A Beginner’s Guide To Punk Rock

The first wave of punk lasted only two years, yet it made so much noise that it divided the history of rock and roll in two. The wealth of writing on punk – from the tell-all oral histories to think pieces and academic studies – makes knowing where to start feel overwhelming to many. But there’s no better time to start than now, and no better way to get into punk than listening to the seminal (with a healthy and very punk suspicion of canons, of course) albums of the first wave, which lasted from roughly 1977 - 1979. Here’s a list of some of my favorites to add to your quarantine list (in no particular order). If you want further recs, Rhino has a great compilation of many of the classics and forgotten also-there’s.

1. Patti Smith – Horses

Patti Smith had perhaps the most iconic opening line in music history. It was an auspicious opening to a confident debut, which put Rimbaud-inspired poetry to Garage rock inspired jams. Her music moves with the rhythm of her poetry, from the rocker “Gloria” to the sublime tension and release cycles of the album’s center, “Birdland.” Smith would go on to become a legend, and listening to Horses you begin to see why.

See Also: The Only Ones, Pere Ubu

2. Television – Marquee Moon

Television, like Smith, cut their teeth in the infamous New York club CBGB and inflected their love of guitar rock with Impressionist poetry. But where Smith creates dizzying soundscapes with her poetry, frontman Tom Verlaine opts for unadorned sketches. Verlaine and Richard Hell’s alchemic dual guitars create something rare in punk: tense jams which slowly build themselves up, containing lightning in a bottle and then releasing it. Listen to the 10 minute title track: not a single wasted note.

See Also: Wire, Modern Lovers

3. Ramones – Ramones

Punk is so often depicted, by both artists and reviewers, as opposed to popular culture, as beacons of authenticity in a fake world. Listening to the Ramones will disabuse anyone of the notion that this was both inevitable and necessary: they made pop, but stripped it down to bare necessities. Everything the Ramones made sounds basically the same, but it’s hard to tire of: the bubblegum choruses, matching outfits, and appealingly faux-dumb songs are a strange combination of visceral and endearing. When the zine Sniffin’ Glue printed a few chord diagrams and inveighed “Now go make a band,” they owed that democratizing spirit to the Ramones, a spirit without which punk wouldn’t exist.

See Also: The Undertones, Siouxsie and the Banshees

4. X – Los Angeles

L.A. is unfairly overshadowed in punk discussions by New York and England. They developed a distinct style parallel to those more well-known scenes, one often characterized as less political and wilder (and featuring far more minority bands than other scenes). X were the face of the scene: they sang dark tales of L.A. materialism, murders and upper-class vacuousness. Lead singer Exene’s post-band boutique store captures well their frequent subject matter. She deals in kitsch and bad-taste, the overlooked crap of America.

See Also: The Dils, Germs

5. Richard Hell and the Voidoids – Blank Generation

Richard Hell had bounced around some of the most important punk bands of his time (the Heartbreakers, Television), but felt that he had yet to make something truly his own. He brought in guitarist Robert Quine – whose caustic, stripped-back playing would help define the band – and formed the Voidoids along with Ivan Julian and Marc Bell. Hell’s writing finally got a chance to shine, mostly taking on themes of love (or lack thereof). Love in Hell’s world is betrayal, its empty sex, its blank. He is the prototypical disaffected punk subject, one with a talent for capturing its spirit in 2-minute sprints.

See Also: Johnny Thunders and the Heartbreakers, New York Dolls

6. The Slits – Cut

Punk, it is often forgotten, drew much from reggae. The Clash’s “White Riot” was based on the Nottingham Hill protests, at a reggae concert, and they later went on to cover the reggae hit “Police and Thieves.” Punks incorporated reggae themes and style directly into their songs and fashion, and, in the early years, openly forged a link with reggae listeners and artists. The Slits, like the Ruts and later work of The Clash, make that link explicit in their music – they move to the rhythm of reggae, but have a distinctly punk abrasiveness, and lack of playing ability. No other album is as important to later grrrl punk movements, nor as fun to listen to.

See Also: The Stranglers, The Raincoats

7. The Clash – London Calling

The best album from the only band that matters – London Calling has more ideas, energy, heart and conviction than most bands manage in a career. All I can say is that you should go listen to it, now.

See Also: The Ruts, Nick Lowe

8. Buzzcocks – Singles Going Steady

The Buzzcocks seminal Spiral Scratch pioneered independent production in punk at a time when all the major bands in England were signed to the largest, most conservative labels, and led to their best known song, “Boredom”; but it was on the collection Singles Going Steady that they truly hit their stride. Pete Shelley took up the role of frontman and infused his vulnerability and pop instincts into their punk (in this way they owe far more to The Ramones than Sex Pistols). Shelley’s lyrics are more sensitive and playful than other punk bands could dream of being. Sex was no longer just squelching noises, and love was finally in punk’s vocabulary.

See Also: Ultravox, Blondie

9. The Sex Pistols – Nevermind the Bollocks, Here Comes the Sex Pistols

I can hear the objections already. How can I leave The Sex Pistols until now on this list, you ask? This is the band critic Greil Marcus called “formal (though not historical) conclusion” of punk. Nevermind the Bollocks is essential listening, but Rotten’s nihilism can soon be overwhelming and the music heavy. Nonetheless, Marcus is certainly right that listening to this band you can hear the beginning of the end of the first-wave, the logical conclusion of what came before and the template of what was to follow. Only by abandoning punk could other bands progress.

See Also: X-Ray Spex, The Stooges

10. Gang of Four – Entertainment!

Punk imploded as quickly as it initially exploded. By 1979, the year Gang of Four dropped their art-punk debut, post-punk was already taking over as first-wave punk fell out of style. Gang of Four sit on the edge of that transition. Their music is conducive to dancing, rather than moshing, because of Dave Allen’s fluid bass, and has a jagged edge thanks to Andy Gill’s guitar work. Their Marxist politics also deeply informed their music, forming the backdrop of every song. They never act above late-capitalistic fervor – the songs are almost all in the first-person – but by reducing everything to its terms they reveal its vapidity.

See Also: Devo, Talking Heads

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