Punk Lyric Paintings 2015-20

Richard Hell and the Voidoids–Ignore That Door 2, 2015, acrylic on paper and metal foil, 34″x40″

These are paintings, usually on metal foil, experimenting with approaches to visual representations of lyrics from UK and US punk songs of the late 1970s, a period of sustained countercultural activity and one with which I had an active engagement as a musician and spectator. They look for an alignment of painted form and punk sound and draw directly from the typography of punk record sleeve designs. The late 70s was a period of innovative record sleeve design that rapidly evolved in pace with radical sonic and lyric changes taking place in punk and post-punk music. Very few 7” singles were released without a picture sleeve whose text and image attempted to convey properties of the band’s milieu and their music. Artists like Linder, Nicola Tyson and Nick de Ville designed or photographed record sleeves for punk bands, while other remarkable treatments were devised by band members themselves and by their supporters. Musical ideas proliferated in the few years of this intensely inventive environment. Bands played as if they had nothing to lose, which in the precarious economic climate of the UK and New York’s Lower East Side at that time, was indeed the case. This devil-may-care attitude generated an extraordinary revolution in the sonic textures and lyrical treatments in music that has not occurred since.

It would be misleading to conclude that this music was all about noise and aggressive sentiment. Inveterate notions of quality and competence were displaced by the permission to make a kind of music that was stripped down to its elemental components and for lyrical content that testified to raw, basic, and often vulnerable, experience. Conventional musical abilities were considered a disadvantage over direct and untaught approaches to song structure and performance. Under these conditions of relentless renewal there emerged a greater tolerance for difference and an interest in expressions of emotional vulnerability and the admittance—even the embrace—of personal failure. This upending of musical restrictions also enabled women to perform in musical roles defined not by sexuality but by equal empowerment as creative musicians and lyricists. Conventional designates of masculinity were discredited as typifying an earlier decadent rock and roll, in the wake of which new gender roles were tentatively developed and an extraordinarily wide range of lyrical content emerged in these songs which rarely had any sexual or romantic content.

Other kinds of political engagement fueled some of the music, especially in the context of the Anti-Nazi League concerts in which I participated as a coordinator in Edinburgh. The resurgence of the right-wing National Front political party in the UK in the late 70s provoked an unprecedented alliance of musicians protesting against racial prejudice. These musicians’ actions and music hastened the demise of anti-immigrant violence and increased awareness of shared class and economic interests that superseded differences of race.

Wire–Dot Dash, 2021

Wire, Dot Dash, 7″ record cover

Intensified by its morse code choruses, punk band Wire’s 2nd single Dot Dash carries the discomfiting image of an aircraft getting lost in bad weather, losing sight of city lights below.

Mist closing in, getting thicker
One drops out, becoming quicker
Lights grow dim, they glimmer
The chances smaller, the odds are slimmer

Wire–Dot Dash 1, 2021, acrylic monoprint and paint on paper, 22″x24″ 

Wire–Dot Dash 2, 2021, acrylic monoprint, paint, and spray paint on paper, 22″x24″

Wire–Dot Dash 3, 2021, acrylic monoprint, paint, and spray paint on paper, 20″x24″

Wire–Dot Dash 4, 2021, acrylic monoprint, paint, and spray paint on paper, 22″x24″

Wire–Dot Dash 5, 2021, acrylic monoprint and paint on paper, 24″x24″

Wire–Dot Dash 6, 2021, acrylic monoprint and paint on paper, 24″x24″

Wire–Dot Dash 7, 2021, acrylic monoprint and paint on paper, 22″x24″

Wire–Dot Dash 8, 2021, acrylic monoprint, paint, and spray paint on paper, 24″x24″

Wire–Dot Dash 9, 2021, acrylic monoprint, paint, and spray paint on paper, 24″x23″

The Saints–Stranded, 2017

The Saints, Stranded, 7″ record cover, 1976

Like a snake callin’ on the phone
I’ve got no time to be alone
There is someone coming at me all the time
Yeah, babe, I think I’ll lose my mind

’Cause I’m stranded on my own
Stranded far from home, alright

I’m riding on a midnight train
But everybody just looks the same
A subway light it’s dirty reflection
I’m lost, babe, I got no direction

And I’m stranded on my own
Stranded far from home, all right

Stranded, I’m so far from home
Stranded, yeah, I’m on my own
Stranded, you gotta leave me alone
’Cause I’m stranded on my own
Stranded far from home
Come on
…

Paintings made incorporating lyrics from the first album by Australian punk band The Saints. The Saints–Stranded takes its title from their first single, released in 1976. The Saints–Messin’ With The Kid refers to a track off  their first album Stranded, released the following year.

The Saints–Stranded 1, 2017, silkscreen, acrylic, spray paint on metal foil, 48″x36″

The Saints–Stranded 2, 2017, silkscreen, acrylic, spray paint on metal foil, 48″x36″

The Saints–Stranded 3, 2017, silkscreen, acrylic, spray paint on metal foil, 48″x36″

The Saints–Stranded 4, 2017, silkscreen, acrylic, spray paint on metal foil, 48″x36″

The Saints–Stranded 5, 2017, silkscreen, acrylic, spray paint on metal foil, 48″x36″

The Saints–Stranded 7, 2017, silkscreen, acrylic on metal foil, 28″x39″

The Saints–Stranded 8, 2017, silkscreen, acrylic on metal foil, 30″x39″

The Saints–Stranded 10, 2017, silkscreen, acrylic on metal foil, 17″x18″

The Saints–Stranded 11, 2017, silkscreen, acrylic on metal foil, 17″x18″

The Saints, Messin’ With The Kid, Stranded, LP record cover, 1977

It ain’t too easy being a young man
Going round in circles, honey, all the time
You’ve played their game now for so long can’t see
What in the world are they trying to do to me?

Sometimes you get that old lost feeling
Sometimes it hits you when you’re feeling down
It’s that old feeling, honey, brings you down
I say it makes you crawl…
…

The Saints–Messin’ With The Kid 1, 2017, silkscreen, acrylic on metal foil, 36″x25″

The Saints–Messin’ With The Kid 2, 2017, silkscreen, acrylic on metal foil, 36″x25″

Punk Lyric Paintings 2015

Richard Hell and the Voidoids–Destiny Street, 1982, 12″ record cover, 1982

…However much you’re bored
You best ignore that door
When your flesh accumulates

In restlessness such strength
That you doubt if all beliefs you hold
Could go to such a length

However much you’re bored
You best ignore that door…

Richard Hell and the Voidoids–Ignore That Door 1, 2015, acrylic on paper and metal foil, 34″x40″

Richard Hell and the Voidoids–Ignore That Door 3, 2015, acrylic on paper and metal foil, 34″x40″

Richard Hell and the Voidoids–Ignore That Door 4, 2015, acrylic on paper and metal foil, 34″x40″

Richard Hell and the Voidoids–Ignore That Door 5, 2015, acrylic on paper and metal foil, 34″x40″

Métal Urbain, Paris Maquis, 7″ record cover, 1977

Révolution résistance
Paris Maquis quotidien
La ville zombie régulée
Musés blindés de l’apris
La ville résiste terroriste
Assassine l’état dans la poche
Je te juge l’état contre moi

Fasciste!

 
Métal Urbain–Paris Maquis 1, 2015, acrylic and spray paint on paper, 48″x48″

Métal Urbain–Paris Maquis 2, 2015, acrylic and spray paint on paper, 48″x48″

Métal Urbain–Paris Maquis 3, 2015, acrylic and spray paint on paper, 48″x48″

Métal Urbain–Paris Maquis 4, 2015, acrylic and spray paint on paper, 48″x48″

The Weirdos, Destroy All Music, 7″ record cover, 1977

I want to kick in the radio
I want to bomb the record store
I say
Destroy all music
And I say
You just can’t use it

The Weirdos–Destroy All Music 1, 2015, metal foil, 48″x48″

The Weirdos–Destroy All Music 2, 2015, metal foil, 48″x48″

The Weirdos–Destroy All Music 3, 2015, metal foil, 48″x48″

The Weirdos–Destroy All Music 4, 2015, metal foil, 48″x48″

The Buzzcocks, Breakdown, Spiral Scratch EP, 1977

…Oh mum can I grow out of what’s too big for me?
I’ll give up that ghost before it gives up me
I wander loaded as a crowd, a nowhere wolf of pain
Living next to nothing, my nevermind remains

I’ll breakdown yes, I’m gonna breakdown yes
I’m gonna breakdown yes
Uh huh, uh huh, uh huh, uh huh

The Buzzcocks–Breakdown 1, 2015, engraving on metal foil, 30″x24″

The Buzzcocks–Breakdown 2, 2015, engraving on metal foil, 30″x24″

The Buzzcocks–Breakdown 3, 2015, engraving on metal foil, 12″x8″

The Buzzcocks–Breakdown 4, 2015, marker on metal foil, 12″x8″

Scritti Politti, Messthetics, record cover, 1979

Messthetics, it’s all that I know, oh, I know what we’re doing…
But we know how it sounds, yes, we know how it sounds,
We know how it sounds.

Scritti Politti–Messthetics, 2016, spray paint and acrylic on metal foil, 83″x65″

The Only Ones, Lovers of Today, 7″ record cover, 1977

I want you to be around ’til the summer comes along / And I don’t mind you hanging around ’til the summer comes along / Then you make the first mistake of trying to walk before you can even run
I want you to be around ’til the summer comes along / And I don’t mind having you around ’til the summer comes along / Then you go and make that first mistake of trying to walk before you can even run
I wanna be by your side / It’s so cold on this side / I wanna tell you about love / Love that’s around today / We’re lovers of today
We ain’t got feelings / We’ve got no love / We ain’t got nothing to say / We’re lovers of today
If we ever touched it would disturb the calm / Physical effort often causes mental harm / I don’t have the energy / You could say things get pretty tranquil with me
Maybe you can’t see / But I love you baby / Much more than me / When you know that’s all to know / Maybe you’ll just come and see the show
We ain’t got feelings / We’ve got no love / We ain’t got nothing to say / We’re lovers of today / Lovers of today  / Lovers of today

The Only Ones–Lovers of Today, 2016, spray paint and acrylic on metal foil, 83″x65″

The Fall, Totally Wired, 7″ record cover, 1980

I’m totally wired / Totally wired, totally wired / I’m totally wired, can’t you see? / Totally wired / Can’t you see?
A butterfly stomach round ground / I drank a jar of coffee, and then I took some of these / And I’m totally wired / Totally wired, totally wired / I’m totally wired, can’t you see? / I’m totally wired
Life leaves you surprised. / Slaps you in the eyes. / If I was a communist, a rich man’d fail me / The opposite applies. / The morning light. / Another fresh fight / Another row, right, right, right, right.
And I’m totally wired / Ttt…totally wired, totally wired / I’m totally biased  / Totally wired
You don’t have to be weird to be wired / You don’t have to be an American brand / You don’t have to be strange to be strange / You don’t have to be weird to be weird
But I’m totally wired, totally wired, totally wired / Ttt…totally wired, can’t you see? / I’m totally wired / My heart and I agree / My heart and I agree / I’m irate, peeved, irate, peeved, / Irate, bad state, bad state.
Because I’m totally wired, I’m totally wired, totally wired / Ttt totally wired, can’t you see? / I’m totally wired
And I’m always worried / And I’m always worried  / And I’m always worried  / And I’m always worried

The Fall–Totally Wired, 2016, spray paint and acrylic on metal foil, 83″x65″

The Fall, Smile, Perverted By Language, LP record cover, 1983

Sparks off
Repeal gun laws in my brain 
Sparks off
Give us a gun if I got one 
Damn! 
Grin 
Damn 
Grin 
UP UP UP UP UP UP UP UP UP UP!
Smile! 
Smiled!  

The Fall–Smile 1, pencil and marker on paper, 14″x10″

The Fall–Smile 2, pencil, watercolor, and spray paint on paper, 14″x10″

The Fall–Smile 3, watercolor on paper, 14″x10″

 
The Fall–Smile 4, spray paint and watercolor on paper, 14″x10″

The Fall–Smile 5, spray paint and watercolor on paper, 6″x10″

The Deadbeats, Kill The Hippies, 7″ record cover, 1978

…Always smelling foul, they’re an eyesore.
There is no use for, hippies no more.
Kill, kill, kill hippies.
Don’t fight things, and be violent.
They don’t even believe in self-defense.

Kill, kill, kill hippies.
Kill, kill, kill hippies.

Kill ’em ’cause their hair’s too long.
Kill ’em ’cause their views were wrong.
Kill, kill, kill hippies…

The Deadbeats–Kill The Hippies 1, 2015, watercolor and marker on paper, 30″x24″

The Deadbeats–Kill The Hippies 1, 2015, watercolor and marker on paper, 30″x24″

Patrik Fitzgerald, Banging & Shouting, Safety Pin Stuck In My Heart EP, 7″ record cover, 1978

Ah I remember the time
Banging & shouting
Like a kid gone wrong
‘Course it was all your fault
But I’m better now
‘Blam!’ That’s where I kicked
Her in the head
That is.

Patrik Fitzgerald–Banging & Shouting 1, pencil and watercolor on paper, 23″x25.5″

Patrik Fitzgerald–Banging & Shouting 1, pencil and watercolor on paper, 23″x25.5″

Wayne County and The Electric Chairs, Fuck Off, 7″ record cover, 1977

If you don’t wanna fuck me baby, baby fuck off.
If you don’t wanna fuck me baby, baby fuck off.
I ain’t got time, for yesterday’s news, 
don’t shoot me up with your bullshit view
If you don’t wanna fuck me baby, baby fuck off.

Wayne County and The Electric Chairs—Fuck Off 1, 2015, watercolor and marker on paper, 16″x28″

Wayne County and The Electric Chairs—Fuck Off 2, 2015, watercolor and marker on paper, 16″x28″

X-Ray Spex, The Day The World Turned Day-Glo, 7″ record cover, 1978

…And watched the world turn
Day-glo you know you know
The world turned day-glo you know…

The X-rays were penetrating
Through the laytex breeze
Synthetic fibre see-thru leaves
Fell from the rayon trees 

X-Ray Spex–The Day the World Turned Day-glo 1, 2015, spray paint and marker on paper, 12″x12″

X-Ray Spex–The Day the World Turned Day-glo 2, 2015, spray paint and marker on paper, 12″x12″

The Heartbreakers, One Track Mind, 7″ record sleeve, 1977

I got tracks on my arms
Tracks on my face
There’s tracks on the walls
And all over the place
But I don’t think I’d miss it
If I had you to fix it
I just want you
For just one night
I got a one track mind
I got a one track mind
I got a one track mind
Over You

The Heartbreakers—One Track Mind 1, 2015, spray paint and marker on metal foil, 12″x8″

The Heartbreakers—One Track Mind 2, 2015, spray paint and marker on metal foil, 12″x8″

The Heartbreakers—One Track Mind 3, 2015, spray paint and marker on metal foil, 12″x8″

The Heartbreakers—One Track Mind 4, 2015, spray paint and marker on metal foil, 12″x8″

Alberto Y Los Trios Paranoias, Kill, Snuff Rock EP, 7″ record cover, 1977

Alberto Y Los Trios Paranoias–Kill 1, 2015, spray paint and marker on metal foil, 12″x8″

Alberto Y Los Trios Paranoias–Kill 2, 2015, spray paint and marker on metal foil, 12″x8″

Alberto Y Los Trios Paranoias–Kill 7, 2015, spray paint and marker on metal foil, 12″x8″

Alberto Y Los Trios Paranoias–Kill 11, 2015, spray paint and marker on metal foil, 12″x8″