Recommend Punk Bands in Order of Punk's History Timeline

[rtbuck]

The Stooges (Raw Power is a great album and was my favorite Stooges but nowadays I have to say that Iggy and the Stooges Funhouse album is my favorite (so many great tunes like Loose, TV Eye, 1970, Down on the Street) Stooges self titled first album is great too

MC5 (Of course that debut Live album is a must have with Kick Out the Jams and the tune opening the album which is a cover of the 1962 Jerry Lee Lewis hit “Ramblin’ Rose. MC5’s version may actually be closer to the 1965 version by Ted Taylor but other than those 2 songs it’s easy to get lost with the rest of the tunes on the live album so I would recommend their Back in the USA album with songs like High School, Teenage Lust,Lookin at you, Shakin Street and a super fast and fun version of Chuck Berry’s Back in the USA)

New York Dolls (One of my Top 3 bands along with Kiss and Alice Cooper…) I can’t recommend just one album by the NY Dolls so I have to recommend both of their 1970’s albums(the self titled debut is a must have with no weak songs at all…stand out tracks are “Personality Crisis”, “Lookin for a Kiss”, “Bad Girl”, “Trash”, “Jet Boy”, and a cool cover of Bo Diddley’s “Pills”…. Their 2nd Album “In Too Much Too Soon” is another classic with all great tunes including “Babylon”, “Who are the Mystery Girls”, “Puss n Boots”, the classic Johnny Thunders tune “Chatterbox” which features guitarist Johnny Thunders on lead vocals, a cool cover of Sonnyboy Williamson’s “Don’t Start me Talkin” and the phenomenal closing track “Human Being”

The Ramones (Rocket to Russia is such a great album all around and like the NY Dolls debut every tune on this album is great(of course the Ramones self titled debut is another great record all the way through) on Rocket to Russia stand out tracks are “Rockaway Beach”, “Sheena is a Punk Rocker”, “Teenage Lobotomy”, “Cretin Hop”, “We’re a Happy Family” & a couple of cool cover tunes with the Trashmen’s “Surfin’ Bird” and Bobby Freeman’s “Do You Wanna Dance”

Johnny Thunders and the Heartbreakers(Ex NY Dolls guitarist Johnny Thunders and drummer Jerry Nolan along with ex Demons guitarist Walter Lure & bassist Billy Rath(who replaced Richard Hell) created what I feel is by far the Greatest Punk Rock & Roll album of all-time with “LAMF”. If drugs didn’t get in the way this band would have been Huge. Their sound is similar to the Ramones at times but with scorching lead guitars by Johnny and Walter. Stand out tracks are the entire album including: “Born to Lose”, “Chinese Rocks”, “One Track Mind”, “I Love You”, “Can’t Keep my Eyes on You”, “Let Go”, “All by Myself”, and a fun Punk version of the Contours “Do You Love Me”)

Richard Hell and the Voidoids (Blank Generation is a great record by Richard Hell featuring his Punk Anthem “Blank Generation”, “Love Comes in Spurts”(Both of these songs come from his days with the Heartbreakers and “Love Comes in Spurts” is actually written by Hell and Lure and Lure changed the lyrics and the tune became “One Track Mind” on the Heartbreakers LAMF album), “I’m Your Man”, and “Down at the Rock and Roll Club”

Patti Smith Group(I have to say Smith’s album “Horses” is a classic album in the Punk category. The recommended tracks off this album are “Gloria: In Excelsis Deo”which is a wild take on Van Morrison’s classic tune he performed with Them once it kicks in, “Redondo Beach”, “Horses”(This is such a cool tune similar to her version of Gloria where the song builds up and then explodes), and a kick ass live cover of the of The Who’s “My Generation” featuring the Velvet Underground’s John Cale on Bass)

Sex Pistols(Sure they got a lot of mileage off of Never Mind the Bollocks but I would recommend 1980’s compilation “Flogging a Dead Horse” because it not only features some of the great stuff off Bullocks but also features other tunes….Stand out tracks are “Anarchy in the UK”, “God Save the Queen”, “Pretty Vacant”, “Silly Thing” and a few cool covers such as “Stepping Stone”, “”No Fun”, “C’mon Everybody”, “Something Else”(both Eddie Cochran covers are sang by Sid Vicious along with a fun Killer version of Sinatra’s “My Way”


Johnny Thunders (So Alone is a real masterpiece of a solo album released by Thunders in 1978 featuring one of the greatest tunes ever written “You Can’t Put Your Arms Around a Memory”. Not a bad song on this record featuring Thin Lizzy bassist Phil Lynott on several tracks and stand out tracks besides the aforementioned tune would be a super cool cover of the Chantays instrumental “Pipeline”, a fun cover of the Shangri La’s “Give Her a Great Big Kiss”, “Leave me Alone”(Which is actually “Chatterbox” from his days with the NY Dolls), a couple of other Dolls tunes “Downtown” & “Subway Train” and I also have to mention a fantastic cover of Derek Martin’s “Daddy Rollin Stone” which features verse one sung by Thunders, verse 2 sung by Phil Lynott, and verse 3 features an amazing vocal by Steve Marriott)

 

[Catfish]

I'll go traditional, and say tune by tune, that the Ramone's 1st album is the gold standard

 

[Tommy Walker]

A chronological representation of albums building up to the beginning of punk:

1965 - Here Are the Sonics - The Sonics
1966 - Black Monk Time - The Monks
1967 - We Are Paintermen - The Creation
1968 - White Light/White Heat - The Velvet Underground
1969 - The Stooges - The Stooges
1970 - Live at Leeds - The Who
1971 - Love It to Death - Alice Cooper
1972 - Transformer - Lou Reed
1973 - New York Dolls - New York Dolls
1974 - ???
1975 - Horses - Patti Smith
1976 - The Modern Lovers - The Modern Lovers

 

[Catfish]

Ouch, I don't even think i could even give this assignment justice. I guess a lot depends on how you define Punk.... MC5 as you mentioned, further later, the NY Dolls, Iggy maybe.... Even some of the Velvet Underground's upbeat stuff could roughly be intrerpreted that way as progenitors.

But as a purist, I have to say that The Ramones and Sex Pistols pretty much simoutaneously created the genre. And how oddly different the two were. The Sex Piistols were angry, tense, and flamed out almost as soon as they rose. OTOH, The Ramones were fun, nonsensical, and took simplicity to astronomical, but effective lengths. I am lucky to say I saw them at a bar in 1983 with about 50 other people. An ultimate surreal occurence. Still have the tickert and treasure it. I discussed it on another thread, but here it is cut/pasted

My Ramones Concert Experience- April 11, 1983 at Cardi's.....

Like I mentioned someway, somehow The Ramones were going to perform at my favorite bar in the city I lived in. The day of the show, I collected a group of 3 of my good friends to go. One jokingly called me their Tour Guide into the world of rock and roll. Of course 40 years later, I realize now that that was a back handed insult in jest.

Well, when we got there, it was almost empty, and by the time the it was show time, my group and myself of 4 were among about 40-50 in the bar, and maybe 60 including bar staff. Rut-roh, I thought. I bet they no-show on this turnout. I thought this was going to be a night of disaster.

But... at about the 30 minutes late point, the band and their about 4 roadies show up. I couldn't believe it. I was going to see the Ramones in the most pristine state that could ever be expected. I can still picture the set up.... Pretty small stage, probably no bigger than 800-1000 square feet, looking out over the dance floor. Maybe half the crowd, including myself stood along the wood railing of the dance floor against the stage. The others? Scattered at the bar, and tables.

You know the Ramones, and they were punk pioneers.... 3 chords, loud, and simple. The first set flew by, and then Joey having some fun, challenged the crowd to try to stump them with something from their catalog. The Prize?? If anyone stumps us, you get to buy us a drink at the break. I took that as a personal challenge. I reached deep down in the recesses of my memories, on what might be an obscure enough number that they might have forgotten. After 3 guesses, and losing..... I finally stumped them. I can still picture Joey looking at the other members, and seeing him shake his head. Okay.... You got us. I stll got to hand it to the band. There may have only been a couple of dozen people in the crowd, but they gave the same amount of energy that they would have given to a 15,000 attended venue. I can not explain how many levels above cool this was.

I did buy the band a drink at the break, and one member laughed at said, man... we were kidding, we were going to get 'em free anyway. I did get to shake their hands, and Joey in his best sarcasm said something to the effect .... We never dreamed we would get stumped in this Red Neck Hell Hole. Typical New Yorker I guess. And best of all, Marky gave me a set of his sticks. (Which has an epilogue story of its own). Man if there ever was a need for a sharpie, or even a freakin' camera, that was the moment in my life.

The second set, which was also about an hour, continued the assault... They played stuff that I had never heard on albums, as much as their great songs, and some filler.... In the second set, there was a guy sitting at the bar, who kept yelling "Free Bird". "Free Bird". between songs. The band not amused, and had this in one of their verses of "Beat on the Brat":

Beat on the cat
Beat on the cat
Beat on the cat with a blue baseball cap.....Ohhhh Yeah.....Ohhhh Yeah.

This concert was so memorable, so cool. Nothing like this in music remotely ever happened again.

And to the drum sticks. I suspect my Mother in Law in one of her helping us clean up episodes, disposed of them. Man did that suck....

 

[dr wu]

Never really got into Punk....but Tommy's list above has Creation, Who,and Alice Cooper (Love it...)
Those are not 'punk' bands for me ....though Cooper did have strong elements of that on his first two.
And The Creation were Freakbeat imho....I guess you could say The Who were proto punk for a short while.

I cant say I have ever heard a complete lp by a solid punk band....though I have heard The Ramones, SEx Pistols and Green Day on radio.
What is considered the best punk lp of all time.?

 

[Catfish]

I was in college during the blast on the scene arrival of the Ramones and Sex Pistols. Scuttlebutt of the music press at the time was it was either parody or back handed slap respone to Art Rock (future prog) and AOR.

We all thought it was a brief fad, like Disco, but obviously that was not the case.

 

[dr wu]

Interesting video....thoughts from punk fans on this...?
7 Forgotten Punk Bands

 

[dr wu]

10 best punk albums....?