Top Ten Punk Albums of All Time: Number 10

Suicidal Tendencies (Venice, CA)
Suicidal Tendencies (1983)

This one's not likely to show up on other punk top-ten lists. ST's debut was love it or hate it when it was released, with punk purists falling squarely into the latter category. But skaters took a particular liking to it and formed ST's initial fan base. This is the only ST offering that can be rightfully labeled punk, as they gradually evolved into a thrash metal band (and apparently their politics moved rightward at some point after I stopped listening to them in the early 90s). One of the albums two renowned tracks, “I Saw Your Mommy . . .,” is a song only a teenager can love, but in its over-the-topness and utter lack of taste it also holds a John Watersesque, anti-bourgeois appeal. The best known track, “Institutionalized,” approaches proto–spoken word territory (though not nearly as much as Jello Biafra in this classic bit of punk storytelling). Unlike the video (below), the song doesn't seem dated at all: it fit right into the soundtrack for the recent Iron Man movie.

Representative lyric:
Kill someone in a war:
Get a medal, you're a hero.
Protect yourself in everyday war:
You're a minority, you go straight to jail.
(from “Two-Sided Politics”)

Suicidal Tendencies, “Institutionalized”


Previously on the Top Ten Punk Albums of All Time:
Intro