The origin of “punk” still inspires pointless debates in the aisles of Hot Topic, but these bands were embracing punk’s unpleasantness when the Ramones were still wearing short pants.
The Velvet Underground, White Light/White Heat
After their first outing’s delicate Nico vehicles, White Light/White Heat takes the Velvet Underground to a whole new dimension of noise and innovation. “Sister Ray” is nearly 20 minutes of perfect discord punctuated by Lou Reed barking about searching for his mainline. “I Heard Her Call My Name” is equally brutal, but with guitar work that could actually be called soloing.
Captain Beefheart, Trout Mask Replica
“A squid eating dough in a polyethylene bag…is fast and bulbous, got me?” On Replica, Captain Beefheart places pulsating, organic rhythms behind nonsensical songs wailed across four and a half octaves, songs that sound like mutant animals dragging themselves across marshy wastelands in 110-degree heat, wheezing John Lee Hooker through their gills. Fast and bulbous…
MC5, Kick Out the Jams
Why waste time in the studio when a live album lets you yell, “Let me see a sea of hands! Let me see a sea of hands!” On Kick Out the Jams the Motor City 5 annihilate a hometown crowd at Detroit’s Grande Ballroom, and annihilate the rest of us vicariously with frantic guitar squeals and layers upon layers upon layers OF MAXIMUM INTENSITY. This is truly music to drive to. Buy American!
The Stooges, Fun House
Iggy Pop is the ultimate punk rocker of all time. On Fun House, he howls his way through seven gruesome tracks of electrified gutter-blues that are not so much songs as lessons in pushing it to the limit. On the day the Stooges recorded Fun House, Iggy Pop had too much Count Chocula for breakfast. Or was it drugs?
The Dictators, Go Girl Crazy!
Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! Handsome Dick Manitoba, frontman of the Dictators, opens Go Girl Crazy yelling about how his dad’s so rich he doesn’t need to be doing this. The Dictators go on to cover Sonny and Cher’s “I Got You Babe,” declare themselves the next big thing, wish they were black and live for cars and girls. Guitarist Ross “The Boss” FUNichello says, “To me, quantity is quality.” He’s right.
