe because I already got overdose of psychedelic rock and I don't find their songs that much thought-provoking and refreshing as they pretend to be.

The last album in this comp is "The Belle of Avenue A" by the Fugs. This is also their last core album before the reunion. Some people write that it is the most commercially sounding Fugs' album. But it my opinion this sound is just a result of their musical growth. Because the early Fugs were a very chaotic band with a raw sound produced by angry NYC poets imitating a rock band. Probably also influenced by traditional folk, but in fact incompetent. And eventually they came to this sound which mixes together folk, country and psychedelic rock. And eventually Fugs future a weird hippie country ballad about a track driver and his love to a hippie girl. And I found the A side of this record rather enjoyable, not it only in the weirdness and the shock value of lyrics, but also in it's pure musicality. The B side has some annoying songs like the "Yodeling Yippie" with the actual yodeling. The weird lyrics here for example feature a puking sphynx in the "Queen of the Nile".