Here’s a bit of fun for the music fans out there with similar tastes to mine. While our tastes may be similar, you might want clarification on what the hell “proto-punk” means to me. It’s a fair question with an acutely subjective answer.
From my point of view, there’s a line in the sand before the Ramones’ debut album. For me, that’s the official birth of what I consider “punk rock” as a tangible and distinct (and relatively narrowly defined) genre. Bands that I would categorize as “proto-punk” are the ones that inspired the development of that genre and/or directly contributed elements to it (e.g., musical styles, fashion ideals, attitude).
Also, in my mind I see “proto punk” branching-off into at least two directions. One being “punk rock” and another being “new wave” but what else? How about “post punk” including something like Joy Division? Would Siouxsie and the Banshees or Bauhaus amount to “proto-goth”? That’s a discussion for another post, but I’ll probably just leave it up to you to decide. Check-out my list below and this Spotify playlist.
Proto-Bonus. The Velvet Underground “White Light/White Heat”
The Velvet Underground are one of my favorite bands and they’re so revolutionary and unique that they defy categorization for me. Sometimes I wonder what other crazy bands were out there around the time that Andy Warhol got involved with the VU. They were kind of in the right place at the right time. Would we have ever known about these whackos had Warhol not made them a feature of his scene? Who knows, but I love the legend that describes how their debut album didn’t sell well, but everyone who bought it ended-up starting a band. That being said, their sophomore album is my absolute favorite in their catalog. To me, it was pure Velvet Underground at their peak: the lineup still included John Cale and they were free to do their thing without the presence of Nico. Don’t get me wrong, I love Nico and it goes without saying how phenomenal their debut album was, but Nico was essentially forced into the band.
10. The Dictators “Go Girl Crazy”
The album starts-off with the band’s mascot, Handsome Dick Manitoba, cutting a promo, and then continues to fill your head with the type of crass humor and ironic attitude that would become a staple of punk rock.
9. Hollywood Brats “Hollywood Brats”
Normally, I’d be tempted to simply write them off as an English rip-off of the New York Dolls, but this album is too good to discard that easily.
8. New York Dolls “New York Dolls”
And, then you have the New York Dolls themselves. Full of attitude and featuring the Jet Boy himself, the epitome of rock’n’roll: Johnny Thunders. This album didn’t endear itself to me immediately, but once it did it opened-up a whole new era of rock music for me.
7. Patti Smith “Horses”
Honestly, I like “Easter” more than this album, but it was released in 1978, so I considered it ineligible for the list. Don’t take that as an insult to this album, though. It’s one of the nicer examples in the list of an album that has all the punk sensibilities, without actually sounding like “punk rock”. The musicians are talented, the songs are dynamic and the lyrics are literally poetry.
6. Richard Hell & The Voidoids “Blank Generation”
Drop the needle and hold on to your hats! Richard Hell pretty much invented the punk aesthetic and the band itself eventually contributed Marc Bell (Marky Ramone) to the Ramones. This band is also especially interesting to me in the way Richard Hell started-out with Tom Verlaine in Television, got kicked-out and created The Heartbreakers with Johnny Thunders, which also didn’t work-out, so then he created The Voidoids. In the pantheon of personalities from this era, Richard Hell is up there with Thunders and Iggy Pop. And, let’s not forget the stellar guitar duo of Ivan Julian and Akron’s own Bob Quine who created a truly unique sound together.
5. MC5 “Kick Out The Jams”
Who did it first? Well, technically this album preceded The Stooges’ debut by about six months, so I guess the award goes to the MC5, but my knowledge only extends so far and this list is subject to my categorization of things. Regardless, this album slays and devastates anything and anyone in its path. It’s cracks me up to think of this band and album existing in the middle of the Woodstock era. Detroit wasn’t having any of that shit, apparently.
4. The Modern Lovers “The Modern Lovers”
Dammit, do I love this band and Jonathan Richman. Is there anything more punk rock in attitude that doesn’t sound anything like what would become punk rock than this band? A guy singing songs about just wanting a girlfriend and loving his parents and how the 1950s were cool? This album was essentially a collection of (very high quality) demos from what I’ve read, and I’ll never forget listening to and truly hearing the song “Old World” for the first time. The Modern Lovers were kind of like a missing link between The Velvet Underground and Television for me. Oh yeah, the original lineup of the band that performed on the tracks on this album included David Robinson (the future drummer and creative director of The Cars) and Jerry Harrison (the future keyboardist for Talking Heads) so it’s basically a super group most people have never heard of.
3. The Heartbreakers “L.A.M.F.”
Including this album is a cheat because it was released after the Ramone’s debut, but The Heartbreakers had been around for a while, so I’m just going to imagine that Johnny Thunders and Jerry Nolan were too busy with heroin to get into the studio and make it happen earlier. Regardless, I’m including it because despite my refusal to prefix the band’s name with his name, Johnny Thunders deserved to be front and center, and this was his moment.
2. Television “Marquee Moon”
When I was visiting a girlfriend in Virginia one summer, I read her roommate’s copy of the book “Please Kill Me” by Legs McNeil while she was at work during the days I was there. That book is pretty much responsible for me making this list when I think about it. I learned about most of these bands in the book while discovering a general love of oral histories (McNeil also wrote an oral history on the porn film industry titled “The Other Hollywood”). Television was one of the first bands to regularly play at CBGB (along with Patti Smith Group) and despite their extraordinary musicianship, lyrical content and compositions, they were really influential in that scene. Listening to the song “Marquee Moon” through headphones in its entirety for the first time after getting the CD in the mail will never leave my mind. It was like a religious experience.
1. The Stooges “Funhouse”
I’m assuming a lot of people “in the know” will be shouting that it’s a mistake to prefer this album over “Raw Power” but I’m a bit of a purest and I like the original line-up with Ron Asheton on guitar. I got this album without ever hearing a single song on it, simply based-on what I read in the book “Please Kill Me”. I remember listening it for the first time and having a hard time believing it came-out in 1970! Scott Asheton murders his drum kit and Iggy Pop is Iggy Pop. The first album has great moments, but John Cale appeared to have a heavy hand, unfortunately. This album is raw as hell and likely an entry in an All-Time Top Ten Albums list for me.
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