![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
After the long entry this morning, a restful day of reading and music listening.
As today I've been mainly reading Jon Savage's England's Dreaming: Anarchy, Sex Pistols, Punk Rock, and Beyond, the epic first-hand account of British punk -- taking breaks to read the day's papers and blogs -- today's listening has been a pleasant revisiting of old BritPunk favorites, in this order:
Never mind the bollocks here's the Sex Pistols -- Sex Pistols, 1977
D.I.Y. Anarchy in the UK - UK Punk 1 -- compilation featuring, among others, The Saints, Eddie & the Hot Rods, The Stranglers, The Jam, The Adverts, The Vibrators, The Only Ones, The Boomtown Rats, Buzzcocks, Penetration, Wire, covering 1976-1977
Germfree Adolescents -- X-Ray Spex, 1978
Can't Stand the Rezillos -- The Rezillos, 1978
The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle -- Sex Pistols, 1979
Substance -- Joy Division, compilation covering 1977-1980
Second Edition (aka The Metal Box) -- Public Image Ltd., 1979
London Calling -- The Clash, 1979
The Black Album -- The Damned, 1980
Kiss Me Deadly -- Gen X featuring Billy Idol, 1981
and just to fill out a second 6-disk CD cartridge, a break from the theme:
Black Monk Time -- The Monks, 1966
Myrmidons of Melodrama -- The Shangri-Las, compilation covering 1963-1966
Listening to all this punk now, I have trouble hearing it as anything other than beautiful, catchy, exciting pop music and wondering how it couldn't have set the world on fire. It's just fun!
Of course, time evens all this out, I suppose. I started listening seriously to the music of, say, 1976 when I came to New York City in 1986. First generation punk was not a distant memory.
Now it's 2006, and to my horror, I realize the punk rock of 1976 is as far back from today as Elvis' Sun Records sides were from me at age 18 in 1986, when they were already "golden oldies." (Berit carefully notes to me that by the time she was in high school, eight years after me in 1991, London Calling, playing right now, was already an "oldie" -- oh, lord . . .)
Still, this music is alive and present today for me in a way that most of the pop music since that time doesn't come close to approaching. It has been a very enjoyable day of listening.
If you don't know some of the albums listed above, I recommend them all highly.
As today I've been mainly reading Jon Savage's England's Dreaming: Anarchy, Sex Pistols, Punk Rock, and Beyond, the epic first-hand account of British punk -- taking breaks to read the day's papers and blogs -- today's listening has been a pleasant revisiting of old BritPunk favorites, in this order:
Never mind the bollocks here's the Sex Pistols -- Sex Pistols, 1977
D.I.Y. Anarchy in the UK - UK Punk 1 -- compilation featuring, among others, The Saints, Eddie & the Hot Rods, The Stranglers, The Jam, The Adverts, The Vibrators, The Only Ones, The Boomtown Rats, Buzzcocks, Penetration, Wire, covering 1976-1977
Germfree Adolescents -- X-Ray Spex, 1978
Can't Stand the Rezillos -- The Rezillos, 1978
The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle -- Sex Pistols, 1979
Substance -- Joy Division, compilation covering 1977-1980
Second Edition (aka The Metal Box) -- Public Image Ltd., 1979
London Calling -- The Clash, 1979
The Black Album -- The Damned, 1980
Kiss Me Deadly -- Gen X featuring Billy Idol, 1981
and just to fill out a second 6-disk CD cartridge, a break from the theme:
Black Monk Time -- The Monks, 1966
Myrmidons of Melodrama -- The Shangri-Las, compilation covering 1963-1966
Listening to all this punk now, I have trouble hearing it as anything other than beautiful, catchy, exciting pop music and wondering how it couldn't have set the world on fire. It's just fun!
Of course, time evens all this out, I suppose. I started listening seriously to the music of, say, 1976 when I came to New York City in 1986. First generation punk was not a distant memory.
Now it's 2006, and to my horror, I realize the punk rock of 1976 is as far back from today as Elvis' Sun Records sides were from me at age 18 in 1986, when they were already "golden oldies." (Berit carefully notes to me that by the time she was in high school, eight years after me in 1991, London Calling, playing right now, was already an "oldie" -- oh, lord . . .)
Still, this music is alive and present today for me in a way that most of the pop music since that time doesn't come close to approaching. It has been a very enjoyable day of listening.
If you don't know some of the albums listed above, I recommend them all highly.
