'What'd I Say?'
As part of a contractual obligation involving a book club, I find myself in possession of the Oxford Dictionary of Quotations. Its a big book. Eleven hundred pages.
You could use it to squash small animals, if you were so inclined, but I have instead decided to see what great punk rock quotations have made it. How many? A big fat zero. It quotes Bobby Dylan - 'Money doesn't talk it swears' - but it completely ignores The Clash's 'No Elvis Beatles Or The Rolling Stones' in 1977. Ken Dodd is in it for something about playing in the Glasgow Empire, but it doesn't have the classic line from the first Sex Pistols first live review -'We're not into music, we're into chaos'.ÌýIt doesn't even quote some of the older and wiser heads of the punk tribe. No 'What's So Funny 'Bout Peace Love And Understanding ?' or 'I Belong To The Blank Generation'.
Sorry ... hold the front page. It does condescend to including Ian Dury's 'Sex And Drugs And Rock And Roll'.ÌýI know the notion of rock and roll as poetry is sometimes best left to earnest music critics, but it would be nice to see some good lines recognised. 'Today Your Love, Tomorrow The World' - 'There is no future in England's Dreaming'. Add your own and we may have a book ready in time for next year's Christmas market.
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Comment number 1.
At 16th Nov 2009, swede wrote:'..teenage dreams so hard to beat' Undertones
'Like trousers, like brain' Joe Strummer
'Gabba gabba hey!' Ramones
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