Amanda Palmer Felt 1 Classic Rock Band Didn’t Write Real Songs
The Dresden Dolls’ Amanda Palmer is a big fan of classic rock. Despite this, she threw some shade at one of the most important bands of the 1970s. She vastly preferred another and in the same subgenre that was far less influential.
Amanda Palmer felt a classic rock band didn’t write real songs
During a 2012 interview with The Quietus, Palmer named the albums that had the biggest impact on her as an artist. She named canonical albums like The Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band and Neutral Milk Hotel’s In the Aeroplane Over the Sea alongside lesser-known records. One of her favorites was the Violent Femme’s self-titled debut album. In the process, she contrasted the Violent Femmes with another classic rock band.
“Violent Femmes was a huge high-school record,” she said. “I probably got it when I was 14 or 15. I just played the entire album on stage with [Femmes bassist] Brian Ritchie, Brian [Viglione ] from The Dresden Dolls, and [Bad Seed] Mick Harvey, so I found myself revisiting the record and my early experiences of it.
“The songs were so sexy and raw and filled with beautiful, actually relatable teenage angst,” she added. “The music and the production was all so immediate. My cool friends and my older brother were all listening to punk. I tried to be cool and tried to like the Sex Pistols, but I just couldn’t get into the records. There just wasn’t enough song there for me. But the Violent Femmes was like punk music that my brain could actually follow.”
Amanda Palmer explained why the Violent Femmes are a classic rock band
Palmer revealed more of the reason why she liked Violent Femmes so much. “Another thing I realized revisiting it was there’s just not a bad song on that record, not a single moment that isn’t essential,” she said. “There’s not two seconds of filler.”
Palmer revealed that when she first heard Violent Femmes, she mistook singer Gordon Gano for a girl. She thought Gano sounded really sexy! It’s true that Gano’s voice can sound pretty androgynous.
The Sex Pistols still paved the way for The Dresden Dolls
It’s interesting that Palmer isn’t a huge fan of the Sex Pistols. Obviously, The Dresden Dolls and her solo career would not be the same without the Sex Pistols and other punk pioneers. The Sex Pistols had an edgy style that can be seen in her work. However, she doesn’t sound much like the Sex Pistols. In fact, some of her most famous songs, including “Coin-Operated Boy” and “Oasis,” sound like they could predate rock ‘n’ roll.
The Sex Pistols were also a group that incorporated politics into their music. Their two most famous songs are “Anarchy in the U.K.” and “God Save the Queen.” The former promoted anarchism and criticized Christianity, while the latter called for the abolition of the British monarchy, all while nicking the title of the United Kingdom’s national anthem. Palmer also wrote songs expressing her political beliefs, most notably her feminist worldview.
Palmer has a few things in common with the Sex Pistols, even if she’s not blasting “Holidays in the Sun” in her car. And even if she’s a bigger fan of the Violent Femmes.
