Think of In A Godda Da Vida by Iron Butterfly and you have a quintessential example of Protopunk music. Punk as it appeared in the mid-1970s was a reaction against established rock music as well as the prevailing social order. Musically, it stripped itself down to guitar, bass, and drums and emphasized speed, noise, and energy---technique was irrelevant.

The Kingsmen

Protopunk, which flourished from about 1965-68, had no political agenda. It was simply a celebration of rock at its most basic level---the garage band. Protopunk evolved on the West coast from surfer groups in California (The Nomads, Cannibal and the Headhunters) to the raw groups of the Northwest (The Sonics, The Kingsmen). Most of the protopunk groups had one or two hits of modest success but collectively they left an important mark on rock history and for a time, almost everyone thought it might be posible to be a star...

In the mid-1960s groups were influenced by the emerging drug culture, and the fascination with Eastern religions that often accompanied it. Cheap keyboards and guitars with fuzztone were staples of this genre along with lyrics that were anything but sublime.

The Standells

"Liar, liar pants on fire,   Your nose is longer than a telephone wire..."

---The Castaways, 1965