Let The Day Begin...Let The Day Start!: Day 335 - 1-2-3-4 Punk & New Wave 1976-1979

 


Four of the songs are missing from the Playlist above and I have included the links for them below in the Tracklist.

1-2-3-4 Punk & New Wave 1976-1979 - Various Artists

Universal Records

Released 1999

  Tracks   
Disc one   
    Complete Control - The Clash
    Anarchy In The UK - Sex Pistols
    New Rose - The Damned
    Blitzkrieg Bop - Ramones
    Shadow - The Lurkers
    Thinkin' of the USA - Eater
    Ain't Bin To No Music School - The Nosebleeds
    Borstal Breakout - Sham 69
    I Hate School - Suburban Studs
    G.L.C. - Menace
    One Chord Wonders - The Adverts
    Right To Work - Chelsea
    Johnny Won't Get To Heaven - The Killjoys
    Bone Idol - The Drones
    Wher Have All The Boot Boys Gone - Slaughter and The Dogs
    C.I.D. - UK Subs
    I Can't Wait 'Til '78 - The Wasps
    Ambition - Subway Sect
    (I'm) Stranded - The Saints
    Orgasm Addict - Buzzcocks

Disc two    
    In The City - The Jam
    Your Generation - Generation X
    First Time - The Boys
    (Get A) Grip (On Yourself) - The Stranglers
    Don't Dictate - Penetration
    In A Rut - The Ruts
    Big Time - Rudi
    Don't Ring Me Up - Protex
    Justa Nother Teenage Rebel - The Outcasts
    Solitary Confinement - The Members
    Emergency - 999
    19 & Mad - Leyton Buzzards
    I'm In Love With Margaret Thatcher - Not Sensibles
    Romford Girls - Riff Raff
    Sick Of You - The Users
    Gabrielle - The Nips
    Where Were You? - The Mekons
    Murder Of Liddle Towers - Angelic Upstarts
    Oh Bondage Up Yours! - X-Ray Spex
    Sweet Suburbia - Skids
    Television Screen - The Radiators From Space
    Alternative Ulster - Stiff Little Fingers
    Teenage Kicks - The Undertones

Disc three    
    Teenage Depression - Eddie And The Hot Rods
    Rich Kids - Rich Kids
    Baby Baby - The Vibrators
    Suffice To Say - Yachts
    Roadrunner - Jonathan Richman & The Modern Lovers
    Don't Care - Klark Kent
    Nervous Wreck - Radio Stars
    Up Against The Wall - Tom Robinson Band
    So It Goes - Nick Lowe
    Police Cars - Larry Wallis
    Hard Lovin' Man - Johnny Moped
    Love And A Molotov Cocktail - The Flys
    Where's Captain Kirk? - Spizzenergi
    Sonic Reducer - Dead Boys
    Search & Destroy - The Dictators
    Born To Lose - The Heartbreakers
    Modern Dance - Pere Ubu
    F*** Off - The Electric Chairs
    California Uber Alles - Dead Kennedys

Disc four    
    (I Belong To The) Blank Generation - Richard Hell & The Voidoids
    10:15 Saturday Night - The Cure
    Rip Her To Shreds -Blondie
    I Can't Stand My Baby - The Rezillos
    All I Want - Snatch
    Looking After No. 1 - The Boomtown Rats
    Take Me I'm Yours - Squeeze
    Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll - Ian Dury And The Blockheads
    Spanish Stroll - Mink Deville
    Is She Really Going Out With Him? - Joe Jackson
    Whole Wide World - Wreckless Eric
    Part Time Punks - Television Personalities
    Safety Pin Stuck In My Heart - Patrik Fitzgerald
    You Can't Put Your Arms Round A Memory - Johnny Thunders
    Psycle Sluts (Part 1) - John Cooper Clarke
    Jilted John - Jilted John
    Kill - Alberto Y Los Trios Paranoias
    Paranoid - The Dickies

Disc five   
    Public Image - Public Image Ltd.
    Warsaw - Joy Division
    The Staircase (Mystery) - Siouxie And The Banshees
    Damaged Goods - Gang Of Four
    You - Au Pairs
    How Much Longer - Alternative TV
    Read About Seymour - Swell Maps
    Young Parisians - Adam & The Ants
    The Monochrome Set - The Monochrome Set
    We Are All Prostitutes - The Pop Group
    Typical Girls - The Slits
    Mannequin - Wire
    Shot By Both Sides - Magazine
    Science Friction - XTC
    Do The The Standing Still - The Table
    Another Girl, Another Planet - The Only Ones
    Young Savage - Ultravox!
    Puppet Life - Punishment Of Luxury
    Jocko Homo - Devo
    Marquee Moon - Television 

**************************

The 1-2-3-4 Punk & New Wave 1976-1979  5CD Boxset is a bit like looking at the soundtrack to my teenage years. I pretty much had all of these records and it's kind of cool having them all in one place.

DJ Gary Crowley is fond of saying on his radio show that "Punk and New Wave is a Broad Church" and in a way he is totally right but that does not mean that everything which is a little quirky that came out during the years of 1976-79 should be considered "a fit" particularly with regard to including it in a box set that spotlights those years.

So off the bat it's worth point out one of the things that just does not belong on this set - Is She Really Going Out With Him by Joe Jackson - I have no idea why on earth this is included as it is as far away from Punk and New Wave as Abba are from Heavy Metal!

As for the other 99 Tracks that make up 1-2-3-4 Punk & New Wave 1976-79 they do kind of fit "the mould" (if such a thing even exists!) and so what you get is a steady stream of Punk, New Wave, and even a spot of Post-Punk, along with a couple of novelty songs for good measure.

Amid that there are a few deficiences as well. There is an over-reliance upon material released by some of the big labels whilst many of the smaller Indie labels are overlooked (there are a few tracks represented though). Thankfully Cherry Red Records have come to the rescue and have recently released a Box Set spotlighting the "small guys" with their brilliant Action Time Vision: A Story of Independent UK Punk 1976-1979. The good points though do actually outweigh the bad. I was a bit puzzled by the Product Description that I have seen repeated in a few places written by Everett True that's on Amazon because a couple of the artists mentioned are not even on this particular set!: 

"Five CDs, featuring 100 tracks from the good, bad and downright ugly of punk.

This is a compilation for the historical completist, taking in everyone from the early trail-blazers (Sex Pistols, New York Dolls, Ramones, Television) through to the 1978 Rough Trade independent outburst (Raincoats, Slits, Pop Group) and the politically-charged (Gang Of Four, Au Pairs, Tom Robinson Band).

The post-punk "new wave" explosion is represented by the Buzzcocks, Devo and XTC as are the art-rockers by Siouxsie, Ultravox and Pere Ubu).

Even the novelty records get a mention: Jilted John and Television Personalities."

There's a few Northern Irish acts - Radiators From Space, Rudi, Protex and The Outcasts - as well, and not just The Undertones and Stiff Little Fingers. Foreign acts are pretty much absent apart from The Saints and the American bands.There's about sixteen Stateside bands represented and none of them are a real surprise (Ramones, Television, Dead Kennedys, Electric Chairs, Jonathan Richman & The Modern Lovers, Mink DeVille, Dead Boys, Blondie, Johnny Thunders, The Heartbreakers, Snatch, The Dictators, Pere Ubu, Richard Hell & The Voidoids, The Dickies and Devo). They missed an opportunity to include maybe a couple of the French bands like Little Bob Story or Metal Urbain as well.

The novelty factor is the usual Jilted John (that record turns up on loads of compilations) and also Klark Kent (which was the side project of Stewart Copeland, drummer of The Police).  I certainly wouldn't include the Television Personalities as a novelty (unlike Everett True - see above).

Billy Bragg's outfit Riff Raff don't turn up on a lot of these types of collections so that was a nice plus. They didn't make a whole lot of music in their time that was known to a wide audience so I'm sure this would have peaked the interest of many. Leyton Buzzards' 19 & Mad was always one of my favourite singles when I was a teenage punk but it is shocking to think that they went on to become Modern Romance!! 

I tend to quite enjoy these types of boxsets depsite their obvious flaws. Rhino Records released a similar one in 2003 in the USA called No Thanks! The '70s Punk Rebellion. They actually made the same mistake by including the Joe Jackson song (which again is worth pointing out that is not and never should be classed as anything but a great Pop Single!). They also included a lot more American Bands like X, The Runaways, New York Dolls, The Stooges, Patti Smith, Iggy Pop, Suicide, The Germs, The Dills, The Weirdos, The Avengers, Black Flag, Fear, The Cramps, Talking Heads and many of the same American artists that appeared on 1-2-3-4 Punk & New Wave 1976-1979. The Boxset is bereft of any Sex Pistols though and I heard it said this was due to Rhino scuppering the release of a Pistols Boxset on their label a couple of years earlier...it does pay to upset Mr Lydon! It's another good collection with a few flaws but they are easily overlooked with the good again outweighing the bad!

So there you go. Last one for November and you get not just one great boxset but three to checkout at your leisure.

Let The Day Begin...Let The Day Start!