Punk

Growing up I mostly listened to classical music. My favorite was Beethoven. But we are going to get back to him a bit later on. Right now I want to talk about punk.

I never really got into electric guitar music until I became a teenager. I guess it had to do with hormones and puberty. The band, and the album, that did it for me was Bad Religion and their, in my opinion, best work: Recipe for Hate.

I still remember getting a copy of it on cassette and walking down a snowy winter evening in my little suburb listening to the first track Kerosene and “getting it”.

Then I was hooked with the track Portrait of Authority.

My rebellious spirit had been lit. Naturally I dived straight into Nirvana, Minor Threat, Flipper and other such bands. All of them have played an important part of my journey from child to adult. But it all began with that album by Bad Religion.

How ironic that I would in later years embrace non-atheistic views when throughout my teenage years I so fully embraced atheism. But I have come to understand that I was rejecting a God that I still don’t accept. I was rejecting a religious mentality that I still don't agree with.

I just discovered another way to look at divinity and the sacred. And I still love punk although I don’t listen to it as much as I used to. The rage, hate and anger is not a part of me anymore. Not to the degree it used to be. I exorcised that in the Amazon together with the Shipibo people and some Ayahuasca.

I never dressed really as a punk either, and I think it is funny to see punks in all their attire. To me punk is about attitude, not clothes.

Kurt Cobain said it best:

“Punk rock should mean freedom, liking and excepting anything that you like. Playing whatever you want. As sloppy as you want. As long as it's good and has passion.”

In classical music what composer rhythmically, and in attitude, mostly resemble that of punk? Beethoven of course.

Da-Da-Da Dum!!!

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