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.