Best Proto=punk album

Obvious omissions, apologies for the lack of copy proofing.

Stupid list

What does "proto-punk" mean, in this case?

impossible

"Lodger" = 1979!!!

I never really thought about how stupid the concept of proto-punk was until I saw this list. It basically means "everybody who liked the Velvets between 1968-1977"!

Which is such a wide net that it makes punk look really doctrinaire in comparison.

I'll assume you meant Neu 75

da croupier otm. my favorites on this list are, like, punk albums.

"Neu 2" surely?

No Hawkwind. No "Nadir's Big Chance" (see below)

I've been hanging around, waiting for my chance
to tell you what I think about the music that's gone down
to which you madly danced - frankly, you know that it stinks.
I'm gonna scream, gonna shout, gonna play my guitar
until your body's rigid and you see stars.

Look at all the jerks in their tinsel glitter suits,
pansying around; look at all the nerks
in their leather platform boots, making with the heavy sound...
I'm gonna stamp on the stardust and scream till I'm ill -
if the guitar don't get ya, the drums will.

Now's my big break - let me up on the stage,
I'll show you what it's all about; enough of the fake,
bang your feet in a rage, tear down the walls and let us out!
We're more than mere morons, perpetually conned,
so come on everybody, smash the system with the song.

Smash the system with the song!

"proto-punk" should just be called "post-Velvets" so that it doesn't look like all these groups were just a warm-up for nihilist Sha Na Na acts.

history written by the winnerz etc

If like 3 of the bands that were playing CBGBs in 76, 77, 78 are proto punk then what the fuck is punk?

i wonder how all that "post-velvets" music was heard, at the time, in the early/mid 70s. who was into it? how big was it? what did it mean to be into it? did that mean you hated wings and the eagles and stuff? it seems like when "punk" finally emerged under its own name, it kind of threw all that stuff into retrospective order. "oh, that's what we were listening to"

Also depends what side of the Atlantic you were on

as always!

you guys had glam. and we had kiss! but that wasn't glam, quite

You had Alice Cooper too... so did we... Kiss sold about 23 records in the UK in the entirety of the 70s

*checks* Alice Cooper not on list

Haha according to wikipedia, Kiss finally hits the UK top 10 with the #4 "Crazy Crazy Nights" in 87. They'd reach #4 again with "God Gave Rock'n'Roll To You II" from Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey in 1992. Ironically, both higher chart ranks than the US gave ANY Kiss single (Beth hit #7).

Taking Tiger Mountain

The Pagans Pink Album came out in like 1982 or something. And aren't the 2 Electric Eels compilations basically the same? Just a different sequence and maybe some songs missing from one of them?

Never heard of The Pagans Pink Album

That's too bad, it's good!

Col Poo - do you know an old UK punk band called the Anal Fleas? http://www.detour-records.co.uk/ANAL%20FLEAS.htm

I have never heard of them, but I am right now in a meeting in a posh hotel in Milan sitting next to their lead-singer!

Haha yes, at least I know the song Landlord from a Bored Teenagers comp!

You have an Anal Flea in your ear? (xp)

both of those eels comps are way posthumous right? If you're gonna mention those, what about Mirrors?

And if you're gonna mention the Mirrors, what about the Saucers? etc :)

xpost - haha thought you would know it! He mentioned 'Landlord', but I am ashamed to say that I didn't know it. You meet some interesting people at work!

Ask him if he's got any copies of the single left!

He said he flogged a load to someone in Japan via ebay.

That figures. I think the Bored Teenagers comps were done by someone in Japan. No wait, that was the England Belongs To Me series I think. Terrible sound on those (I know, a punk bootleg? Who'd have thought etc)

What a random, silly, meaningless list.

No AC/DC, no Sweet, no Rolling Stones, no Thin Lizzy, no Dion and the Belmonts, no Link Wray, no Kiss, no Pink Fairies, no Deviants, no Sparks, no Black Sabbath, no Aerosmith ("last child, just a punk in the streets"), no Brownsville Station (School Punks), no Tubes ("White Punks on Dope"), no Zappa (um, "Punky's Whips" I mean "Flower Punk"), no Dictators....just to name some fairly obvious stuff (some of which didn't even necessasily "predate" "punk", but then again, neither does plenty of other stuff on the list).

And why do Mott the Hoople just get a best-of??

And how are Big Star more proto-punk than the Raspberries again?

For that matter, how are Neu! more proto-punk than Ted Nugent?

Dictators are on there. And what's more proto-punk that "Communication Breakdown"?!??!

Speaking of the Dictators, the new Norton double LP set of Dictators unreleased and rare stuff is available either now or REALLY SOON, depending on where you live. Essential for fans of the "16 Forever" single that came out this past year.

(i voted for the fugs, but I agree with chuck that it's an AWFUL list.)

(cuz, you know, i woulda voted for the pagans but there's nothin' proto about 'em--they the real deal punk rawk.)

And wait...Two TODD RUNDGREN albums??? What the fuck? (Not that he might not be proto-punk in some way. But no more than Miles Davis. Or ZZ Top.)

how is big star proto punk?

Search me

They covered "Femme Fatale"

Alice Cooper not on list

Okay, I hadn't read the entire thread (still haven't actually), but this ommission is completely stupid.

great list, but can't go wrong with Eno - Here Come the Warm Jets

Rundgren's prob'ly there because he dyed his hair blue in 1974 or thereabouts.

xpost

I voted for The Modern Lovers. There are albums I like more but this is one that actually struck me as being an early example of a Velveteer having a breakthrough going conservative rather than by revelling in studiocraft or free jazz or whatnot.

i'd actually probably go for "love it to death" if it were there.

can't really go wrong w/funhouse though.

If BOC's "The Red and the Black" isn't proto-punk, then there is no such thing.

For me, the Electric Eels were probably punkiest earliest, so I voted for them. Even though the N.Y Dolls is probably the correct answer.

No AC/DC, no Sweet, no Rolling Stones, no Thin Lizzy, no Dion and the Belmonts, no Link Wray, no Kiss, no Pink Fairies, no Deviants, no Sparks, no Black Sabbath, no Aerosmith ("last child, just a punk in the streets"), no Brownsville Station (School Punks), no Tubes ("White Punks on Dope"), no Zappa (um, "Punky's Whips" I mean "Flower Punk"), no Dictators....just to name some fairly obvious stuff (some of which didn't even necessasily "predate" "punk", but then again, neither does plenty of other stuff on the list).

OTM. But the most glaring/obvious omission? The Who.

We appreciate your feedback

I'm voting based on what I like best, not on what best fits the description of "proto punk" - so Trout Mask Replica it is.

Also missing: pub rock (Count Bishops, Dr. Feelgood, 101ers, etc.) (When did Ducks Deluxe and Eddie & the Hot Rods and Kilburn & the High Roads start recording? Brinsley Schwarz didn't sound very punk, I don't think. But maybe Dave Edmunds should count.)

Also: Graham Parker. Hackamore Brick. Savage Rose. MX-80 Sound. The Residents. The Godz. Jefferson Airplane. Bob Dylan. Funkadelic. The Quick. The Bob Seger System. Mitch Ryder. Dust. Cheap Trick. Etc.

i would have voted for the monks.

And Suzi Quatro. And George Brigman & Split. And the Styrenes. And Devo. And Artful Dodger. And Todd Tamanend Clark. And Simply Saucer. And Gary Glitter. And Rick Derringer. And the Sidewinders. And Starz. And Silverhead. And the Sensational Alex Harvey Band. And Blue Cheer. And Ram Jam. And Queen (circa Sheer Heart Attack) And Faust. And Yoko Ono.

And Pere Ubu.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

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

Quite right too.