The Grumpy Punk Presents: History Lesson (1982): We Destroy The Family: Punks vs. Parents Part I
(Featuring a KABC-TV Public Affairs Presentation of a special broadcast, “We Destroy The Family: Punks vs. Parents,” which contains the music of Fear!)

It has been a while since The Grumpy Punk has crawled out of his bean-bag chair, took off his massive headphones, and decided to toss out a missive that stimulates as well as educates.  He’s been int he process of assembling a long-form, educational history of only the good stuff, but every so often he gets derailed from the chronological narrative, and is compelled to skip around.  Hence, this week’s episode, “We Destroy The Family: Punks vs. Parents,” featuring the music of the legendary band, Fear.

The samples are clips from this episode are from a “news” broadcast from 1982, where the news crew put together a five-piece “expose” on the punk scene in LA, narrated by Paul Moyer, who worked for the station at the time.  Legend has is that this program was aired in five pieces during their regular news program, then assembled into a full program, and broadcast in the evenings on KABC-TV.  There are a number of reports online of people who watched this with their families.  It is very much worth viewing at least once, for contextual reasons.

1982 was an important year for Fear.  Two years previously they had been signed to Slash Records, after appearing in Penelope Spheeris’ The Decline Of Western Civilization.  This exposure earned them a number of fans, not the least of which was John Belushi.  He wanted Fear to provide the soundtrack to a movie he was working on, but when he couldn’t commit to this promise, instead opted to book them for the Halloween 1981 episode of Saturday Night Live.  (In the audience of the show you can see Belushi, along with a number of prominent punks, pogoing to “Beef Bologna” & “New York’s Alright If You Like Saxophones.”)  These appearances created a bit of a buzz about the band, which set the stage for their first album, The Record to come out in 1982.

It was in this environment that this newscast hit the airwaves.  With all of the goofy voice overs, the poorly transcribed lyrics, and the opportunity for Lee Ving to showboat for a camera, the film may have been intended to work as punk scare propaganda, but in fact works to sell the band, too.  The genius of Fear’s performances in those days was the calculated presentation being made by the band.  They wanted to look like this on national television.  That was the goal.  Paul Moyer begins to hint at the truth, when he suggests that Fear is satire.  Yeah, sort of.  But more importantly, Lee Ving is subverting music – and media – in a way that amuses him, and this clip really captures what shows were like in those days.

This episode would not exist without DJ Swill, friend of the show and the guy who forwarded this clip to me.  This scene was where he grew up, and this was where he was introduced to the beautiful History Lesson we’re all slowly learning.  This is part one of three, so expect more of the same soon enough.

Enjoy!

We Destroy The Family Part I

01.) We Destroy The Family: Punks vs. Parents * KABC-TV * A Public Affairs Presentation
02.) We Destroy The Family * Fear * The Record * Slash Records
03.) New York’s Alright If You Like Saxophones * Fear * The Record * Slash Records
04.) Beef Boloney * Fear * The Record * Slash Records
05.) I Don’t Care About You * Fear * The Record * Slash Records
06.) Le’s Have A War * Fear * Repo Man Original Soundtracks * MCA Records
07.) No More Nothing * Fear * The Record * Slash Records