Night Music: The Damned, “Neat Neat Neat”

I never became a Damned fan, meaning I never bought an album, but at the point in 1977 when Neat Neat Neat and New Rose came out on 45 every bit of the new music coming from England was like discovering there were new flavors to be savored. Who knew the elements of music could be rearranged in such pleasing yet odd ways?

2 thoughts on “Night Music: The Damned, “Neat Neat Neat”

  1. Thanks, Peter. I was starting to worry you’d gone off the rails. I was a pretty big (damn) Damned fan and bought the first three albums. Then The Damned started going off the rails. Saw them in Allentown on a really freaky one-shot only weekend when a big hotel booked The Damned on Saturday night and The Ramones on Sunday night with Boston’s LaPeste opening both nights. That was the beginning and end of punk shows at the hotel. I don’t particularly care for the sound on this video except for the really cool feedback/clunking of the guitar (do-do-do-do-do-do – hear what I mean?) Back in the day I used to get Brian James and Mick Jones mixed up. I should’ve just compared the size of their teeth.

  2. Yeah, the sound on this clip is crap, but it is still pretty fantastic.

    As for the rails, when I was 20 and punk broke the world of TV and critics and other idiots treated it like the next big thing. Or some outrage. But in either case, it was treated as pop music, partly because kids wanted to get known/laid/paid by making music.

    There’s lots of cynical awful pop music out there today (as there was in the 60s and 70s and for time immemorial) but there are also a lot of kids trying to get known/laid/paid, some of whom make inspiring rock in their bedrooms and garages, but others who took on the whole big machine and tried to make their mark on it.

    We’ll see if they do, or get chewed up, or spit out, over the years. But I think right now both Ellie Goulding and Lorde are worth attention. No problem if you don’t agree, and I’m sorry if you vomit, but that’s why I’m on it.

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