In reality, punk rock has a very short history and a long shelf life. Pete Shelley and his bandmate, Howard Devoto, saw the Sex Pistols in London in February 1976. They liked it and made arrangements for the band to play their college in Manchester. Months later, their band, the Buzzcocks, were opening for the Sex Pistols with members of Joy Division and Morrissey among those few in attendance.
Besides being present for punk's big bang in Britain, Shelley quickly proved himself to somehow be above the fray. As someone so eloquently put it this week, "Pete Shelley was punk with being angry." Shelley's strength was writing about the twisted gnarl of confusion that often led to anger. His voice would be that adenoidal yawp that led to the melodic rock that would follow, be they Husker Du or Green Day.
After their own independent EP "Spiral Scratch" sold out in early 1977, Devoto departed and Shelley became the voice of the Buzzcocks. Their major-label debut, "Another Music In a Different Kitchen," stepped away from "Spiral Scratch" ("Fast Cars" speeds through at first) and embraced more biting wit and simplicity. "I Don't Mind" and "Fiction Romance" would hint toward New Wave and "Moving Away From the Pulsebeat" would even experiment with repetition and a motorik beat.
One year later, the band emerges seasoned behind Shelley on "Love Bites" where the tossed-off "Sixteen" from the previous album becomes the newly anthemic "Sixteen Again." This newfound sophistication in writing lends a weird sway to "Operator's Manual" and a funky drum break to "Nothing Left."
However, Shelley's writing is for the ages. "Real World" wraps up a sentiment that has been in rock ‘n’ roll since its rebellious beginnings; "E.S.P" further complicates his minor riffage. "Noise Annoys" and "Just Lust" are as gritty and visceral as early singles, but lead in the direction Punk will take in the ’80s. Finally, "Ever Fallen In Love?" remains his masterpiece and watershed moment. Love unrequited summons a myriad of emotions all of which Shelley lays out for generations to hear and feel.
By 1979, the band itself is changing. Members want to write more, sing more and be heard more. "A Different Kind of Tension" is less Shelley's show and the beginning of their fragmentation. Perhaps it was their discovery of anthemic choruses on "Love Bites," or the sheer inspiration of Punk's blitzkrieg fading out - "Tension" is primarily about control and its loss. By now, a track like "Say You Don't Love Me" sounds almost too easy to write. Behind its mammoth soaring hook, Shelley hangs on to his vowels like he never wants them to end. So, his reaction is to color with repetition and juxtaposition.
"I Don't Know What To Do With My Life" crams its lengthy title into one caustic line for its chorus. "Hollow Inside" plunges down a hole to unleash a dark pre-post punk ending. However, Shelley's tour de force is the truly revealing "I Believe," where he shapes exactly who he is from the contradictions of the world. In perhaps his most beautiful lyrics ever, Shelley clearly announces his religion ("I believe in the immaculate conception/I believe in the resurrection"), love ("I believe in the things I've never had/I believe in my Mum and Dad") and that the loss of his self will lead to him finding himself.
Between declarations when he asks questions of the universe and cradles his self-doubt, Shelley eloquently illustrates that life's perpetual motion is to always start and stop, and that there is no real reason ("Everything is and that is why, it is will be the line") except that we have love. Except when don't have love. A fitting epitaph to a songwriter who will never be forgotten.
