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Music

Rejects

Punk was the last thing you’d expect American pop music to produce. And disgruntled Jews were the last people you’d expect to become rock stars.

By Long Story Short|September 15, 2011 7:00 AM|12comments
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Joey Ramone, circa 1970. (Richard McCaffrey/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images)

The predominance of Jews in American popular music is an old story. From George Gershwin to Amy Winehouse, Jewish composers and entertainers have carved their place in the mainstream. But in the 1970s, a very different sort of Jewish artist emerged. Joey Ramone, Handsome Dick Manitoba, Sylvain Sylvain and the other founding fathers of punk rock were as disdainful of the culture as their predecessors were eager to help define it. Wearing leather jackets, singing about sex and drugs, and cultivating their status as rejects, they made music that was loud and fast and much more true to the traditional status of Jews as eternal outsiders.

Four decades later, the musical genre they helped invent is no longer controversial; punk bands like Green Day have their own musicals on Broadway. But to understand just why punk had become so popular, and what its success says about the American Jewish community, it is necessary to go back to New York circa 1974, where a group of nerdy Jews were busy reinventing themselves. Unofficial punk historian Jeff Wengrofsky talks to Long Story Short host Liel Leibovitz. [Running time: 49:40.]



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  • HWB

    Really amazing. Can you post the names and info of each sound clip?

  • Joey B

    “The predominance of Jews in American popular music is an old story. From George Gershwin to Amy Winehouse, Jewish composers and entertainers have carved their place in the mainstream.”

    Since when is Amy American ? :-)

  • Leigh Dolin

    Great show and enjoyed the comments and music. But I think calling the Barton Brothers (new to me) predecessors of punk is a bit of a stretch. Their musicians played their instruments too well. Punk is the Ramones, 3 chords, and avoidance of melody at all costs.

  • George Petros

    Very cool. Jeff Wengrofsky is to be congratulated for his panoramic overview of Punk’s early history. He authoritatively articulates the genre’s alienation and triumphs. Keep up the good work.

  • http://www.ysky.deviantart.com Yana Filkovsky-Saito

    This was an extremely enlightening, affirming, elucidating, fascinating, and all in all, truly *uplifting* program.
    Then again, this reaction is coming from one chronically depressed, permanently alienated, wrong-half Jewish atheist, former USSR immigrant via Israel, who’s nearest idea of a self-identity is that of being a “punk” — how terribly sad that punk is not understood in that original sense anymore! …and there is no other term close enough to qualify as substitute.
    However, I cannot thank Jeff Wengrofsky enough for shedding this light on my own darkly muddled and nearly invisible identity – and even giving it some certain context – dare i say, implicate a shared experience with other ‘outsiders’ that is more than merely the experience of being an ‘outsider’….
    May you live to 120 years of age, you punk!!!

  • Liz Byrnestein

    This is BRILLIANT in many ways. The questions are probing and the answers are sering. I found this particular discussion riveting. Jeff Wengrofsky’s song selections are prime examples of true punk and it’s original philosophy. What incite… מאוד חינוכי

  • Hank Payne

    Jeff, thank you for a fascinating interview. I honestly had never stopped to think about nor realized the broad influence that Jews have had on Punk. Very interesting stories you shared on the amazing musicians. Mazel tov & now, I’m hearing The Banshees “Israel”!

  • IngaB

    For me as a ‘punk-rock-layperson’ this interview is extremely helpful to gain insight into the history of punk and the decisive role the American Jewish community played in originating it. Thanks!

  • Adam

    Great interview! I love it! Really scratches below the surface of this cultural moment, and from an ethnic angle that I hadn’t heard before. Although I had made the connection between punk and other, more intellectual forms of cultural criticism, as far back as the turn of the century; modernity has been alienating people for as long as there’s been modernity.

  • Steven Blush

    Jeff Wengrofsky’s insightful interview not only made me re-examine cultural history, but it made me realize that Jews in punk is American as apple pie and Chinese takeout. Mazel tov!

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  • PunkyJewster

    For those of you interested in Jeff’s talk, you might want to check out the book “The Heebie-Jeebies at CBGB’s: A Secret History of Jewish Punk.” It’s about the exact same thing, yet goes into infinitely more detail. It came out here in 2006 and in Germany in 2008. The writer’s website is http://www.jewpunk.com.

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Rejects

Punk was the last thing you’d expect American pop music to produce. And disgruntled Jews were the last people you’d expect to become rock stars.