Throughout their storied career, the Beatles can be credited for inspiring or spawning several different musical styles – Brit pop, Baroque pop, psychedelia, experimental, prog, and even heavy metal, among other rock sub-genres. But one style that doesn’t seem to get linked to the Fab Four very often is punk rock – perhaps because they were part of the “old guard” that the young punks were targeting as being out of touch due to their wealth and prestige.
But listening back to the Beatles’ early days of playing raw rock n’ roll in Hamburg – as well as such later tunes as “Helter Skelter” – you can definitely make the argument that they may have contributed to the creation of punk, as well. And I asked this question to several bona fide punkers for my 2020 book, “John Winston Ono Lennon,” – of which some of the responses may surprise you…
David Vanian
“Not for us. Funny enough, I didn’t really like the Beatles back then – I liked the Zombies, the Animals, and I was big fan of ’50s bands like Gene Vincent & the Blue Caps and things like that. So that wasn’t an influence. We were more influenced by the ’60s garage bands. Besides the Stooges and the MC5, I’m thinking more people like the Seeds, Strawberry Alarm Clock, Shadows of the Knight – there was a whole slew of amazing ’60s bands that were raw, and I think they were closer to the roots of punk. That all happened up until 1970, and then in England, you had the glam movement, as well as in between – with [Marc] Bolan, [David] Bowie, Mott the Hoople, Suzi Quatro. You had a totally different thing. I think you [in the US] had a bubblegum rock sort of thing. To me, when we started up, we were kind of just ‘carrying on,’ if you’d like.”
Bun E. Carlos
“I wouldn’t think directly – they were too many chords for punk. Most of the time. Unless, of course, someone was listening to them cover rock n’ roll songs. But they didn’t get mentioned much then. Ringo [Starr] had all his schmaltzy pop singles, and so did Paul [McCartney], and George [Harrison] had gone kind of hippy-dippy by the mid ’70s, and [John] Lennon retired. So, when punk came along in ’75 and ’76, we were hearing about it and reading about it in ‘Melody Maker,’ and reading about this new band, the Sex Pistols. Because we thought, ‘Man, what a cool name… but they’ll never get hired around here with a name like that.'”
East Bay Ray
“Well, the Beatles had a very diverse catalog, but they started as a rock n’ roll band. In the bars in Hamburg, and they did Little Richard stuff… and ‘Helter Skelter.’ From a rock viewpoint, they were influential – maybe not directly on punk bands, but to me, the really good punk bands, yes, you have to have attitude and a costume, but the ones that last have songs. Like the Sex Pistols, the Ramones, the Dead Kennedys, and the Clash.”
Cheetah Chrome
“Definitely punk. I’m looking at some stuff that everybody else was doing back then… and maybe the others were not as punk as I thought. [Laughs] The Stones were ‘the bad boys’ and the Beatles were actually doing all of that shit. They used to swear on stage and spit on stage – they used to do that routinely in Hamburg. We just never saw it over here. It’s funny – I look at it now, and I actually get it now. When it was actually happening, I didn’t really understand what Lennon was going for. I think ‘Bad Boy‘ and ‘Dizzy Miss Lizzy‘ are the two he really nails it on. That whole first album is kind of an entity by itself – kind of like the first Stooges album [1969’s ‘The Stooges’].”
Curt Kirkwood
“Absolutely. Punk rock is just another form of hard rock in a way. It’s not like these people are actually out there for the most part in the streets, at some sort of militia. It was pretty art-y, to me. I lumped it right in there with prog rock, punk rock. I liked The Damned… and I also liked Jethro Tull. What can I say? They both sound like they’re British. The Buzzcocks definitely had melodies that were similar to the ’60s – the Beatles and whatnot.”
Paul Leary
“I would say it has to be. Most punk rockers had listened to the Beatles, and whether you liked them or not, it had to have been an influence. Certainly the attitude. I know it’s not a John Lennon song, but ‘Why Don’t We Do It in the Road‘ was kind of that ‘Do whatever you want in music.’ It probably seems weird, but even a song like ‘Twist and Shout‘ seems so quaint and traditional now – but it was kind of wild and ‘on the fringe’ back then.”
Chad Channing
“Yeah, actually I would agree with it, because when the Beatles started out, they were really going against the grain. They donned leather jackets, and cut their hair in a certain way, and made it non-conventional – they were ‘the bad boys of music,’ so to speak. They had this thing, like, ‘There’s this band from Liverpool, and they’re doing what they want to do, and not conforming.’ There was a very ‘punk rock attitude’ in that – that shows some similarities to punk rock itself. It’s just a way in the idea and the attitude – ‘I’m not going to just follow everybody else.’ I think that’s where I draw some similarities and the Beatles having an influence on punk rock.”
