There was a fun discussion in the comments section here awhile back about the various artists compilation albums that had an impact on our musical tastes. Fond memories were shared of records like IRS Greatest Hits, Urgh, The Enigma Variations, the Repo Man and Return Of The Living Dead soundtracks, the Flipside Vinyl Fanzines, The Blasting Concept, Tooth And Nail, The Wailing Ultimate, and a couple of comps that we've shared here: Propaganda and No Wave.
I decided to go through my own collection and pull a song (or two or three) that I would have put on a punk mixtape for a friend back then (or for my own entertainment). Many of these songs still resonate with me all these years later. My collection of vinyl and cassettes was mostly from the early 80's, and there were a few significant comps that I didn't own (or couldn't borrow to tape). I tried to stick with the records I owned or had access to back then.
It's pretty heavy on US hardcore, with just a few of the first generation punk bands. It's also skewed geographically toward Southern California and the upper Midwest. What can I say -- in the early 80's, I was a teenager living in 'Scansin. Most of my collection came from mail order purchases and review copies that were sent to my fanzine. I used to write to some of these bands, and I got some cool responses from The Scapegoats, Secret Hate, Rebel Truth, and The Proletariat. Die Kreuzen were local heroes, and I got to interview Bad Brains when they played Milwaukee. Probably one of the greatest shows I've ever seen. Both bands were on fire.
If you had asked me to make you a punk mixtape in 1984, most of these songs would have been on it. Maybe with a few more tracks from Redd Kross, Secret Hate, die Kreuzen and The Sins. Definitely more Angry Samoans and some Misfits. Anyway, here's a 40 track compilation of tracks from punk compilations!
A Tribute To Punk Compilations: https://pixeldrain.com/u/15DFsFL8
ReplyDeleteNext up will be a tribute to Post-Punk compilations. After I made the cover for this one, I realized that not every song came from an album. A punk fanzine called "Take It!" had a few issues with a flexi disc. Eva-Tone (the manufacturer) censored "Steak Knife", which somehow made it even better to my teenage ears. My brother and I almost wore out the Flipside VHS tape. It had great live performance footage mixed with goofy skits. I still remember Bill Bartell (aka Pat Fear) singing about Henry Rollins to the tune of "I'm Henry The Eighth I Am". And of course Leonard Graves Phillips bringing out his "Stuart" puppet onstage.
Being of a younger generation, I have to admit that my introduction to punk rock was, and I am not joking, Time/Life Music’s “Punk and New Wave” volume of their Sounds of the Seventies series.
ReplyDeleteDon’t laugh. Believe it or not, the track selection is basically perfect, and they included The B-52s’s original DB Records single of “Rock Lobster,” not the more common Warner Brothers single (which is a different recording altogether). At the time, that single was very hard to find, and hadn’t been collected (until Time/Life Music’s did it). Also, Time/Life Music mastered everything from the master tapes, when they could, and the sound quality on T/L M compilations is always impeccable. If you ever see Time/Life Music’s Beach Boys compilation in the wild, grab it. The sound quality is better than many Capitol CDs of the same tracks.
Also because I was younger, several great Rhino Records series also introduced me to an amazing amount of great punk and hardcore: D.I.Y., Faster and Louder, Left of the Dial (and for new wave, Just Can’t Get Enough). All must-own CDs.
The tracklist for that Time/Life comp looks great! Rhino's punk and power pop CD's are really well curated too. And I was very happy when Frontier Records compiled all the rare Dangerhouse singles on two handy CD's.
DeleteI moved from Wisconsin to Georgia in 1983, and started college in '84. You mentioned Left Of The Dial: that box set perfectly captures what my college friends and I were listening to at that time. There's some classic hardcore in there (Suicidal Tendencies, Bad Brains, Black Flag, Minor Threat, Descendents). There's the stuff coming out on Slash and SST that was expanding the boundaries of punk, plus the "jangle rock" staples of college radio and lots of brilliant music from across the Atlantic. Left Of The Dial could be a time capsule from my dorm.
Time-Life Records are great!
DeleteNice. For the record, Diane Chai (Alley Cats) was the real deal, fucking fiercesomeness
ReplyDeleteShe was also nice to look at. Story goes The Alley Cats were banned from Madame Wongs because all of the male fans fighting each other to get her attention.
DeleteBest regard
Zippy
Have you been able to browse through Themes From Great Cities?? I’m busting out six various CDs every weekend. Most, if not all mentioned are available for download 😎 and are pretty straightforward to search for using the album name.
ReplyDeleteHave a look 👀
AJ! I almost linked to you today because I knew you had recently posted "Blank Generation" (one of the Rhino DIY comps). For those unfamiliar with Themes From Great Cities, get thee hence! https://tfgc1.blogspot.com/
DeleteI just visited you, AJ. Another winner, Jon!
DeleteThemes From Great Cities is indispensable; thanks AJ
DeleteAJ posted one of my favs. A country fit for heroes (1 & 2) The three original Oi compilations (The Album, Strength and Carry on) are sublime.
DeleteBullshit Detector 1-2-3. There is a fine line between the original DIY compilations (This is Boston, Not LA) and the rich kids, majors compilations,
1976 Max's Kansas City. There are so many great independent compilations. I name a few from The Hetherlands: keihard en swingend; als je haar maar goed zit; oorwormer; emma. and there are the support albums, trying to raise awareness, and or money, for something. Whether the youthcentre, animal wellfare, a squatted villa. Numerous great compilation with unique tracks.
A comp of comps is a great choice, as is a trib to a trib. Do you also support the supporters?
I suppose it depends on what the supporters are supporting. I confess to owning This is Boston, Not LA and Bullshit Detector #2 but finding them unmemorable at this late date (although I was inspired at the time to purchase the Proletariat's album "Soma Holiday").
DeleteAJ, you've really been killin' for awhile. I can't keep up!!!
DeleteUne "calme" compilation de punk français que je m'étais fait pour la voiture ...
ReplyDeletehttps://pixeldrain.com/u/duJDFTJc
Merci mille fois, Sorgual! For more punk français, the late great Mythkoz has several volumes of his own "Once Upon A Time" compilations, as well as "Je Suis Punk" and "DANGER ! LA FRANCE A PEUR !" I must confess that I am only familiar with Metal Urbain, but I look forward to hearing these "chansons calme"
Deletehttps://disorderareyouexperienced.blogspot.com/search?q=france
Thanks
ReplyDeleteCheck out PBS SoCal documentary Chinatown Punk Wars (L.A. Punk Scene) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DKa3g_I78wY.
ReplyDeleteBest regards
Zippy
I definitely will! Didn't know about that one. Thanks, Zippy!
DeleteGreat stuff jonder, thanks. Regards from Liverpool. J
ReplyDeleteIt's been awhile, J! Hope all is well in the 'Pool. Thanks!
DeleteDang, I missed the discussion on this. New York Thrash!!! Forgot to mention that in the prior discussion. Not a lot of misses on that one. The Undead tracks were great. The combo of those tracks plus the track on the first Flipside compilation inspired me to send a S.A.S.E ('cause that's how it was done back then) to Bobby Steele of The Undead to see what he had to sale. Sent me back a note saying thanks and all that. I was so stoked in my small Midwestern town to get correspondence. I had no idea he had been in The Misfits or I would have probably exploded. Based on the Someone Got Their Head Kicked In comp, I sent a similar S.A.S.E. to Shaun Stern of the BYO/Youth Brigade and he actually wrote more. I bought some stuff from him and asked more questions which he responded to. The guy from the Another State of Mind movie!!! Unfortunately, I didn't have the money to continue corresponding via purchasing... Point is, those sample comps were great and a lot of times they connected a lot of like-minded people and, heck, you could write to those and they might even respond. It was an unconnected world back then and it was lonely out there on the great plains.
ReplyDeleteHawksmort, as a fellow former small town Midwesterner I can relate completely to how you felt. It was lonely in the land of cows & beer as well. Some punks would say to swipe some Elmer's glue across that SASE stamp so that you could clean the cancellation ink off the return envelope and use the stamp again -- sticking it to the government, man!
DeleteI think the bands enjoyed getting mail from places where they might never have imagined their music being heard. Another lifeline in our small town (aside from records, fanzines and tape trading) was the skateboarder magazines (Thrasher and Action Now). Dogtown skaters were our superheroes, just like surf music and its lifestyle inspired the dreams of landlocked teenagers from generations before us. Thanks for your comments!
I didn't know about the glue trick. That's a good one. I've never heard of Action Now, but Thrasher definitely made its way in. Had a McGill board. Riding around on boards in a town of 20 thousand certainly gave you a chance to meet an interesting variety of people. And you only had to run away from a few of them. Those Thrasher Skate Rock comps were pretty great too. A few clunkers but at least I could borrow those from the other skaters and make dubs of them.
DeleteI had a G&S Pine Design skateboard, but I was never very good at it. Mainly used it to get from one end of the college campus to the other.
Deletehttp://www.vintageskateboardmagazines.com/ActionNowUSA.html
die Kreuzen? Wow. Haven't heard them brought up in a VERY long time. From Toledo(???).
DeleteMilwaukee (via Rockford) was the home of die Kreuzen.
Delete