What exactly is punk rock and what constitutes a good punk cover version? These are the questions that have occupied some of our thinkers since the Great Northern Songbook went live on Tuesday night from the Ulster Hall, Belfast.
Not too many people have quibbled about Katherine Philippa and 'Days Of Pearly Spencer'. Likewise with Ciaran Gribben and the historic wrench of 'The Island'. Also, Bronagh Gallagher was well regarded when she divined the beauty in Duke Special's 'Freewheel'. Exceptional moments these. But it was the punk songs on the night that sent a few malcontents onto the social networks for a right old moan.
So how do you honour 'Teenage Kicks', 'Big Time' and 'Alternative Ulster'? Does this require loud guitars and ferocity? Is it simply about style, or should we be looking for a more significant measure?
I always look to the American writer Greil Marcus for his definition of punk. Two words: Question Everything. You keep your wits sharp and you mistrust convention and tradition. There are no given rules, no received dogma. So, Patti Smith could rewrite the soul stomper, 'Land Of The Thousand Dances' and make it a transcendent fever. Devo could direct 'Satisfaction' by the Rolling Stones into utter strangeness while The Flying Lizards made 'Money' sound like the coinage of another planet.
Back at the Ulster Hall with the well-regarded And So I Watch You From Afar. It was their remit to play the 1978 tune by Rudi, 'Big Time'. The first release on the Good Vibrations label, y'know. It changed my life actually. But ASIWYFA aren't going to be literal with the song. Instead, they settle on a few riffs and then abstract the rest. They encourage the Ulster Orchestra to go ape. Only in the closing moments does it sound much like 'Big Time'. Yet I recognised the same audacity, the assurance of a band in their own domain. They are basically true to the song.
It's punk, alright, but perhaps not as you know it.
On the May 14 show I played a track from the excellent new album by Shawn Lee and LA artist AM. Over the years, I've enjoyed Shawn when he crossed my horizon, starting with the 2000 album 'Monkey Boy' and the lovely track 'Happiness' that was later abducted by Will Young. Anyway, my pal Lyndon heard the track last week and he asks me if I've ever heard his version of 'Wichita Lineman'. This was news to me, but when I checked it out, the surprise was considerable. It's a lot more psychedelic than the Glen Campbell recording and while it's not advisable to tamper with a classic, there's a soaring validity to this response. Particularly given that Shawn was raised in Wichita, Kansas and he's heard that actual wind, singing in the wire.
The Skids - Into The Valley (Virgin)
Crocodiles - Endless Flowers (Souterrain)
JD McPherson - BGOMSRNR (Decca)
Simian Ghost - Automation (Heist Or Hit)
Morrissey - First Of The Gang To Die (Attack)
Howler - This One's Different (Rough Trade)
Jherek Bishoff - Eyes (Leaf)
Tom McShane - One Man Band (Third Bar)
Dexys - You (BMG)
Friends - Home (Lucky Numbers)
Gwen McCrae - Funky Sensation (WEA)
Liars - No 1 Against The Rush (Mute)
The Shirelles - Dedicated To The One I Love (GML)
Boy - Little Numbers (New Gronland)
Rufus Wainwright - Perfect Man (Polydor)
Joe Walsh - Lucky That Way (Decca)
Shawn Lee - Wichita Lineman (BBE)
Four Tops - Do What You Gotta Do (Motown)
Naim Amor - Dansons (Vacilando 69)
Dexys - She Got A Wiggle (BMG)
Pop Etc - Keep It For Your Own (Rough Trade)
Conway Twitty - Lonely Blue Boy (Righteous)
Spain - Sevenfold (Glitterhouse)
Roxy Music - Dance Away (Virgin)
Dexys - It's Ok John Joe (BMG)
I was standing in a bar in east Belfast on Saturday afternoon when the entire place broke out into a Village People song. This was a bit peculiar in that none of the drinkers seemed to have a liking for late Seventies disco, performed by muscular clones with handlebar moustaches. But they all knew the chorus line of the 1979 hit, 'Go West', notably with a few lyrical revisions. "Stand up for the Ulstermen", they bellowed as the rugby team went scrumming down with Leinster.
Only a few weeks before and I'd heard the same chorus being used to remember the Hillsborough dead. This time the refrain was, "Justice for the 96". Indeed, there's been almost 20 years of terrace value in the anthem, involving the likes of Manchester United, Norwich City and er, West Bromwich Albion.
The original version of the song was an allusion to San Francisco, a haven for the gay lifestyle. Just as the Village People had endorsed the YMCA, the US Navy and indeed Greenwich Village as places to find adventure, so the Castro District was the happening location in California. Historically, the chorus line had been an encouragement to the 19th century American settlers, but the spirit was happily revived by the authors of 'Macho Man' and the rest.
It wasn't their biggest hit, but the song took a fresh aspect with The Pet Shop Boys in 1993. They had performed the song at an AIDS benefit the previous year, and it followed that the tune now had an elegiac tone, looking back to an era when mortality wasn't such a pressing concern. There's a touching moment at the end of the band's video when the constructivist workers from the Soviet bloc (dressed in red and white) ascend a gleaming stairway to heaven. In this respect, it's not unlike the 1989 film 'Longtime Companion', which ends with the ghosts of Fire Island, all gone. Another requiem.
None of this may have been an issue to the rugby fans in Belfast on Saturday. As Leinster extended the score difference, the chorus line became less vocal, until there was nothing much to sing about. The occasion may have passed, but the song will live indefinitely.
