Alec Wenzel Song Analysis

The Ramones: Needles and Pins

The song Needles and Pins by the Ramones is not a punks song. It’s a cover of a song released in 1963 originally written for singer songwriter Jackie Deshannon. The song length fits the criteria for a typical punk song by being a short to the point two minutes and twenty-two seconds, however the similarities end there.

Punk songs we are used to hearing are usually fast and aggressive, sporting distorted guitars and heavy hard hitting drum beats, but this song has none of those. The guitar parts in this song are chime-y and barely distorted and the drumbeat is a time keeping basic rock beat with very little embellishing. We defined the lyrics in punk songs as being decidedly more violent, angry, and with a directed message. In Needles and Pins the lyrics are a remorseful love story. The most violent the lyrics get is “she’ll feel those needles and pins, hurtin’ her, hurtin’ her.” These “needles” are a metaphor for the painful feelings he hopes she will feel when she realizes she made the wrong choice of in love, which is not your usual musical message in a punk song. The song tempo floats around a comfortable 120 beats per minute, which is a medium tempo, and not as fast or aggressive. The song name needles and pins has potential to sound like a punk song but the actual song proves differently. The production values are also decidedly not punk as it’s very clean.

I don’t consider this song punk. I believe it to be a pop tune. It was originally recorded as such and I don’t think The Ramones did much to change that aspect of it.

Jim Carroll: People Who Died

The song People Who Died was released in august of 1989 well after the full swing of the punk movement. The song is a long five minutes with many verses describing the deaths of close friends of his. This is a punk song based on the fast aggressive nature of the song. The lyrics were of course very detailed and gruesome depicting the deaths of many of his friends. These deaths include drug overdoses (bobby od’d on Drano on the night he was wed), Murder (Herbie pushed tony from the boys club roof), and suicide (Judy jumped in front of a subway train). The tempo of this song is very upbeat and the drums are fast and driving instead of laying down a groove. Song name is People Who Died, which could be considered offensive. The Production quality was clean but it did have a spontaneous vibe to it. Who is to say they didn’t just play it really well once and that was the track? I call this song punk because of the aggressive nature of the tune and the offensiveness of the lyrics.

Essential Logic: Fanfare in the garden

This song is clearly not punk. While the song length isn’t that long like most punk songs, that is where the similarities end. The song is not particularly fast or violent, and it lacks a driving rhythm from the guitar part or drum part. The production value is very clean; there are no mistakes to be heard and its extremely produced. I call this new wave and not punk because it lacks the fundamental parts of a punks song in the driving rhythm, high production value, and lack of offensive lyrics.