D.I.Y.: Blank Generation - The New York Scene (1975-78)

Can't not vote for Sheena.

This one is a little more all over the place quality-wise but still lots of good choices.

I think "Venus" is the best song but "Chinese Rocks" is kind of definitive for that time and place in my mind.

There are many Ramones songs I would've voted over "Chinese Rock", but they are not listed here, so "Chinese Rock" it is.

“Chinese Rock”? Is that the one based on the pentatonic cliche?

Now this is really tough (or tuff).

Might just vote "Born to Lose" nonetheless.

My favorite Tuff Darts is still this one.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dro6Ysjd5RQ

Dead Boys stuck out to me as a band that didn’t originate in NYC, but I guess they didn’t even have that name or record more than the Frankenstein demos whilst in Cleveland so now I think I see.

"Cars and Girls" is funny, but "Sheena."

"X Offender" was the one I enjoyed most today.

Gonna have to listen to a playlist I guess. One I found has a Luna cover of the first Mink Deville song for some reason.

Born to Lose

a toss up between x offender and cheree.

aw yeah this is my shit

so many great ones but I gotta got with "Love Comes In Spurts", that album was a huge gateway drug for me when I stole it from the school library (!) at age 17 (I had read Lester Bang's 5-star review of the Rolling Stone guide but had not heard it).

gah sorry for bad syntax, you get the idea. I never got to read like NY Rocker or anything but I did read Creem starting in like 1982, and they were fairly reverent of all this stuff by that time. The CBGBs and Max's Kansas City comp LPs used to be all over the used bins in the early 80s

Not sure if this is in the spirit of this poll but voting for In the Flesh.

This tape was huge for me. Probably have to go with Television of Suicide.

Voted for Blitzkrieg Bop but this one absolutely full of mixtape classix for me - particularly Spanish Stroll, Born to Lose and Blank Generation

Might just vote "Born to Lose" nonetheless.

I always thought that song was called “Born Too Loose.”

Just noticed that this mostly forgotten band is mentioned in the lyrics to “Max’s Kansas City.”
http://www.justwatermusic.com/jw/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jz6TIXfg4AU

Okay, so when The Ramones did they called it “Chinese Rock,” but as far as I know it whenever The Heartbreakers did it it was “Chinese Rocks.”

And while the song is called “Born to Lose, they usually sing it “Born Too Loose,” hence the title of a certain Johnny Thunders best of.

Yeah there’s more here:

That's why our hero is born to lose. Or is it born too loose? The band had it both ways on L.A.M.F.'s initial German release (the first of the album's multiple iterations), printing "loose" on the back cover and "lose" on the label.
Subsequent reissues have occasionally swapped the words' places, but more often than not "lose" appears on both sleeve and label, and some lyrics and fan sites winkingly split the difference as "Born To(o) Lo(o)se."

Never owned this one but found a playlist and it flows really well. The Mumps song was not on it for some reason so I had to seek it elsewhere. Was going to ask a trivia question about what Kinks song (#onethreadderail!) Lance Loud’s younger brother played on An American Family then I found out something else interesting about the brother as well.

Cheree

Suicide >>> Ramones

Many favorites here but gotta vote for "Love Comes in Spurts", a song that fully rearranged by brain the first time I heard it. That 1st Richard Hell LP is probably my favorite album to come out of that scene.

I voted "Cars and Girls". The Disctators Go Girl Crazy is one of the most fun albums of all time.

https://www.concertarchives.org/image_uploads/photo/image/354080/large_The_Village_Voice_-_New_York__NY_July_19_1973.png
#onethread

Voted

sorely tempted to vote for "spanish stroll" here

there are objectively better songs here, sure. but...

Halfway through my first listen to this comp. This is my first exposure to a lot of these. Who knew “Blank Generation” was a swing song?! These all do blend together into a very distinctive style, and MY GOD did so many of these bands want to sound like Lou Reed. I’m enjoying this comp but none of these are really blowing me away. I’m not surprised that none of these crossed over to the mainstream. For one, the vocals are all really bad. Joey Ramone was a horrible singer and definitely the weak link in the band. “They’re forming inna strgh lie! They generate steevee The gassyrwesser ang man! Blitzkreig bah!” Enunciate, motherfucker! Voting “In the Flesh”, which sounds to me like a totally sincere love ballad and provides a nice break from all the rock.

Who knew “Blank Generation” was a swing song?!

https://www.youtube/watch?v=Y5-HlUAOjGE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y5-HlUAOjGE

blank generation indeed

Haha! Was thinking of how to mention Mckuen but couldn’t quite get a clear shot. You just beat all the defenders and ran in to the goal, Diego Armando-style.

I have no qualms about voting for "In the Flesh." The line about walking on the Lower East Side always tugs at the heartstrings.

meet the kid with the replaceable hand of god!

xp

lol

Blitzkrieg Bop - Ramones
Blank Generation - Richard Hell & the Voidoids
Sonic Reducer - Dead Boys
Chinese Rock - The Heartbreakers
Sheena is a Punk Rocker - Ramones
Love Comes in Spurts - Richard Hell & the Voidoids
Born to Lose - The Heartbreakers

These seven songs are pretty much canon for me.
Ultimately I went with "Sonic Reducer" but any of the above would be fine choices.

I love Joey Ramone’s enunciation, the elisions are central to the appeal!

^^I have a friend who sings in a Ramones tribute band, and he kind of (road to) ruins it by not taking on the accent and just singing them straight as they're written down instead of how they actually sound.

'and instead just'

OTM. Joey’s sui generis vocal style is key. He was trying to do something - Sound British? Sound like Ronnie Spector? - but whatever it was it came out sideways and became its own thing.

Sometimes I think he was trying to come up with his own version of some kind of bubblegum vocal style, like that other Joey, Joey Levine.

see the "It's Alive" 2LP for more great examples of that style, even the countoffs are like WUHTUHTHREFUH

Yes, but the count-offs are usually Dee Dee iirc.

"Blank Generation," unexpectedly.

Why unexpectedly?

I thought I'd vote for Blondie or Ramones.

Quine's soloing and fills in "Blank Generation" specifically are so exquisite, even compared to his stellar work on the album as a whole

OTM, although it should also be noted that Ivan Julian did the intro.

guitar solo in 'love comes in spurts' >>>

“Blank Generation” would be my second choice here.

Joey’s sui generis vocal style is key. He was trying to do something - Sound British? Sound like Ronnie Spector? - but whatever it was it came out sideways and became its own thing.

Yeah, I've got no idea what Joey thought he was doing but it was unique and brilliant. As for complaining about his diction? There's John Martyn thread over there that needs attention!

If he was indeed trying to do a British accent, it wasn’t your typical rock Northern Beatles/Sabbath/Spinal Tap accent. More like something he dreamt up sitting in front of the television in Queens watching the villagers in Son of Frankenstein on Million Dollar Movie on WOR-TV.

it's a little ray davies haha

Oh yeah!

Sonic Reducer still gives me the occasional chill when the riff starts, which is pretty remarkable. My already high opinion of Blank Generation when way up upon recently learning it's a Rod McKuen steal.

OTM. Always pleasantly surprised at how much I like all the different versions of “Sonic Reducer,” even the Pearl Jam cover.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mb2FcL4XvAc

Thanks, forgot about that! Music in that film is so good. Seem to remember some Feelies too.

sorely tempted to vote for "spanish stroll" here

This is what I settled on, because there are so many songs I love here that I went with one I was afraid wouldn't get votes. I have kind of a fascination with Willy DeVille, even in that scene he was an unusual cat.

And "Spanish Stroll" may be the best Lou Reed song not by Lou Reed.

Cheree barely over X Offender. If Frankie Teardrop had been on this comp, I would have been more adamant about its obvious superiority (based on the thematic elements of the other tracks, it would have been ideal)

i went for Cheree barely over X Offender too in the end. i haven't heard this comp but yes, Frankie Teardrop might have been a better fit. too long possibly?

Yeah, perhaps too long ... I have a bunch of live recordings and such so that I forget the track length of the original, guessing it's prob the same for you too?

I think in the context of the comp, where there was a certain New York almost "oldies" vibe, like X Offender or Crocodile Tears, the pop-ness of Cheree did make sense in that context. I think anything else from the first Suicide album would've been too jarring. I think it was intentional. But this is also where I first heard Cheree so it's hard to remove that context.

FWIW I had this on tape which had less songs, no Tuff Darts, no Spanish Stroll, only one song by Richard Hell or Television.

https://www.discogs.com/release/6891727-Various-DIY-Blank-Generation-The-New-York-Scene

But did it still have The Mumps?

Yeah. I loved that song and only recently got the 7". Played it on the Lot last week.

a certain New York almost "oldies" vibe,... the pop-ness of Cheree did make sense in that context. I think anything else from the first Suicide album would've been too jarring

true! oldies vibe is a good way to describe it.

I can't say I'm disappointed that "Cheree" was included over "Frankie Teardrop."

"Rocket USA" or "Ghost Rider" would have fitted on this album just fine.

wound up voting for the blank generation after seeing that spanish stroll had secured a vote lol

robert quine is a damn hero

God, culture moves so fast. This era was only 20 years after the initial explosion of rock'n'roll, and it was already considered "oldies".

Music from the 50s was considered oldies in the 60s, and pretty early in the 60s at that.

This one was formative for me for a lot of reasons but mostly because it's the first time I ever heard Suicide. I would vote for "Cheree" in more or less any poll it could appear on, so this is easy.

Blondies style in the x offender video combined with the farfisa is pure retro

"X Offender" ftw

Someone compiled a Spotify playlist of the album.

http://open.spotify.com/playlist/6hYaLYXcdR9csv0nWjX8C5?si=e84848b4ff294b59

Not sure if the compilation had different versions than what is on the playlist since I never heard it before. Also the album that the Mumps' track was culled from is off Spotify now. The single of the song is on Spotify, however, but the person who made the playlist didn't make it editable, so you'll have to make your own playlist if you want to correct that oversight. Still, this is good. Listening now.

see no evil because of my old band's masterful (heh) mashup cover version where i inserted the "ain't that nothin'" lead (sort of) in place of the "see no evil" lead. repeats --> download music files --> click on first track.

https://tv.obbard.com/tribute/content2.htm

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

70 votes!

Okay, I guess.

First time in a long time where my gut reaction to the results was an audible "well, alright"

Voted for Suicide.

Perfect!

Also love that if Blondie hadn't had 2 tracks to split their vote maybe there would have been a 3 way tie featuring them for 1st place.

If you combine tracks by same artist, I think Ramones would have been in 1st place, then Richard Hell & the Voidoids, and then a 2-way tie between Suicide and Blondie.

I get "Let Me Dream If I Want To" stuck in my head about once a year despite never listening to this comp anymore, should have thrown it a vote

D.I.Y.: We're Desperate - The L.A. Scene (1976-79)