"Turn it down!"
Posted on 07/30/2003 12:06:05 PM PDT by weegee
Rhino Records will release a four-disc punk box set, Ever Get the Feeling You've Been Cheated? The '70s Punk Rebellion, on October 28th. Following in the footsteps of the garage-rock anthology Nuggets, the set is designed to serve as a punk rock primer, spanning 1973 to 1980. "I'm not doing this set for people who were there the first time or to 'give the kids a history lesson,'" says the collection's producer Gary Stewart. "I'm hoping that somebody new to rock & roll who just picked up albums by the White Stripes, Good Charlotte or Radiohead will find much to love here."
The 100-track compilation features songs from punk headliners like the Clash, the Ramones, Elvis Costello, the Pretenders and the Cure as well as outer-limits bands like Suicide, the Ruts and Mink DeVille -- but no song from the Sex Pistols, whose frontman Johnny Rotten gave the collection its title when he asked the audience the same question at the end of the band's 1978 farewell show.
"I wanted to turn people on to some of the great nooks and crannies of early punk," Stewart says. "If you're buying this set, you're probably aware of the Buzzcocks and the Ramones, but I want you to know about the Rezillos, the Rich Kids and the Heartbreakers."
"I wanted the listener to see how the artfulness of Patti Smith, and the pop revisionism of early Blondie, Nick Lowe and the Motors, and the humor of Ian Dury all came from the same place," Stewart continues, "and belong alongside the Ramones, the Clash and the more obvious practitioners."
Ever Get the Feeling You've Been Cheated? track listing:
Disc One:
"Blitzkrieg Bop," Ramones
"White Riot," The Clash
"Heart Of The City," Nick Lowe
"Boredom," Buzzcocks
"(I'm) Stranded," The Saints
"Neat Neat Neat," The Damned
"In The City," The Jam
"Final Solution," Pere Ubu
"Roadrunner," The Modern Lovers
"Little Johnny Jewel," Television
"One Chord Wonders," The Adverts
"Born To Lose," The Heartbreakers
"Search And Destroy," Iggy & The Stooges
"Let Me Dream If I Want To," Mink DeVille
"Oh Bondage Up Yours!," X-Ray Spex
"1 2 X U," Wire
"Blank Generation," Richard Hell & The Voidoids
"(Get A) Grip (On Yourself)," The Stranglers
"Cherry Bomb," The Runaways
"Personality Crisis," New York Dolls
"Teenage Depression," Eddie & The Hot Rods
"Two Tub Man," The Dictators
"Hey Joe," Patti Smith
"Your Generation," Generation X
Disc Two:
"Lust For Life," Iggy Pop
"Gary Gilmore's Eyes," The Adverts
"Saturday Night in the City of the Dead," Ultravox!
"What Do I Get?," Buzzcocks
"X Offender," Blondie
"Lookin' After No. 1," The Boomtown Rats
"Don't Dictate," Penetration
"Bingo Master," The Fall
"Free Money," Patti Smith
"The Modern World," The Jam
"Chinese Rocks," The Heartbreakers
"New Rose," The Damned
"Ambition," Subway Sect
"See No Evil," Television
"Suspect Device," Stiff Little Fingers
"Mannequin," Wire
"Baby Baby," The Vibrators
"Love Comes In Spurts," Richard Hell & The Voidoids
"First Time," The Boys
"Sonic Reducer," Dead Boys
"Shot By Both Sides," Magazine
"Mystery Dance," Elvis Costello
"Trash," New York Dolls
"The Day The World Turned Day-Glo," X-Ray Spex
"Do Anything You Wanna Do," Eddie & The Hot Rods
Disc Three:
"Ready Steady Go," Generation X
"Teenage Kicks," The Undertones
"Complete Control," The Clash
"Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll," Ian Dury
"Ever Fallen In Love (With Someone You Shouldn't've?)," Buzzcocks
"Rocket U.S.A.," Suicide
"Mongoloid," Devo
"Homicide," 999
"Mr. Big," The Dils
"Warsaw," Joy Division
"Where Were You?," The Mekons
"Lexicon Devil," The Germs
"(My Baby Does) Good Sculptures," The Rezillos
"The Wait," The Pretenders
"We Got the Neutron Bomb," The Weirdos
"Pablo Picasso," The Modern Lovers
"Action Time Vision," Alternative TV
"2-4-6-8 Motorway," Tom Robinson Band
"We Are the One," The Avengers
"Borstal Breakout," Sham 69
"Wasted," Black Flag
"Sheena Is A Punk Rocker," Ramones
"I Love Livin In The City," Fear
"She's So Modern," The Boomtown Rats
"Ghosts Of Princes In Towers," Rich Kids
"We're Desperate," X
"You Drive Me Ape (You Big Gorilla)," The Dickies
"Dancing the Night Away," The Motors
Disc Four:
"Hong Kong Garden," Siouxsie & the Banshees
"Public Image," Public Image Ltd.
"Hanging On The Telephone," Blondie
"Top Of The Pops," The Rezillos
"Adult Books," X
"The Sound Of The Suburbs," The Members
"California Uber Alles," Dead Kennedys
"Another Girl, Another Planet," The Only Ones
"(I Want To Be An) Anglepoise Lamp," The Soft Boys
"Radio, Radio," Elvis Costello & The Attractions
"Typical Girls," The Slits
"Human Fly," The Cramps
"Psycho Killer," Talking Heads
"Babylon's Burning," The Ruts
"If The Kids Are United," Sham 69
"Alternative Ulster," Stiff Little Fingers
"Boys Don't Cry," The Cure
"She Is Beyond Good And Evil," The Pop Group
"Is She Really Going Out With Him?," Joe Jackson
"Get Over You," The Undertones
"Love Like Anthrax," Gang Of Four
"Into The Valley," Skids
"You Can't Put Your Arms Round A Memory," Johnny Thunders
"Peaches," The Stranglers
"Love Will Tear Us Apart," Joy Division
"I'm hoping that somebody new to rock & roll who just picked up albums by the White Stripes, Good Charlotte or Radiohead will find much to love here."
After the success of the Nuggets II boxed set I can understand why they would repackage their "DIY/Do It Yourself" punk compilation series as a boxed set.
I think that fans of the White Stripes, Mooney Suzuki, or Hives would prefer the Nuggets II boxed set to this and corporate punk fans have already shown that they have no sense of taste, history, or experimentation. They should expose themselves to this set of songs but it won't do any good.
I liked seeing bands like the Dictators and the Cramps included in the set (they are often overlooked) but there could have been some of the bands from other countries.
To correct this oversight, I would recommend the 2-disc Australian bands compilation ""Do The Pop" (although the Rhino comp DOES include The Saints' I'm Stranded).
Even the Dead Kennedys' "California Uber Alles" was down on Governor Jerry Brown turning California into a police state.
Many of these are love songs (and they aren't all "angry" songs either).
I know that at least one FReeper was a roadie for the Ramones.
Do you have issues with every song on this compilation (not in the artists' songbooks, but in this compilation)?
"Turn it down!"
Punk did not start as political music. It was a bare bones back to basics reaction to stoner prog-rock arena jams ("classic rock" to many a FReeper). It was decidely ANTI-hippie too.
I won't stop listening to my music just because someone else starts listening to it or just because they are too dim to understand the lyrics.
I don't follow the Clash's politics (reputedly Marxism) but there are many of their songs that don't have any political content.
Meanwhile I'm sure that many FReepers will continue putting money in Willie Nelson's pockets despite his continued liberal political activism (and drug history). Merle Haggard is up there too.
This is strictly nostalgia (the Nuggets II boxed set was not nostalgia as it proudly proclaimed that the songs contained therein almost exclusively were not hits).
If it is a new song to you, then it is a new song.
Why are you bothering with the "chat" side of FR if this is really your first day? Why aren't you on the news portion?
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