Poly Styrene: She Watched the World Turn Dayglo
Poly Styrene, who died this year at the truncated age of 53 years old, was one of the greatest practioners of the greatest rock and roll form ever: punk rock.
The little girl with the big lungs wailed at sexism, consumerism, the crushing of personal identity and certainly not least of all the destroying of the planet. And she did it with the skronkiest horns imaginable. in the punk rock greats, it goes:
The Sex Pistols
The Clash
The Buzzcocks
X-Ray Specs.
That's how great they are.
And as live bands goes, she was a terrific frontwoman and an absolute figurehead for the women in the audience. With her braces and her curly hair and her tin lunch box, Poly was the opposite of cooldom. And yet she exuded the punk form of cool: the political edgy dangerland. The neo, dayglo, end of the world , tip of the finger, soundstress songstress germfree adolescent wordsmith.
I forgot to put her last album Generation Indigo on my best of 2011 album.
