bloggedy blog: the personal weblog of a music lover and aging punk wannabe

:: Wednesday, June 14, 2006 ::

Help choose the so-called 100 greatest punk songs
For the past several weeks, bloggers at Faster Than the World, with the help of their readers, have been compiling a list of 100 punk songs. They even have the chutzpah to call their list the "100 greatest punk songs." But I took a look and found perhaps 20 on the list that qualify for the 100 greatest (and two of those were submitted by me).

There's only one Sex Pistols song on the list ("God Save the Queen"), only one from Ramones ("Beat on the Brat"), three from the Clash, and nothing -- NOTHING -- from Blondie, Talking Heads, Wire, or Patti Smith, all of whom were among the most influential artists in starting the punk scene in New York.

No Gang of Four or Mekons, or other similar groups from the UK post-Pistols scene.

No X? Come on! That's absurd.

No New York Dolls, Devo or Pere Ubu, even.

Only one Dead Kennedys song ("Holiday in Cambodia," which is OK but it's no "California Uber Alles" or "Too Drunk to F___").

The nominees include proto-punkers like Iggy and the Stooges and MC5, but no mention of the Velvet Underground?

Michele defends the list in the comments section, saying:
These lists are always gonna be aribtrary. Keep in mind this is really a list of our idea of the best punk songs, including a bunch of those of our readers.

The reason there is no Crass is because we both hate Crass. Lists like these were made for arguing. That's half the fun of it.
To her credit, she did get Richard Hell's "Blank Generation" on the list, and Jonathan Richman's "Roadrunner." Judging from the nominations on this "100 greatest" list, most of her readers must have been born after 1980, when punk devolved into DC/SoCal hardcore stuff. If any song other than "God Save the Queen" makes it to number one, it'll be a travesty. But right now, a song by the Misfits is winning.

Anyway, you can vote for your favorite of the 100 songs right here.

And from the archives, revisit my top 40 punk tunes.

Tags: punk rock, punk, music, lists, music lists

:: Andrew 06:12 + ::
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