best song on the "Burning Ambitions: A History Of Punk" compilation

I'm Stranded

that's what's playing right now!

I'm playing "No Time" right now, which might even be better.

Peaks early. Went with Boredom

never hoid of this, not terrible even if it kinda goes for the hit of each band, and not quite the “killer track” for same. imo.

write-in for Undertones 'Teenage Kicks'

wtf is "1,2,X U", is this from the NYT?

identity or 12xu

xp lol it's from Discogs

Have the vinyl...I'll go with "Read About Seymour" just barely over the Adverts.

Pretty close for me between this, Streets, and Wanna Buy a Bridge?.

yeah my heart vote goes to adverts

toss-up for me between "Read About Seymour" & "I'm Stranded"... voted Aussie.

xxp Wanna Buy A Bridge is my fave yeah

Don't know this comp. Rhino's DiY series was my intro to a lot of this stuff, though there is less overlap than I would have suspected.

To educate myself, I made a playlist of everything here (minus "Life" and "Justifiable Homicide," which aren't on Apple Music) that isn't on the Rhino comps: https://music.apple.com/ca/playlist/my-future-aint-what-it-was/pl.u-Ymb0yrMIPGkVdN

I voted for "Life" but that 999 song goes so hard

that "Pogo A Go-Go" NME tape was another formative thing in this vein, there was like a whole year in college when my friends and I played it a lot

i stepped up for alex in nyc

Back then, licensing was easy - a nod from the owner and a few bob int pocket, no prob.

Now it would be tough.

My vote was between Atilla, and the runaway winner obv which doesnt need my vote, but it got it anyway.

I had a UK equivalent which was a big gateway drug during my teenage years- here it is for comparison purposes: https://www.discogs.com/release/6417309-Various-The-Best-Punk-Album-In-The-World--Ever

In this list I voted Holiday in Cambodia, obv not first wave punk but totally great.

I haven't heard half of these, so will need to listen before the 31st. At the moment my pick would be "Identity". Extremely relevant and farsighted lyric for now.

I only heard the 101ers track the other day, it's charming! I love The Clash, but only after the first album really, so it was cool to hear the more whimsical and forgiving side of The Clash existed pre-Clash.

For me the intro comp was "The Best Punk Album In The World...Ever!" released in 1995.

Even if I was familiar with every single track "Identity" wd still be my choice

yeah I had the Best Punk Album In The World... Ever! as well

re licensing success and the 101ers - they're on this because they couldn't licence the Clash apparently

voted Blitz because I'm assuming nobody else will

12xu for inspiring hardcore, for better or worse

Bingo masters vs stranded

voted SPIZZ!

not voting for it but "City Baby Attacked by Rats" is such a hall of fame song title

xp #onethread

Maybe the most influential comp from my youth? I bought it for "Boredom", which I'd hear on college radio but couldn't find any other way. "The Wait" or "Holiday in Cambodia" were the tracks the blew my mind the most. Would be hard to pick the worst song on the record too, though I thought Eater was weak and can't remember the Disorder track.

My default is to always vote X-Ray Spex if it's an option.

it took bloody ages for me to finally hear Boredom, I had Singles Going Steady in the mid-90s but obv Spiral Scratch isn't on that. Mute reissued Spiral Scratch on CD in 2000 so I bought it then

I thought about voting for City Baby Attacked By Rats. and Love Song

how much was Attila The Stockbroker paying to get included on all these compilations, that's what I want to know

Heartbreakers

xpost as John Opposition, he was a music writer for.. oh who was it again?....

My shortlist is Boredom, Bingo, Keys and Stranded. The track listing tails off dramatically after In A Rut...

Oh Atilla was on Cherry Red at this point, who were responsible fir this comp.

This has some overlap with the Rhino "No Thanks!" box, which is the one I have. Some I know from that and elsewhere, but many I've never heard. Notwithstanding that, this is still a tough choice. The Heartbreakers, Saints, X-Ray Spex and Swell Maps are all long-time faves, but I will probably toss a vote to the Stranglers because its a great tune and no one has mentioned it.

It took some finding, that "No thanks" box. Named after the "Sex Pistols" response to a request that they be included. Would that be the last time the four agreed on anything

?

i’m really surprised how my vote came out, after relistening to many of these again. it went to a band that i liked but which wasn’t like, i dunno, archetypal enough or something? but listening to the many, it really stood out as interesting to me. distinctive even.

I disagree about the stuff after Ruts - I love it . A really good introduction to oi/street. Even if that's more codified than the first 2/3rd, still really fun and KJ/DK/Vice Squad breaks it up. Plus these were the bands you could still go see on tour by the time the comp came out.

like i get that totally, and didnt steer my choice! weird.

Picking "Angels With Dirty Faces" ahead of "Borstal Breakout" was a major faux pas.

100%

if Borstal had been on this I prob would have voted for it

yeah that is my favourite Sham 69 song

I mean yeah but I am an unrepentant "Hurry Up Harry" lover

This was my equivalent uk compilation, complete with Borstal Breakout:

https://www.discogs.com/release/1734376-Various-20-Of-Another-Kind?srsltid=AU7gw4Vh2RsCQO5MXajvUFM0kXgpY_L039Agh0Te2UzAWmKuIiy5cVDN

^ amazingly little overlap, and a few preferable cuts. Patrik Fitzgerald is the ideal sort of artist for these comps. Both are UK comps - was there any equivalent US ones? Around the same time, it was impossible for me to find Richard Hell, but this held me over

https://www.discogs.com/release/447171-Various-The-Sire-Machine-Turns-You-Up

If there isn't a TV ad with Gary Crowley assuring you that your mother wouldn't like it is it even a proper Punk compilation?

hard for me to not vote for I'm Stranded anytime its a poll option

xp the 1982 US equivalents were more hardcore-based, Let Them Eat Jellybeans/Not So Quiet On The Western Front, etc

Don’t know this comp. Voted for Saints “Stranded” though there are other tempting choices

Don’t know this comp. Voted for Saints “Stranded” though there are other tempting choices

^ amazingly little overlap, and a few preferable cuts. Patrik Fitzgerald is the ideal sort of artist for these comps. Both are UK comps - was there any equivalent US ones? Around the same time, it was impossible for me to find Richard Hell, but this held me over

https://www.discogs.com/release/447171-Various-The-Sire-Machine-Turns-You-Up🕸

yes the DIY series from Rhino

https://www.discogs.com/label/552300-DIY-3

yeah but those are from the 90s not the early 80s /pedantry

(they are also great)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yb6U6eI6Rug

Named after the "Sex Pistols" response to a request that they be included. Would that be the last time the four agreed on anything?

Almost certainly. If it wasn’t, we might have seen them collaborate on and promote multiple reissues, or reform for a six month world tour thirty years ago, or do a retrospective documentary with the guy who’d pieced together McLaren’s film about them twenty years earlier, or present a united front about the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inauguration, or do another three reunion tours this century, or sign new contracts for their back catalogue.

not sure how they would have agreed to do a six month world tour 30 years ago after 2003 unless time travel was involved

One thing I've felt, I dunno, the last 15 years or so, is that the Pistols don't feel as essential to an overview of the punk movement as they used to feel. Like, PiL is more essential to the long term post-punk sound than the Pistols are to the ongoing chain-punk sound. Punk as received feels more about the multiplicity of artists rather than any one catalyst.

Maybe they were more essential to the visual aesthetic than to the music. But probably Malcom Mclaren and Vivienne Westwood should get some of the credit for that.

Briefly tempted by The Wait but went for Stranded

I don’t know a lot of this ao will try and listen before voting.

Right now it might be Generation X.

Sex Pistols are somewhat musically overrated although their early appearance kicking off the whole wave is undeniable. Generation X are underrated, it seems to me. They were fun, and did dub remixes!

feels weird that Alternative Ulster by Stiff Little Fingers isn't on this

not sure how they would have agreed to do a six month world tour 30 years ago after 2003 unless time travel was involved

argh, my petard!!

although all the reporting from the time I can find says that “sex pistols say no thanks!” was a marketing blurb decided by Rhino after Lydon (as an individual) objected to the original title, which promos were pressed with

but I’m on my phone on a bus and can’t check the WaPo interview

That bassline at the beginning of "Love Song" still makes me want to get up and pogo around like a caveman.

there has to be plenty of discussion of who invented pop-punk, but i think generation x was doing that in a way. like even in 1981 they seemed glossy and slick and disposable in a weird way. my access to first wave punk was pretty disjointed and scattered. like i had pistols, clash, slf, buzzcocks, generation x, damned, stranglers and some more cassettes of cassettes, plus college radio. my roommate a couple years later made fun of my appreciation of generation x because billy idol was happening and we thought that was too crap, but re gen x i sorta didn't care-- i was like "nah, there's space for this earlier good crap."

and yeah i could argue buzzcocks for creating pop-punk, but they had _actually great_ songs, not simply fun, trashy songs. imo.

and yeah, slf is needed in that comp.

and yeah i'd guess generation x was well gone by like 81-- it's just that's the point where i was getting into music.

argh, my petard!!

Lol, thanks everybody....

voted Blitz