Melvin Little

Well for starters, I really love Rock N Roll. It is rebellious, creative, fun and filled with plenty of energy. One can say that music is an extension of an individual's emotion. What describes me is at the center of my Rock N Roll universe. This is how I became interested in the Punk Rock movement. When I personally define Punk, it is not (really) what the media percieve it to be. It can generally apply to the US & UK new revolutionary muscial direction of 1976 & 77. I still do listen to The Ramones, The Clash, The Sex Pistols, Television, The Damned, The Talking Heads, and Elvis Costello. It is, however, more than just that (and goes back further than 1976 & 77). It goes back even further than the heyday of David Bowie, Roxy Music, The New York Dolls, The MC-5, Lou Reed, Mott the Hoople, and Iggy and the Stooges. I would contend that The Velvet Underground and Nico were revolutionary and "Punk Rock" for 1967; nevertheless, I tend to agree with Lenny Kaye (who would become the guitarist for Patti Smith) when he coined the phrase "Punk Rock" in 1972. He came up with a name for a genre without a name by the early 1970s when he compiled and released the original "Nuggets" comp. He talked about a "by gone era" of one hit wonders and a few lesser knowns from the 1960s which were influenced mainly by the sounds and style of The Beatles and The Rolling Stones in 1964.I am talking about "Garage Rock." This became part of my musical identity in the early to mid 1980s. It actually, moreover, started as early as the Summer of 1981. I was 12 years old with lots of free time in my hands. I would watch PBS often and be exposed to all the British BBC TV programs which by 1981 were reruns of UK shows from the 1960s and early 1970s. You guessed it. I am talking about "The Avengers," "The Prisoner," "Doctor in the House," "Monthy Python's Flying Circus," "Doctor Who," "Dave Allen At Large," and et cetera. By the early to mid 1980s, British Rock n Roll, British Movies, British Television, and even British News all being from the 1960s all the way to the (then) present had an enormous influence and effect on me.I lived in a very small town at that time located in the northeastern part of North Carolina called Ahoskie. Ahoskie sucks! During my youth, I was a loner type. For a variety of reasons, I was different. I was treated as a social outcast most of the time growing up. Music became an escape for me. When it really comes down to what made me muscially today, I owe a great deal of thanks to the late Carol Taylor. Carol Taylor was a DJ at a mainstream Classic Rock Station called FM 99 WNOR, but she did not follow their format. Every night from the early to mid 1980s and briefly from 1988 to 1990, she would play Punk, Post Punk, Power Pop, New Wave, and 1980s Garage Rock as well as the original 1960s Garage Rock and other cool 60s Rock. She died in 1996, and I was not even aware of this until 1999. How sad. During my early teen years, I would call her while she was on the air. We would chat for an hour or two several times a week. She's the primary reason most people are impressed by my vast musical knowledge. By the early 1990s, she would host a nationally syndicated music show on NPR called "Defenistration."The rural and conservative South can be rather isolating at times, but it made me into a stronger person in many ways. I figured my situation growing up and my identity made me into the opened minded eccentric person that many people know and love, hate, or feel indifferent toward. When you add that to the sick world of much of the 1980s (which was the ugly world of Ronald Reagan in the US and Maggie Thatcher in the UK), you can see what drawn me into this narrow faction of the Punk Rock movement. Everything that I listen today from the 1950s all the way to the present meets that rebellious standard which I define as "Punk Rock."