Sex Pistols (London)
Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols (1977)
No surprise here. Every song's a punk classic on this, the Sex Pistols' one and only studio album. With Johnny Rotten, the most grating, faux genuine front man ever, and murderer/suicide Sid Vicious on bass, the Pistols epitomized punk like no one else.
Representative lyric:
Fuck this and fuck that, fuck it all and
Fuck the fucking brat.
She don't wanna baby that looks like that.
I don't wanna baby that looks like that.
(from “Bodies”)
Sex Pistols, “God Save the Queen”
Sex Pistols, “ Submission”
Previously on the Top Ten Punk Albums of All Time:
Intro
Number 10: Suicidal Tendencies / Suicidal Tendencies
Number 9: Minor Threat / Minor Threat
Number 8: Bad Brains / Bad Brains
Number 7: The Clash / The Clash
Number 6: Dead Kennedys / Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables
Number 5: Operation Ivy / Energy
Number 4: Misfits / Walk Among Us
Number 3: Ramones / Ramones
Number 2: The Clash / London Calling
Showing posts with label top ten punk albums of all time. Show all posts
Showing posts with label top ten punk albums of all time. Show all posts
Saturday, October 18, 2008
Top Ten Punk Albums of All Time: Number 2
The Clash (London)
London Calling (1979)
The only double album on my list (after all punk was given more to 7"s than double LPs and this one wouldn't likely have happened if CBS weren't eager for The Clash to breakout), this is another choice that some punk purists would have a problem with. But to dismiss The Clash's genre-bending third album from the punk archives is to discard punk's most innovative variations and sophisticated sensibility.
Representative lyric:
Spanish songs in Andalusia,
The shooting sites in the days of ’39.
Oh, please, leave the ventana open,
Federico Lorca is dead and gone.
Bullet holes in the cemetery walls,
The black cars of the Guardia Civil.
Spanish bombs on the Costa Rica,
I'm flying in on a DC-10 tonight.
(from “Spanish Bombs”)
The Clash, “The Guns of Brixton”
Previously on the Top Ten Punk Albums of All Time:
Intro
Number 10: Suicidal Tendencies / Suicidal Tendencies
Number 9: Minor Threat / Minor Threat
Number 8: Bad Brains / Bad Brains
Number 7: The Clash / The Clash
Number 6: Dead Kennedys / Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables
Number 5: Operation Ivy / Energy
Number 4: Misfits / Walk Among Us
Number 3: Ramones / Ramones
London Calling (1979)
The only double album on my list (after all punk was given more to 7"s than double LPs and this one wouldn't likely have happened if CBS weren't eager for The Clash to breakout), this is another choice that some punk purists would have a problem with. But to dismiss The Clash's genre-bending third album from the punk archives is to discard punk's most innovative variations and sophisticated sensibility.
Representative lyric:
Spanish songs in Andalusia,
The shooting sites in the days of ’39.
Oh, please, leave the ventana open,
Federico Lorca is dead and gone.
Bullet holes in the cemetery walls,
The black cars of the Guardia Civil.
Spanish bombs on the Costa Rica,
I'm flying in on a DC-10 tonight.
(from “Spanish Bombs”)
The Clash, “The Guns of Brixton”
Previously on the Top Ten Punk Albums of All Time:
Intro
Number 10: Suicidal Tendencies / Suicidal Tendencies
Number 9: Minor Threat / Minor Threat
Number 8: Bad Brains / Bad Brains
Number 7: The Clash / The Clash
Number 6: Dead Kennedys / Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables
Number 5: Operation Ivy / Energy
Number 4: Misfits / Walk Among Us
Number 3: Ramones / Ramones
Friday, October 17, 2008
Top Ten Punk Albums of All Time: Number 3
Ramones (Queens, New York)
Ramones (1976)
The first. The best. The last.
Representative lyric:
Second verse, same as the first:
Jackie is a punk, Judy is a runt,
They both went down to Berlin
Joined the ice capades.
And oh, I dont know why.
Oh, I dont know why.
Perhaps they'll die, oh yeah.
(from “Judy Is a Punk”)
Ramones, “53rd & 3rd”
Previously on the Top Ten Punk Albums of All Time:
Intro
Number 10: Suicidal Tendencies / Suicidal Tendencies
Number 9: Minor Threat / Minor Threat
Number 8: Bad Brains / Bad Brains
Number 7: The Clash / The Clash
Number 6: Dead Kennedys / Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables
Number 5: Operation Ivy / Energy
Number 4: Misfits / Walk Among Us
Ramones (1976)
The first. The best. The last.
Representative lyric:
Second verse, same as the first:
Jackie is a punk, Judy is a runt,
They both went down to Berlin
Joined the ice capades.
And oh, I dont know why.
Oh, I dont know why.
Perhaps they'll die, oh yeah.
(from “Judy Is a Punk”)
Ramones, “53rd & 3rd”
Previously on the Top Ten Punk Albums of All Time:
Intro
Number 10: Suicidal Tendencies / Suicidal Tendencies
Number 9: Minor Threat / Minor Threat
Number 8: Bad Brains / Bad Brains
Number 7: The Clash / The Clash
Number 6: Dead Kennedys / Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables
Number 5: Operation Ivy / Energy
Number 4: Misfits / Walk Among Us
Thursday, October 16, 2008
Top Ten Punk Albums of All Time: Number 4
Misfits (Lodi, New Jersey)
Walk Among Us (1982)
Mix the first Ramones LP with Black Sabbath's Paranoid and some B-movie scripts, and you might end up with the good, clean horror music that is Walk Among Us. I've posted two songs from this album previously: Skulls and Astro Zombies.
Representative lyric:
Two inch nails.
Micro waist.
With a pale white feline face.
Inclination eyebrows—to there.
(from “Vampira”)
Misfits, “Nike a Go Go”
Previously on the Top Ten Punk Albums of All Time:
Intro
Number 10: Suicidal Tendencies / Suicidal Tendencies
Number 9: Minor Threat / Minor Threat
Number 8: Bad Brains / Bad Brains
Number 7: The Clash / The Clash
Number 6: Dead Kennedys / Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables
Number 5: Operation Ivy / Energy
Walk Among Us (1982)
Mix the first Ramones LP with Black Sabbath's Paranoid and some B-movie scripts, and you might end up with the good, clean horror music that is Walk Among Us. I've posted two songs from this album previously: Skulls and Astro Zombies.
Representative lyric:
Two inch nails.
Micro waist.
With a pale white feline face.
Inclination eyebrows—to there.
(from “Vampira”)
Misfits, “Nike a Go Go”
Previously on the Top Ten Punk Albums of All Time:
Intro
Number 10: Suicidal Tendencies / Suicidal Tendencies
Number 9: Minor Threat / Minor Threat
Number 8: Bad Brains / Bad Brains
Number 7: The Clash / The Clash
Number 6: Dead Kennedys / Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables
Number 5: Operation Ivy / Energy
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
Top Ten Punk Albums of All Time: Number 5
Operation Ivy (Berkeley, CA)
Energy (1989)
Operation Ivy existed briefly (two years) and broke up the same month their one and only album was released. That they reached the level of national popularity they did (without even the benefit of a band member dying tragically young) is testament to how great an album it is. Never mind that it was released well past punk's heyday, coming five years after the second-latest album on this list, Minor Threat's eponymous LP (with songs from 1981). Their mix of ska (e.g., “Sound System”), hardcore (e.g., “Jaded”), reggae (e.g., “Take Warning”), and old school punk melodies worthy of The Clash or the Ramones (e.g., “The Crowd”) made them deeply influential, so that certainly something like the success of Green Day owes a lot to them
Representative lyric:
Something breaks inside of you with the spectacle of all the shows, with fifteen fights and your six bucks has gone up some promoter's nose. Jaded eyes see clearly, but only half of what is there. Good old days are far behind; what's left is boredom and despair. But sometimes every once in a while, sometimes every once in a while . . .
It's beautiful—I would say—
I wouldn't have it—any other way.
If I said different—that would be a lie.
If I said different—that would be a lie.
(from “Jaded”)
Operation Ivy, “Unity”
Previously on the Top Ten Punk Albums of All Time:
Intro
Number 10: Suicidal Tendencies / Suicidal Tendencies
Number 9: Minor Threat / Minor Threat
Number 8: Bad Brains / Bad Brains
Number 7: The Clash / The Clash
Number 6: Dead Kennedys / Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables
Energy (1989)
Operation Ivy existed briefly (two years) and broke up the same month their one and only album was released. That they reached the level of national popularity they did (without even the benefit of a band member dying tragically young) is testament to how great an album it is. Never mind that it was released well past punk's heyday, coming five years after the second-latest album on this list, Minor Threat's eponymous LP (with songs from 1981). Their mix of ska (e.g., “Sound System”), hardcore (e.g., “Jaded”), reggae (e.g., “Take Warning”), and old school punk melodies worthy of The Clash or the Ramones (e.g., “The Crowd”) made them deeply influential, so that certainly something like the success of Green Day owes a lot to them
Representative lyric:
Something breaks inside of you with the spectacle of all the shows, with fifteen fights and your six bucks has gone up some promoter's nose. Jaded eyes see clearly, but only half of what is there. Good old days are far behind; what's left is boredom and despair. But sometimes every once in a while, sometimes every once in a while . . .
It's beautiful—I would say—
I wouldn't have it—any other way.
If I said different—that would be a lie.
If I said different—that would be a lie.
(from “Jaded”)
Operation Ivy, “Unity”
Previously on the Top Ten Punk Albums of All Time:
Intro
Number 10: Suicidal Tendencies / Suicidal Tendencies
Number 9: Minor Threat / Minor Threat
Number 8: Bad Brains / Bad Brains
Number 7: The Clash / The Clash
Number 6: Dead Kennedys / Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables
Top Ten Punk Albums of All Time: Number 6
Dead Kennedys (San Francisco, CA)
Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables (1980)
If The Clash injected a shot of class consciousness into punk, DK smashed it over the head with visions of class warfare. A rabid anarcho-leftist ideology informs their often apocalyptic lyrics: tenants threaten to lynch their slum lord; an amusement park, that ultimate symbol of carefree/careless American entertainment, becomes the scene of gruesome deaths; politicians harbor fascist dreams and come to wield near limitless power; the government uses nuclear weapons to eradicate the poor; a mentally unstable man uses chemical weapons to terrorize the country-club set; the working and middle classes subdue themselves with drugs both literal (speed, pot, health supplements) and metaphorical (TV, skirt chasing, bar hopping, crossword puzzles). I lent this tape to someone in 1991 and never got it back—it's that good, though the material's a bit dated. (Marc, if you're out there reading this, you can use the contact link in my sidebar.)
Representative lyric:
Efficiency and progress is ours once more
Now that we have the neutron bomb.
It's nice and quick and clean and gets things done.
Away with excess enemy,
But no less value to property—
No sense in war, but perfect sense at home.
(from “Kill the Poor”)
Dead Kennedys, “Holiday in Cambodia”
Previously on the Top Ten Punk Albums of All Time:
Intro
Number 10: Suicidal Tendencies / Suicidal Tendencies
Number 9: Minor Threat / Minor Threat
Number 8: Bad Brains / Bad Brains
Number 7: The Clash / The Clash
Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables (1980)
If The Clash injected a shot of class consciousness into punk, DK smashed it over the head with visions of class warfare. A rabid anarcho-leftist ideology informs their often apocalyptic lyrics: tenants threaten to lynch their slum lord; an amusement park, that ultimate symbol of carefree/careless American entertainment, becomes the scene of gruesome deaths; politicians harbor fascist dreams and come to wield near limitless power; the government uses nuclear weapons to eradicate the poor; a mentally unstable man uses chemical weapons to terrorize the country-club set; the working and middle classes subdue themselves with drugs both literal (speed, pot, health supplements) and metaphorical (TV, skirt chasing, bar hopping, crossword puzzles). I lent this tape to someone in 1991 and never got it back—it's that good, though the material's a bit dated. (Marc, if you're out there reading this, you can use the contact link in my sidebar.)
Representative lyric:
Efficiency and progress is ours once more
Now that we have the neutron bomb.
It's nice and quick and clean and gets things done.
Away with excess enemy,
But no less value to property—
No sense in war, but perfect sense at home.
(from “Kill the Poor”)
Dead Kennedys, “Holiday in Cambodia”
Previously on the Top Ten Punk Albums of All Time:
Intro
Number 10: Suicidal Tendencies / Suicidal Tendencies
Number 9: Minor Threat / Minor Threat
Number 8: Bad Brains / Bad Brains
Number 7: The Clash / The Clash
Monday, October 13, 2008
Top Ten Punk Albums of All Time: Number 7
The Clash (London)
The Clash (1977)
The Clash wasted no time in establishing themselves as the thinking person's punk band. Compared to other early UK punk acts like the Sex Pistols, The Damned, and the Buzzcocks, The Clash's musical influences are more varied, their social commentary more focused and reflective, and their lyrics more polished. But chances are you knew all that.
Representative lyric:
An’ in the in-tray, lots of work,
But the boss at the firm always thinks he shirks.
But he's just like everyone, he's got a Ford Cortina
That just wont run without fuel.
Fill her up, jacko!
(from “Janie Jones”)
The Clash, “Police & Thieves”
Previously on the Top Ten Punk Albums of All Time:
Intro
Number 10: Suicidal Tendencies / Suicidal Tendencies
Number 9: Minor Threat / Minor Threat
Number 8: Bad Brains / Bad Brains
The Clash (1977)
The Clash wasted no time in establishing themselves as the thinking person's punk band. Compared to other early UK punk acts like the Sex Pistols, The Damned, and the Buzzcocks, The Clash's musical influences are more varied, their social commentary more focused and reflective, and their lyrics more polished. But chances are you knew all that.
Representative lyric:
An’ in the in-tray, lots of work,
But the boss at the firm always thinks he shirks.
But he's just like everyone, he's got a Ford Cortina
That just wont run without fuel.
Fill her up, jacko!
(from “Janie Jones”)
The Clash, “Police & Thieves”
Previously on the Top Ten Punk Albums of All Time:
Intro
Number 10: Suicidal Tendencies / Suicidal Tendencies
Number 9: Minor Threat / Minor Threat
Number 8: Bad Brains / Bad Brains
Sunday, October 12, 2008
Top Ten Punk Albums of All Time: Number 8
Bad Brains (Washington D.C.)
Bad Brains (1982)
Don't be fooled by the date above: these guys were immensely influential well before their long-awaited first album. Their influence extended not just to later hardcore/crossover bands, like Black Flag (via Henry Rollins), Minor Threat, the Cro-Mags and Corrosion of Conformity, but to many bands who went on to more mainstream success: the Beasite Boys, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Living Colour, and No Doubt, among others.
Representative lyric (though I'm just guessing on some of this):
I say your dollar, dollar drop down real low.
You ain't got no gold to show.
We gonna step right through that door.
Not gonna come back no more.
I said the politicians lyin',
my momma's just a-dyin',
and nothin' ever comes of the day.
My papa's just a-sighin',
my sister does the lyin',
and I ain't got nothin' to say.
(from “Leaving Babylon”)
Bad Brains, “Attitude”
Previously on the Top Ten Punk Albums of All Time:
Intro
Number 10
Number 9
Bad Brains (1982)
Don't be fooled by the date above: these guys were immensely influential well before their long-awaited first album. Their influence extended not just to later hardcore/crossover bands, like Black Flag (via Henry Rollins), Minor Threat, the Cro-Mags and Corrosion of Conformity, but to many bands who went on to more mainstream success: the Beasite Boys, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Living Colour, and No Doubt, among others.
Representative lyric (though I'm just guessing on some of this):
I say your dollar, dollar drop down real low.
You ain't got no gold to show.
We gonna step right through that door.
Not gonna come back no more.
I said the politicians lyin',
my momma's just a-dyin',
and nothin' ever comes of the day.
My papa's just a-sighin',
my sister does the lyin',
and I ain't got nothin' to say.
(from “Leaving Babylon”)
Bad Brains, “Attitude”
Previously on the Top Ten Punk Albums of All Time:
Intro
Number 10
Number 9
Top Ten Punk Albums of All Time: Number 9
Minor Threat (Washington D.C.)
Minor Threat (1981, 1984)
Technically this 1984 LP is a compilation, which I had decided not to include in this list. But since it consists of Minor Threat's first two seven inches as opposed to, say, a collection of singles or “hits,” I'm breaking the rules—ooh, that's sooo punk. Kings of the D.C. hardcode scene, Minor Threat in many lays laid down the prototypical hardcore sound with these twelve tracks. And they're one of the few bands of any genre, or any era, to produce a song that inspired a lifestyle, Straight Edge, taken up by tens of thousands of young people (probably more) over the years. And no one has taken the punk DIY ethos further than frontman Ian MacKaye, especially through his record label, Dischord Records.
Representative lyric:
You tell me you like the taste—
You just need an excuse.
You tell me it calms your nerves—
You just think it looks cool.
You tell me you want to be different—
You just change for the same.
You tell me it's only natural—
You just need the proof.
(from “In My Eyes”)
Minor Threat, “Filler”
Previously on the Top Ten Punk Albums of All Time:
Intro
Number 10
Minor Threat (1981, 1984)
Technically this 1984 LP is a compilation, which I had decided not to include in this list. But since it consists of Minor Threat's first two seven inches as opposed to, say, a collection of singles or “hits,” I'm breaking the rules—ooh, that's sooo punk. Kings of the D.C. hardcode scene, Minor Threat in many lays laid down the prototypical hardcore sound with these twelve tracks. And they're one of the few bands of any genre, or any era, to produce a song that inspired a lifestyle, Straight Edge, taken up by tens of thousands of young people (probably more) over the years. And no one has taken the punk DIY ethos further than frontman Ian MacKaye, especially through his record label, Dischord Records.
Representative lyric:
You tell me you like the taste—
You just need an excuse.
You tell me it calms your nerves—
You just think it looks cool.
You tell me you want to be different—
You just change for the same.
You tell me it's only natural—
You just need the proof.
(from “In My Eyes”)
Minor Threat, “Filler”
Previously on the Top Ten Punk Albums of All Time:
Intro
Number 10
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
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
Top Ten Punk Albums of All Time: Intro
Top ten lists are pretty useless to begin with, but when they're done by someone with absolutely no expertise, well, that changes everything. And that's right, you noticed the post title correctly: we're talking all time here—ambitious, huh?Here the rules: Studio LPs only: no compilations and no live albums. I'll make a short, probably not very insightful, comment; quote a lyric, which I'll call “representative” but really might just be something I like or that's not completely pointless when divorced from the music; and post a YouTube video of a song from the album.
At right: Your self-deprecating narrator in not so self-deprecating times during my brief stint as a music major at the University of New Haven, fall 1991.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
