"naturally we're punks"

rrrrrrrrrright!

'ere we go now

a sociology lecture

with a bit of psychology

a bit of neurology

a bit of fuckology

no fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuun

Recently*, it struck me that Johnny Rotten's wonderful jeering intro to "No Fun....  well, it's an ultra-distilled compression of "Gee, Officer Krupke". Kinda.  

In "Krupke", you have a series of experts in troubled and troublesome youth - the juvenile court judge, the psychiatrist, the social worker -  wheeled out to offer explanations for juvenile delinquency. And then you have the kicker,  the revelation that the real problem is that the kid's just born bad, beyond reforming or redirecting to a positive life path. Which the Jets turn into a taunting gang-chorus of "we're no good, we're no earthly good, like the best of us is no damn good". That bit - the oddly triumphant twist - is the "fuckology" bit.  It's Panopticonized youth telling the authorities and analysts to foucault. 

(And then there's the last line of all, the kiss-off  - "Gee Officer Krupke, krup you" -- as close to the F-word as you could get on Broadway then.)  

Adding "neurology" to the list of mocked disciplines is a nifty update on Rotten's part. 20 years on from West Side Story, neuro-disorders would have been emerging as a way to explain-away restlessness or mischief,  with medication prescribed as a fix-it. Even more so today,  it's how difficult kids are "managed". 

And of course, "punks" pops up in the lyric to "Krupke": 

"Golly Moses, natcherly we're punks"

Another connection... Rotten was a big fan of Alice Cooper (auditioned for the Pistols job miming to "I'm Eighteen") and Alice was a BIG fan of West Side Story . The band did not one but two songs  that interpolated lyric or melodic elements from the musical's songbook. And they named the album Easy Action after a spoken line from the movie.