29 Punk Rock Essentials for Your Collection

Pinning down where, when and by whom punk rock started is a tricky thing best left alone. Along the way punk rock gave us some incredible music, way too much to choose from. Still, we've all got opinions (as one of the best songs by one of the best punk bands goes) and I think I would probably not be disagreed with wholeheartedly and completely by providing you with a list of twenty-nine of the most essential songs if you aren't yet acquainted with punk's legacy.

For the purposes of introducing as broad a range of artists as possible, I'm only going to choose one song per artist. There are some who will say that a list of twenty-nine essential punk songs should be made up at least halfway by all the songs on the Sex Pistols' pioneering album Never Mind the Bollocks…. And they've got a point. But to do that would limit by ability to include as many great punk artists as possible and, besides, I said twenty-nine OF the most essential songs. Not necessarily the twenty-nine most essential songs.

In no particular order, may I present twenty-nine essential punk rock songs.

1)Anarchy in the UK, the Sex Pistols. Yes, probably this is the MOST essential song for understanding punk rock. It may not be the Pistols' best, but it was certainly their most vociferous call to action. Anarchy in the UK begins with lead singer Johnny Rotten claiming to be the antichrist. I don't really think Johnny Rotten will turn out to be the antichrist, but when he says "we mean it, man!" you cannot help but believe him. You believe that Johnny Rotten and the Sex Pistols really did mean to bring everything down and start over from scratch. (Looking at how things have turned out since then, maybe he was onto something.) Punk rock is often accused of nihilism, about not caring about anything. If that were true, nobody would ever have recorded a punk song.

2)Roadrunner, Jonathan Richman and the Modern Lovers. Some might argue against Roadrunner actually being a punk song. If you think I'm wrong, then listen to the Sex Pistols themselves do a version of it on the Great Rock and Roll Swindle soundtrack. The first thing that you notice about Roadrunner is the kickoff. Richman ticks off "one-two-three-four-five-six." Those two extra numbers are the lifeblood of punk: challenging tradition. This little ditty about driving past the Stop and Shop with the RADIO ON will stay in your head for hours after listening to it.

3)One Chord Wonder, the Adverts. This is a song about what it was like to actually play punk. The Adverts wonder what will happen during the concert when the audience cries out they don't like the band and that they should learn to play their instruments. A common misconception about punk rock is that most bands couldn't play their instruments. If that were true, punk would be a totally unlistenable jumble of noise, something like what you might hear if rappers had to actually play music instead of sampling it. Instead, it's raw and real and not cleaned up by studio technology.

4)Get a Grip (On Yourself), the Stranglers. One of the great early punk bands, the Stranglers never got better than this song with its dizzying calliope whirls and driving beat and derisive horn. It almost sounds less like a punk song than Roadrunner, but few would argue this one.

5)Oh Bondage, Up Yours, X-Ray Spex. If you think little girls should be seen and not heard, then Oh Bondage, Up Yours is a song specfically designed for you. (Are you listening, Donald Rumsfeld?) The wonderfully monikered Poly Styrene screams and warbles behnd Lora Logic's manic sax playing that seems to go off into its own song. Oh yeah, Oh Bondage Up Yours is not only punk rock, but proof that little girls could do it just as well as the guys. Poly Styrene confronts the world and spits in its face and the result is a short, powerful testament to the fact that girls - and women - could do punk just as well as men. And boys.

6)Where Were You?, the Mekons. The Mekons are still around though not in quite the same form they were as one of the pioneers of punk rock. Along the way they've made a journey through musical forms to the point that it's hard to picture the same band that has made the last few albums being the same Mekons that recorded this masterpiece of punk rock. This is gloriously repetitive punk at its absolute best. Speaking in the thick English accent that makes so many of the early Brit-punk songs so terrific, the song revolves around a bloke who has to constantly ask some anonymous subject where were they. It cuts deeper than that, however, as it quickly becomes apparent that by asking where were you, the singer isn't really inquiring as to the person's whereabouts, rather why why he isn't important enough to warrant recognition.

7)Alternative Ulster, Stiff Little Fingers. All the usual suspects of a punk song combine on this one: slap-happy drumming, screaming lyrics, political message, violent undertones. Stiff Little Fingers is an essential act and this is their best.

8)If The Kids are United, Sham 69. Surely not as well known as some of the others on this list, this one is a call for the power of being united in a single vision. What happens if the kids are united? Scary thought. United kids with their energy and strength present a threat. A threat that needs to be diverted, distracted and diluted. And that in a nutshell explains why the recording industry worked so hard to make profits off the punk ethos by watering it down into more acceptable New Wave.

9)Sheena is a Punk Rocker, the Ramones. Well, The Ramones were bound to make it onto this list at some point, right? But which of their multitude of great songs? I might have gone for the obvious and picked Blitzkrieg Bop, but its recent use in television commercials has certainly diluted its punk message. I picked Sheena is a Punk Rocker not because it's the Ramones' best, but because it tells a story about a punk rocker. And it was one of the first to do so.

10) Eddie and Sheena, Wayne County & The Electric Chairs. Very little known song by an even more obscure artist. Eddie and Sheena actually sounds more like a rockabilly song than a punk song, but hey, haven't you ever heard of punkabilly? Besides, it's a terrific little sequel to the Ramones' song about Sheena. This one requires a little knowledge of music history since it's about a Teddy Boy named Eddie and a punk named Sheena. If you don't know what a Teddy Boy is…look it up. Anyway, Teddy and Sheena are the Romeo and Juliet story of the punk world, but everything works out in the end and Sheena gets pregnant. Sheena gives birth to a kid with the best punk name since Elvis Costello: Elvis Rotten! You may at least come to an understanding of the great divide between the earliest punks and those who listened to any other kind of music.

11) The Passenger, Siouxsie and the Banshees. A lot to choose from here, too, but I chose this one because it combines a true pioneer of punk (Siouxsie Sue) with the man some call the godfather of punk, Iggy Pop. The Banshees' cover of Iggy's song tops his original, I think. And you certainly can't fully appreciate punk rock without listening to Siouxsie.

12) What Do I Get, the Buzzcocks. Another of those bands who produced so much great punk that it's hard to choose one particular song by the Buzzcocks. And then there's the question of whether you go for a Buzzcocks song before or after Howard Devoto left the band. Ever Fallen In Love is certainly a fantastic song, but how can you choose a song for a list of great punk songs that has been featured in a Shrek movie? This one stands out because it's a punk love song. Of a fashion.

13) Anthrax, Gang of Four. A song built on feedback, distortion and one man singing out of one speaker while another reads an essay out of the other. The essay has to do with why so many bands make love songs. The answer might be found in the above song. Even if you turn off the speaker with the essay and just listen to the lyrics proper, this is one of the masterpieces of punk.

14)Love Will Tear Us Apart, Joy Division. After their leader singer hanged himself, the other band members changed their name to New Order and went off in a different direction. If What Do I Get doesn't convince you that great love songs can spring from the punk movement, then this one will. Unquestionably one of the best singles of the entire 70s, this band probably bears more responsibility for the growth of goth rock than any other.

15)Janie Jones, the Clash. Where to begin, where to begin? At the beginning. London Calling has better songs, no doubt, but the Clash really kicked off their punk career with this incessant beat of a song. I never really even figured out what it was about, because I don't really understand most of the words. Doesn't matter. It's the music that matters and this is punk music!

16) Pump It Up, Elvis Costello. When I think of Elvis Costello as a punk instead of as the respected songwriter he became, this is the song that comes to mind. Not his best or even his angriest, but it's a got great punk rhythm to it that can't be beaten by anything else he ever recorded.

17) I Must Not Think Bad Thoughts, X. X was known by for their hardcore, fast, raw playing power so it may come as a surprise that I picked this to represent them. It's slower, softer, gentler, except in its lyrics. Although the singers keep it cool, you can feel the anger that real American-born punk music never made it to radio.

18) Beautiful World, Devo. Was Devo punk or new wave? Hard to say. Even those who would claim punkdom for them would probably not agree that this song is a punk song. I obviously disagree. And for one reason only. The ironic inversion of expectations that comes at the end of it. That is punk.

19) Money Changes Everything, the Brains. Sure, Cyndi Lauper had the bigger hit, but the Brains recorded it first and it's a keeper. Hard to imagine anyone singing this and making a mess of it.

20) Bikini Girls with Machine Guns, the Cramps. Truly it impossible to come up with the greatest song from this band so I just chose my favorite title.

21) I Went Walking, Rank and File. While purists may prefer the version of this band that was the Dils, I think their reformation into R&F bettered their message. After all, if a country sound could be made punk, where were the limits? And this song sums up the feelings of many who consider a lot of what passed for punk to be just window dressing.

22) Breathless, Jerry Lee Lewis. What the heck is the Killer doing in this lineup? Early punk was totally disgusted with the art form that rock has decided it was. The move away from the earliest roots of rock was a bad thing and so at first they tried to move history backward. There are many great Jerry Lee songs that could be considered a forerunner of punk, but none were covered by any punk band as well as X covered this one. And besides, unlike with Elvis-who I am a big fan of-Jerry Lee Lewis is the one early rock and roller who I think would have risen to the level of superstar if he'd been born ten, twenty, or thirty years later.

23) Revolt into Style, Bill Nelson. Was Bill Nelson a punk? No. He was and is an iconoclast, meaning you can't pin him down to any label. But he was one of the few to go from being an avatar of the problems that punk was against to being an influence on future new wave bands. This album was very influential in the development of synth bands to come out of the punk experience and this song is the highlight.

24) Grimly Fiendish, the Damned. Another early entry into the punk sweepstakes and one that never really had a clearly defined sound. This song came a little later in their career and is more funny than angry, which just goes to show that punk has a sense of humor as well as the ability to evolve.

25) I'm Sticking With You, the Velvet Underground. Maybe the most influential band ever as far as punk is concerned. And so many songs to choose from. I chose this one because it's inherently political though not didactically so. Much punk was a revolt against authority and political manipulation.

26)Ghost Town, the Specials. No list of punk would be complete without a mention of the influence of ska. Many of the great punk bands would either explicitly or implicitly imbue their music with ska sounds. The Specials were arguably the best and this haunting song sums up a single moment in British history like no other song probably ever has or probably ever will

27) Hanging on the Telephone, Blondie. You have to have Blondie somewhere in here. Even though they evolved past the tough sound they started out with, Blondie were definitely at the forefront of punk and this is a fine example of their early sound.

28) Psycho Killer, Talking Heads. It's a hard sale to convince a lot of people that the Heads were punk. Probably they weren't, but their early stuff had the right sound and they were on the bill at CBGBs with the biggest. This is a great song with its pounding bass line and it's insidious little fa-fa-fa echo effect. The little bit of French thrown it sets it apart as well.

29) All I Want, Snatch. Little-known song by a little-known band that captures all the repetitive delight with which punk put across its messages. Like a certain brand of potato chips, you just can't listen to this song once. It's one of those songs that the replay button was created for on your CD player. I thought I'd end with this one because I hope you'll not be fooled by all those punk anthology albums that only play the most famous songs. Many of punk's greatest gems are hidden. And what does the singer of this song really want? Only your most prized possession: All you know.