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A nostalgic top 20 cheers Phil.
TheEdge949
Member Posts: 5,201
in The Rail
The recent quiz set by @Essexphil got me rummaging through my boxes of old 45's in a desperate search for punk and in doing so caused many a forgotten tune to be played. Yes I still have a turntable.
Now I discovered punk in 76 as a spotty 13 year old and although by late 79 I was getting heavily into the N.W.O.B.H.M scene, I have always enjoyed the raw, desperation of punk and so here is my personal top 20 punk songs.
These will court some controversy as to whether the bands are true punk. Some that began life in the punk genre evolved into bigger things but as I said it's a personal choice so lets see if any of the following make your top 20 list.
N.B. the list is in no particular order
01 Anarchy in the U.K - The Sex Pistols
02 Tommy Gun - The Clash
03 No More Heroes - The Stranglers
04 Into The Valley - The Skids
05 Ever Fallen in Love - The Buzzcocks
06 Hurry Up Harry - Sham 69
07 Top of the Pops - The Rezzilos
08 War on The Terraces - The Cockney Rejects
09 At The Edge - Stiff Little Fingers
10 So What - Anti Nowhere League
11 Back of my Hand (I got your number) - The Jags
12 Looking After Number One - The Boomtown Rats
13 In The City - The Jam
14 Pretty in Pink - The Psychedelic Furs
15 King Rocker - Generation X
16 God Save the Queen - The Sex Pistols
17 Blitzkrieg Bop - The Ramones
18 Ca Plane Por Moi - Plastic Bertrand
19. She's So Modern - The Boomtown Rats
20 White Riot - The Clash.
Arguments could be made for many others to be included. I have stuff by X Ray Spex, The Damned, Souixse, Toyah, The Rutts, The Slits, early Blondie, Angelic Upstarts, Crass, Toy Dolls, Exploited and more.
Now I discovered punk in 76 as a spotty 13 year old and although by late 79 I was getting heavily into the N.W.O.B.H.M scene, I have always enjoyed the raw, desperation of punk and so here is my personal top 20 punk songs.
These will court some controversy as to whether the bands are true punk. Some that began life in the punk genre evolved into bigger things but as I said it's a personal choice so lets see if any of the following make your top 20 list.
N.B. the list is in no particular order
01 Anarchy in the U.K - The Sex Pistols
02 Tommy Gun - The Clash
03 No More Heroes - The Stranglers
04 Into The Valley - The Skids
05 Ever Fallen in Love - The Buzzcocks
06 Hurry Up Harry - Sham 69
07 Top of the Pops - The Rezzilos
08 War on The Terraces - The Cockney Rejects
09 At The Edge - Stiff Little Fingers
10 So What - Anti Nowhere League
11 Back of my Hand (I got your number) - The Jags
12 Looking After Number One - The Boomtown Rats
13 In The City - The Jam
14 Pretty in Pink - The Psychedelic Furs
15 King Rocker - Generation X
16 God Save the Queen - The Sex Pistols
17 Blitzkrieg Bop - The Ramones
18 Ca Plane Por Moi - Plastic Bertrand
19. She's So Modern - The Boomtown Rats
20 White Riot - The Clash.
Arguments could be made for many others to be included. I have stuff by X Ray Spex, The Damned, Souixse, Toyah, The Rutts, The Slits, early Blondie, Angelic Upstarts, Crass, Toy Dolls, Exploited and more.
Comments
1. Pretty Vacant-Sex Pistols
2. White Riot-The Clash
3. Peaches-The Stranglers
4. Boredom-The Buzzcocks
5. Org asm Addict-The Buzzcocks
6. Borstal Breakout-Sham 69
7. The Greatest Cockney Rip-Off-Cockney Rejects
8. Alternative Ulster-SLF
9. Ready, Steady, Go-Generation X
10. Rockaway Beach-The Ramones
11. Now I Wanna Sniff Some Glue-The Ramones
12. Identity-X Ray Spex
13. I am a Poseur-X Ray Spex
14. Hong Kong Garden-Siouxsie and the Banshees
15. Ieya-Toyah
16. Babylon's Burning-The Ruts
17. Waiting on the Telephone-Blondie
18. I'm an Upstart-Angelic Upstarts
19. Nellie the Elephant-Toy Dolls
20. Fiery Jack-Toy Dolls
Arguments for such as The Lurkers, Dead Kennedys, Adverts, Magazine and John Otway
The Adverts
Sham 69
Those were the days...
I know we disagree on lots, Vespa. I'm sure we would both be far more concerned if we agreed
As I type this, my music is on...
"Stranglehold on me, stranglehold on me, got a stranglehold on me"
All the best.
1. Crass - Do They Owe Us A Living ( ...Corse they **** do!)
2. Crisis - PC One-Nine-Eight-Four
3. Wire - 1 2 X U
4. The Mekons - Where Were You?
5. Death In June - Fields
6. SLF - White Noise
7. Anti Nowhere League - I Hate People
8. Chaos UK - Kill Your Baby
9. Killjoys - Johnny Wont Go To Heaven
10. Poison Girls - Persons Unknown
11. Riot Squad - **** The Tories
1: Homicide - 999
2: California über alles - Dead Kennedys
3: It's Obvious - Au Pairs
4: Shot By Both Sides - Magazine
5: Gut Feeling - Devo
6: New Rose - The Damned
7: Frankie Teardrop - Suicide
8: Anarchy In The UK - Sex Pistols
9: My Way - Sid Vicious
10: Making Plans For Nigel - XTC
11: I Am The Fly - Wire
12: Damaged Goods - Gang Of Four
13: Because The Night - Patti Smith
14: This Perfect Day - The Saints
15: The Saints Are Coming - The Skids
16: World Destruction - Time Zone
17: Public Image - PIL
18: Don't Dictate - The Penetrations
19: Do Anything You Wanna Do - Eddie And The Hot Rod
20: Tube Station - The Jam
Tube Station was ma fav song when I was young ( I has a soft spot for the Bay City Rollers - Keep on Dancing, primarily because when I was about 13/14 I used to go to the shows and they always played that on the Speedway, I used to skip on and stand on top of the bikes and show aff like a dafty ).
Anyway back to Tube Station, one night me and my mates were comin out of a Disco there was about 20 or so folk hangin about the toon centre this wido decides to fling a bin through a shop windae ( I think it was Cards Are Us, which I found a bit weird ) anyway all these punters are runnin in stealin cards,( it must have been near Christmas ) so eveybody shoots the craw except me an ma mates, 1/2hr later the Polis arrive try to blame us am havin none of it, I get in to a wee bit of an argument with one of them and I whack his hat aff, lifted, ma mates try to stop them, boosh were aw lifted.
We were aw taken to the Polis Station, their was 5 of us so we filled the cells, So after a few minutes I started singin " Were down in the tube station at midnight woooooho " my mates joins in, Polis start rattlin the cell doors wae their batons goin crazy.
Flash forward Monday morning, Am up at the Sheriff court, just me, fined £30 with £90 costs ( I didn't know what the costs were for ).
The ironic thing was, at the time I was an apprentice Glazier and I ended up glazing the shop window the next day.
Now whilst I would still consider myself a metalhead, even at 58, the greatest number of albums I own by a single artist/ group is by Neil Diamond 29 at the last count.
I also have a lot of Christian music, from Metal through to worship, gospel and stuff such as Pentatonix.
I think it's more a case of the peer groups that you associate with as you go through teenage years that can mould your thinking rather than the music itself.
Certainly the no future message carried by punk in the mid to late 70s was appropriate and true, but it wasn't until we got to our mid 30's with some life experience that we realised just how true that the ethos was at the time.
To answer your question from my own perspective music has to move me to a state. Now whether that's joy, anger, tears, despair, hope or regret doesn't matter, what matters is that it moves me to an emotion.
All I know is that it took almost 30 years to get past the Thatcher inspired I'm alright fk you mentality that separated the haves from the have nots of the late 70s, so maybe punk didn't influence our thinking enough.
Has there been any since the early 80's?
Whatever happened to protest songs?
Is it a case of, if Simon Cowell doesn't like it, you're not going to get a record deal?
There are/ were protest songs but they tend to be aimed at specific themes rather than general protest.
Rage against the Machines "Killing in the name of" and "Bullet in the head", Metallicas "One", GnRs "Civil War", Iron Maidens "2 minutes to midnight" and System of a Downs B.Y.O.B all denounce war, its futility and the fact that its the little man who fights and dies for the financial gain of mega business.
Rap still continues to deliver protest about lack of opportunity and discrimination whilst often and ironically promoting the gang life, and several artists have recorded songs that protest such ideas as body shaming, homophobia etc
But yes there is no longer a protest movement which punk certainly was and I don't think there will be another. Certainly the likes of Billy Bragg and John Cooper Clarke will not be seen again.
"There's no future and England's dreaming"
Powerful
If you regard I'm Stranded by The Saints https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/(I%27m)_Stranded as the first punk album and Inflammable Material by Still Little Fingers as the last then there is some great music in between.
We can argue forever about what is and isn't New Wave, Power Pop plus Post punk etc. and we all think that the music from our teenage years is best - but no other time in popular music has been as creative (as documented in Simon Reynolds book "Rip It Up and Start Again").
The true spirit of punk has only been carried on through the years by one group and that is The Fall.
One thing where punk does not get enough credit, is that it was the first genre to have large amounts of female stars. Compare/contrast with Glam (Suzi Quatro & precious little else) or indeed Metal.
I am not knocking The Fall's undoubted contribution. But it does slightly annoy me that Fall fans tend to believe the Fall are the only Punks that matter these days. 999. The Lurkers. John Otway. All still touring. All still great.
Rap certainly had some things in common with Punk. Drill probably has even more.
PS-Shot by Both Sides. What a truly great song that is.
Then mention of John Otway, what a legend he is, saw him play at university and then he stayed chatting and drinking with us until the early hours, really nice guy.
Saw Toyah in 1980 on The Blue Meaning tour. Only went cos a friend was a fan-what a performer. There are some iffy versions on the internet. Try "Live at the Church in Dundee, 2019"-it is the Encore at about 1:22.
I have been a fan of John Otway since Really Free/Beware of the Flowers (Cos I'm sure they're gonna get you yeah). Even my Stars poker name is "Otwayfan". Given his 2nd hit at the age of 50 by his fanclub. Or, as he says, it took him 25 years to get the "s" on the right side of "hit"....