Open here for sonic reduction
Down these dark streets a band must go… Punk was born in the big, bad cities of America’s east cost. The more those urban centres fell apart, the more weeds flowered in the cracks.
This was when Punk was still underground, not yet packaged or commodified. So it wasn’t a style you kept to, but a totemic term for all the freaks, losers and outsiders to gather under. As Patti Smith said: “To me, punk rock is freedom”.
(The illo’s the Velvet Underground against a magnificently shabby New York backdrop. You probably already guessed that…)
Suicide: Ghost Rider
Richard Hell: Blank Generation
New York Dolls: Personality Crisis
The Modern Lovers: She Cracked
Dead Boys: Sonic Reducer
Ramones: Blitzkrieg Bop
Johnny Thunders & the Heartbreakers: One Track Mind
MC5: Kick Out the Jams
Television: Foxhole
The Stooges: I Need Somebody
The Cramps: Strychnine
The Velvet Underground: The Black Angel’s Death Song
Glenn Branca: Structure
Theoretical Girls: Computer Dating
Ut: Confidential
Mars: Helen Forsdale
UI: Out
James Chance & the Contortions: Contort Yourself
Pere Ubu: Laughing
Talking Heads: Memories Can’t Wait
Patti Smith: Free Money
Coming soon! What Punk did next…
That's a really thoughtful list, thank you. Good to see someone going beyond the usual 'greatest hits', a track off 'Adventure' for example. No one *ever* talks about that record. And finally, Glenn Branca gets some recognition.
ReplyDeleteThanks! Playlists seemed to be my go-to thing during lockdown. New York as this kind of melting pot where punk music could, at one edge, cross over with contemporary composition, that seems an important part of it.
ReplyDelete