X-ray specs: classic or DUD

The lyrics tend to just get me cheesed these days, but fortunately they're impossible to make out. The hippie dishwashing protest songs ("I Live Off You", the title track, fucking "Warrior In Woolworths") are pretty goddamned rank and "Highly Inflammable" makes the mistake of using the words "pseudo quasi intellectual" in an (anti-)pop song (and a pseudo-quasi-intellectual one at that), but the fast songs are great (love that awful sax!). Be a chick and wail unintelligibly and I'm guaranteed to love you (see also: Corin Tucker). Lots of their songs which are supposed to be read ironically or whatever ("I Am A Poseur," "I Am A Cliche", the one that starts out "my mind is like a plastic bag") are pretty great read straight. You can so tell that the singer of this band would go on to the Hare Krishnas.

Probably dreadful but seemed good at the time (I used to see them regularly at the Man In The Moon, Kings Road - sometimes supported by Adam & The Ants).

Sure, the lyrics and ideas don't stand up to any kind of analysis. Who cares? This is great, great rock and roll! The sax is like a foghorn and the guitar is a late 70's son-of-Mick Ronson glam-punk chug. And Poly - tea cosy hat, teeth braces and dirty mac! God, what I'd give to see a band like X-Ray Spex on TOTP today!!

"IIIIIIIdentity is the Crrrrrrrriiiiisssis, can't you seeeeee?"

Oh, Germ Free Adolescents is so classic, even though as Otis said a lot of the lyrics are pretty lame. It was just this great cacophony of sound, between the vocals and the sax.

Between them and the Slits, I think that's why I found riot grrl so disappointing. There weren't any bands who were as imaginative or experimental as either of them, musically.

Riot Grrrl - classic or dud? Now there's a cat/pigeons thread....

I've never heard Germ Free Adolescents. One for the embarassing gaps thread it seems.

Still trying to track down "Germ Free Adolescents" based on having "Oh Bondage! Up Yours" on a compilation. To my ears, almost the only track from the punk years that still manages to send those visceral shockwaves through your body (along with perhaps the Sex Pistols' "Bodies"). Everything in the track - instruments, vocals, production - screeches & lurches & wails & snarls. Absolutely essential & would probably go on my list of unintentionally perfect songs . . . .

Still trying to track down "Germ Free Adolescents" based on having "Oh Bondage! Up Yours" on a compilation. To my ears, almost the only track from the punk years that still manages to send those visceral shockwaves through your body (along with perhaps the Sex Pistols' "Bodies").

This is one of the only songs from the punk years that I still listen to periodically. Classic on the basis of this song alone. One or two others are pretty good if I'm in the right mood.

I find some of their lyrics embarrassingly bad now, but Identity and Bondage are fantastic punk records. I went to see them in Swindon once, and they didn't show - XTC played instead. I presume there was some alphabetical order deal going on...

(Actually, I think the venue, The Affair, was owned or run by XTC's manager, but that's not as amusing a thought - "Parliament couldn't be here tonight, but here's Dolly Parton".)

I think Germfree Adolescents stands up better than most of the other firstgen punk records. The lyrics aren't cringeworthy, they're FUNNY! The title track is excellent pop, there are some massive rockers, and Poly Styrene is one of the three or four most compelling personalities that U.K. punk ever produced. Nothing else they did touches GA but that's not surprising, really, since it beats all of the other punk debuts except Never Mind the Bollocks and The Clash.

"Nothing else they did touches GA" - but what else DID they do? (Well yes there was a single called "Warrior in Woolworths" which wasn't on the original LP though is I assume collected onto the CD...)

Coupla singles, live album, reunion album in 1995, Poly Styrene's unusual solo album in 1981 (n.b. - I'm looking for a copy of this!), Lora Logic's solo and other band stuff. I like the Essential Logic album a lot, but it's nowhere near as good as GA.

oh i see what you mean: poly solo = v.bland as i recall; first essential logic single = terrific => haha their guitarist was JAK AIRPORT!!