Punk haiku 9 DEVO, THE RESIDENTS, THE DEAD BOYS, AND BRADLEY COOPER on Drums
PUNK HAIKU: unheard stories and sounds from the proto-punk years featuring Toronto's THE SCENICS
June 1977, Toronto.
CHILLS
Two songs from our first couple of weeks playing with Brad Cooper on drums, June 1977. Chills is one of my favourite Ken Badger songs that has NOT been recorded in the studio. We almost got to it in 2008, our most recent time multi-tracking.
At the beginning of the track, Brad's comment gives you a glimpse of the life of unbridled hedonism that we were living in the summer of '77.
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I HAVE YOU
A number of Andy's with a pounding style that fit Brad like a glove. It later kicked off side 2 on our 1980 LP Underneath the Door.
punk haiku 8- leaside found, first demo
APRIL 1977, TORONTO
These are from our basement practice room, Mark French on drums, the spring of 1977, a week or two before hitting Mushroom Sound studio to record (what ended up being) half of the Sunshine World CD.
I'M HURT
These two songs, one written by Andy (Hurt), and one written by Ken (Caves), are the last two songs on Sunshine World, and have the highest improv quotient on that CD.
Hurt has pools of sound that head off in various directions, in between verses and choruses. Caves has quiet sections at the beginning and between the verses, and then a rave-out at the end.
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punk haiku 7 THE STONES, THE ELOI, WE FIND A CAVE
PUNK HAIKU: unheard stories and sounds from the proto-punk years featuring Toronto's THE SCENICS
MARCH 1977, TORONTO
Two songs from the "Scenic Caves" first public gig- playing for a room full of young teens.
OLD WORLD
The Scenics take on Jonathan Richman. "I like leave it to Beaver".... We loved playing this one, didn't do it very often.
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punk haiku 6 Finding the songs/ iggy and patti.
PUNK HAIKU: unheard stories and sounds from the proto-punk years featuring Toronto's The Scenics
FEBRUARY 1977, Toronto
NEW PART IN TOWN
written by Andy during a week of listening to nothing but the Stooges .
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THIS DAY (NOT DEAD YET)
A very early version of the song of Ken's that appears of the Sunshine World CD as "Not Dead Yet". I guess you could say this is "not Not Dead Yet yet"
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Punk haiku 5 a drummer stays/talking heads
PUNK HAIKU: unheard stories and sounds from the proto-punk years featuring Toronto's The Scenics
JANUARY 1977, Toronto
TOKYO
These first two are late '76 with Mike Cusheon, the Scenics first drummer. One day I dragged Carol's reel to reel tape deck down to Neil Wycik. That day we captured these first two songs (and others, including 'Do the Wait' and 'In the Summer', from Punk Haiku 3 and 1). This rave-out rocker of Ken Badger's we played thru '77 and then brought back in 1980.
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FARM REPORTS (AND TEST PATTERNS)
An early song of Ken's: wired into your easy chair, hurtling down 'a crooked highway/ at a straight-away speed'. Wide-eyed in front of your TV till dawn, until farm reports and test patterns bring you in for a landing. Simple pleasures.
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Punk haiku 4 "1 2 3 4/ drummer for a day"
PUNK HAIKU: unheard stories and sounds from the proto-punk years featuring Toronto's The Scenics
OCTOBER 1976, Toronto
SEE ME SMILE
An out-take from the SUNSHINE WORLD cd. Recorded during the Scenics' first studio sessions, summer of 77. Ends with a gorgeous guitar coda. I always thought the first two lines of this song were a manifesto of a sorts: "Turn your eyes around in your head/what you see is just what you get"...
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Too Much of Nothing
These songs (Written by Bob Dylan and Lou Reed) are from the first time the proto-Scenics played with a drummer- October 17, 1976, the enigmatic Mike Brown.
punk haiku 3 "FANZINES, THAI STICKS, & D TO G"
A video of the studio version of "Do the Wait" that we recorded in 1977. It was included on the UNCUT magazine 'protopunk' CD in the spring of 2009.
PUNK HAIKU: unheard stories and sounds from the proto-punk years featuring Toronto's The Scenics
AUGUST 1976, Toronto
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Do the Wait
The first version that we have on tape- a week or two after Andy wrote it in November 1976.
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o charlotte
A favorite early song of Ken's. It slipped out of our setlist once we started gigging.
A week later, I travelled again from my solid split level bungalow and generous suburban corner lot, where I had the downstairs bedroom, the one my sister Judy vacated when she moved out to live in sin with her drugged out musician boyfriend. I had wanted it immediately, but my parents said wait- she’ll be back. At her insistence, I was soon enjoying the relative independance it afforded, tucked away on another floor, and travelling to Palmerston in mid-town Toronto.
I took the long bus ride down and Ken and I smoked Thai sticks and he played me the Stooges' “I wanna be your dog”, really, really loud. He was very willing to play my songs and I enjoyed the way his face would go when he sang his (he always went for the jugular) so I kept coming back.
punk haiku 2- Andy meets Ken
Unheard stories and sounds from the proto-punk years featuring Toronto's The Scenics
JULY 1976, Toronto
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SEE EMILY PLAY
This song from Syd's Pink Floyd was one of the few pieces of common ground that Ken and I could 'cover' on day one... you see, i knew the David Bowie version. From mid October, 1976, when we had a 'drummer for a day'.
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Scenic Caves
We spent a lot of time with this one, finding out where we would go when we didn't know where we were going... this version is from the first tape we ever made, Oct 15 1976. My high school buddy Dave Moore on second guitar.
Ken Badger was working at L&M as an amp repairman, getting through the day on a diet of tylenols and coffee. Ken called me because Patti’s name was on the sign, and as he later said “that was something you just didn’t see in those days.”
Our first conversation was cryptic. Ken wasn’t much for giving away any but the simplest information, and I did not have the most practical ears. I do remember him saying “No, I think we should definitely get together.” Ken was the only person who phoned me.
PUNK HAIKU 1
Unheard stories and sounds from the proto-punk years featuring Toronto's The Scenics
December 1975/JUne 1976, Toronto 
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LITTLE JOHNNY JEWEL
Ken and Andy, alone in the basement of Andy's suburban home, bounce this one off the walls while they figure out what a band might sound like. Taking off disguises, October 1, 1976.
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IN THE SUMMER
A song of Ken's he played me on the first day we got together- one of the first versions we got on tape, November 1976. Ken's guitar at the end is, as the Toronto Star's Ben Rayner says, "Wayward, jammy, a bit druggy....". Our studio version from 1977 made our SUNSHINE WORLD CD.
I am posting an apology on the first few punk haiku pages for the primitive audio quality. As the Scenics went along, we got a better tape recorder!
PUNK HAIKU CHAPTER 1
And then, unannounced, the next world arrived.
I began hearing a song on Chum FM, in the mornings when I wasn’t quite awake. The first few times I may have dreamt it. I couldn’t make out the words, even the language. I couldn’t find out who it was, like a few years earlier, when early in the morning, half awake before school, a cool voice urged me to “walk on the wild side”.
I thought i heard the DJ say it was by Lou Rawls, and I thought OK, way to go