50 Essential Punk Rock and New Wave Albums: Numbers 11 to 20

 The continuation to my previous list. Here is nembes 11 to 20.

        Formed by teenage friends and school mates Tom Verlaine (real name Thomas Miller) and Richard Hell (real name Richard Meyers) in 1973, Television was the Art Punk band of the New York punk rock scene. They played in a band with each other called The Neon Boys will Verlaine on guitar and vocals, Hell on bass and vocals, and Billy Ficca on drums. The disbanded in late 1973 reformed later that year with the same lineup, and recruited fellow New York musician Richard Lloyd on guitar. The band mostly performed songs written by Verlaine and Hell and included cover songs by The Rolling Stones, The Count Five, and The 13th Floor Elevators. They rehearsed seven days a week for five to six hours a day, and made their public debut on March 2, 1974 at the Town House Theatre on W. 44th Street in New York. They wanted to find a club where they could establish their own audience and they persuaded club owner Hilly Kristal to perform at his club CBGB OMFUG (standing for Country, Blue Grass, and Blues and Other Music For Uplifting Gormandizers). Kristal approved and Televison made their debut at the club on March 31, 1974 and would perform at the CBGB eight more times over the next four months, performing at other New York clubs including the legendary Max’s Kansas City, until they retuured to CBGB in January 1975 and took a permante residencey at the club. Tensions between Hell and Verlaine satrted to grow and Hell left, along with all the songs he wrote for the band, and was replaced by former Blondie bassist Fred Smith and the band started to have a big cult following at CBGB. With the duel lead guaitr palying of Lloyd and Verlaine and the rhythm section of Smith and Ficca, Television was one of the biggest draws at the club and was also the most muscial skilled band at the club. After a failed Brian Eno produced demo and an attempt to be pickuped by Island records, the band’s manager Terry Ork set out to get the band a reocrd deal, and released a single on Ork’s independent label with “Little Johnny Jewel”. The single was failure and the band was dissatisfied with the song. They booked studio time at A&R Studios in New York in 1975 and continued to perform at CBGB. With the interest of punk growing; more and more record companies started showing up at the club and Television signed a deal with Elektra records, the same label that signed The Doors, The Stooges, and the MC5 in the 1960s. The band already had a album worth of songs recorded and the songs were produced by Andy Johns of Led Zeppelin, Rolling Stones, anf Free fame.

    Their debut album, Marquee Moon was very well received by critics when it was released on February 8, 1977, but the album only received a cult following by it’s listeners and failed to cart in America, but made it to #28 in Great Britain thanks to rave reviews in the conutry’s music papers and the band’s successful tour of Europe. Televsion would disabnd the next year due to the differnet artistic ideas of each band memebr and Richard Lloyd’s drug useage. They would release one more album in 1978 and Verlaine and Lloyd would have mildly successful solo careers.

    Since Marquee Moon’s release in 1977, it has been hailed as one of the best album of all time and has also been called one of the greatest guitar albums of not only punk, but all of music. Televsion would reunite over years with its classic lineup of Verliane, Lloyd, Ficca, and Smith, and even though they were were one of the original punk bands to hail from New York in the 1970s, the first to play at the now legendary CBGB club, they would only achieve cult status, but eventhough they never had real success, they are one of the most important punk bands of the 1970s and would go on to influence bands like, R.E.M., U2, and Phish.

Key Album Tracks: “Marquee Moon”, “Friction”, and “See No Evil”

      On her first album, Horses, Patti Smith introduced the world to a new form of music. She tried to do the same on her second album; Radio Ethiopia, but the album was heavily attacked by critics and sold very poorly. What would be her third was delayed a year because Smith broke her neck while on tour in 1976 and would not the studio until 1978. The album was going to be radically different from her first two albums in terms of songwriting and production. For this release she brought producer Jimmy Iovine, who engineered Bruce Springsteen’s Born to Run and Darkness on the Edge of Town and the following year would produce Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers Damn the Torpedoes album. Smith’s backing composed of Lenny Kaye of guitar, bass, and vocals, Ivan Kral on bass, vocals, and guitar, Jay Dee Daugherty on drums, and Bruce Brody on keyboards; filling in for regular keyboardist Richard Sohl who was sick wand was unable to play on the album. The entered the legendary Record Plant Studios in New York in 1978 and started work on their third album: Easter.

     The music on Easter had an abundance of different musical styles on it. It included rock music, folk, spoken word, and a first for the band, pop music. The album’s title is of Christian origins and had many biblical and religious themes throughout the album. The song “Privilege (Set Me Free)” has lyrics adopted form the 23^rd Psalm and the albums insert sleeve has a photo of Arthur and Fredric Rimbaud’s First Communion. Also the lines to the song “Easter” invoke Catholic imagery baptism, communion, and the blood of Jesus Christ. The insert sleeve also had a quote from II Timothy 4:7- “I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course…” The songs on the album were in typical Smith form of poetry sang or recited over music, but the album featured something completely new for the band: a top 20 hit song. Iovine was working with Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band at the same time with working with the Patti Smith Group. Springsteen had this song that he was having trouble recording and could not settle on a final mix of the song. Iovine played Smith the song and she rewrote lyrics for it and asked Springsteen if she could have to song for her own and they would share writing credits. Springsteen accepted her offer, and “Because the Night” became the Patti Smith Group’s best known and most successful song in their entire career. The album was recorded very quickly and was released on March 3, 1978.

     When the album was released it was very well received by critics and fans and was hailed as Smith’s best album up to that point. The album entered the Billboard top album 200 charts in 1978 and the band became a bigger concert attraction in America and Europe and became one of the biggest American punk bands in the late 1970s and they were soon plying arenas as opposed to the small clubs they had become accustomed to.

     Easter has been hailed as a classic album and is called the Patti Smith Group’s best albums. It has appeared on several best of lists over the years and has been citied as a big inspiration by artist in punk, American alternative, and grunge. With her third album, Patti Smith once again changed music and showed that she truly was the greatest poetess of music.

Key Album Tracks: “Because the Night”, “Rock N Roll N#gger” and “Easter”

         They were the weirdest looking, loudest, and fastest band to hail form the club CBGB OMFUG in New York and they were known as The Ramones. Formed in 1974 and composed of Joey Ramones (real name Jeffry Ross Hyman) on vocals, Johnny Ramone (real name John William Cummings) on guitar, Dee Dee Ramone (real name Douglas Glenn Colvin) on bass and backing vocals, and Tommy Ramone (real name Thomas Erdelyi) on drums, they would play shows that were fast and very energetic with most songs being under two minutes in length. They became a big draw at CBGB and caught the attention of Danny Fields, who discovered the MC5 and The Stooges in 1968, and became the band’s manager. He was able to get them a record deal and they set out to record their first album.

      Recording started on February 2, 1976 and ended on February 19, 1976 at Plaza Studio, in RadioCity Hall. With a budget of $20,000 the band used just $6,400 and the album was released on April 23, 1976, the album ran just a little over 29 minutes long and was very well received by critics in all the music presses. The songs on the album dealt with several themes and included songs about Nazism, violence, and male prostitution. Many of the album’s songs received heavy radio airplay, such as “Beat on the Brat”, “I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend”, “Judy is a Punk”, and “53^rd and 3^rd”. The album’s opening song “Blitzkrieg Bop” became a huge hit single and also became the anthem to punk rock with its chant of “Hey! Ho! Let’s go!” The album cover showed a black and white photo of the band standing up against a wall with Tommy standing on his tip toes and Joey slightly hunched down. The band was all wearing jeans and black leather jackets and became known as the Ramone look for years to come.

      The album was highly influential soon after its release and inspired just about every American and English punk bands that would soon follow in the Ramones footsteps. It was also cited as an influence by the American alternative bands of the 1980s and the grunge bands of the 1990s. With their self titled album, The Ramones were launched to superstardom and would become the most successful American band in the late 1970s.

Key Album Tracks: “Blitzkrieg Bop”, “53^rd and 3^rd”, and “Beat on the Brat”

      The Jam by 1980 was the most successful and most popular, along with The Clash, U.K. punk band. After releasing four albums and every one of them being highly successful, The Jam released there fifth album Sound Affects on November 28, 1980 on Polydor Records. The album was significantly from their previous releases. The Jam was still composed of Paul Weller on guitar and vocal, Bruce Foxton on bass and vocal, and Rick Buckler on drums. The musical style on their fifth album was to be very different from what they had previously released. The album drew on heavy influence from post-punks bands: Wire, Gang of Four, and Joy Division. It was also very heavily influenced by Michael Jackson’s Off the Wall album. Weller would later say that the album was across between Jackson’s Off the Wall and The Beatles 1966 album Revolver.

      The music on the album had dominant pop dance fell to it and also had psychedelic guitar sounds such as backwards guitar and sitar sounding solos. The album gave The Jam their second number one single with “Start!” which was an exact bass line and guitar solo as The Beatles “Taxman” from the Revolver album. The song “Pretty Green” was about money and was driven by a funky bass line and a backwards guitar solo. The album also included something new to a Jam album; on the songs “Boy About Town” and “Dream Time” horns were included on the two songs. And the song “That’s Entertainment” was an acoustic ballad song.

     The album was hailed and instant classic and was a huge success in both the U.K. and the U.S. The album has some of The Jam’s best songs Weller said it was the bands best work. Many artists would site the album as an influence and it is the one album to have the songs by The Jam covered by other musicians over the next thirty years. With Sound Affects, The Jam showed that pop, dance, and punk can coincide with one another and be very successful with this new formal of music.

Key Album Tracks: "Pretty Green", "That's Entertainment", and "Set the House Ablaze"

      For his second album, Elvis Costello (real name Declan Patrick MacManus) kept the same song writing style that was present on his first album, My Aim Is True, but formed a backing band that would be permanent and called the band the Attractions. Composed of Steve Nieve on keyboards, Bruce Thomas on bass, and Pete Thomas on drums (no relation to each other), the Attractions proved to be a better band and more hard-hitting band than the band on his first album Clover. Costello changed labels from Stiff to Radar, but kept producer Nick Lowe. The album was recorded at Eden Studios in London from late 1977 to early 1978 in a total period of 11 days. After a successful tour of America, Costello had a whole new batch of songs, and the Attractions gave Costello a new sound and better interaction with each other on stage. Costello was a big success in the U.K. and became for a performance on the American television show Saturday Night Live. Costello was a replacement for fellow U.K. punk band, The Sex Pistols, but canceled at the last moment due to work permits. Costello and the Attractions were to perform two songs: “watching the Detectives” and “Less Than Zero”. Costello wanted to perform his new song “Radio, Radio” which was an attack on the commercial side of radio, the songs that were played on the radio, and the banning of artists; mostly the punk bands, on regular radio. His American label, Columbia, thought that it was a bad idea and suggested he play “Less Than Zero” instead. Costello and his band performed “Watching the Detectives” and started the first few bars of the suggested song only to turn to the band and yell “Stop! Stop!” he then turned to the camera and said, “I’m sorry ladies and gentlemen, there’s no reason to do this song here.” The reason being that the song was a reply to British fascist politician Oswald Mosley and felt the song would not come across real well with American audiences. He turned to the band and said “Radio Radio” and they performed the song. It was when SNL was still a live show and could not edit the performance before it was broadcast. The incident would get Costello banned on American TV until 1980 and could not appear on SNL until 1999.

     When his second album, called This Year’s Model, was released on March 17, 1978 and was very well received by both American and English critics and by audiences on both side of the Atlantic. The album was noted for its backing band was considered better musicianship than on the previous album. The album cover showed Costello standing with a camera on the front and a photo of Costello and the Attractions in a hotel room.

     Since it was originally released in 1978, the album has been called Costello’s best album of the 1970s and showed a big change in his musical style. The album has appeared on many best of lists over the years and has been reissued over the years: once in 1993 six bonus tracks, 2002 with a bonus disc of demos, alternate versions, live songs, and again in 2008 as a Thirtieth Anniversary Edition with bonus tracks and a second disc with a live concert recorded in Washington D.C. on February 28, 1978. The album is truly one of not only Costello’s best, but one of the best of punk rock and 1970s music. With This Year’s Model, Costello showed that he truly was the new king of rock’n’roll.

Key Album Tracks: “No Action”, “Radio Radio”, and “Lipstick Vogue”

        After the failure of their self titled debut album in 1969, The Stooges set out to make an album that captured energy and sound that they had on stage in concert. The band decided to change producers form John Cale to Don Gallucci and decided to record the album in Los Angeles instead of New York like their first album. They decided that the album would have very little or no overdubs to create the band’s live sound. The Stooges were still composed of founding members Iggy Pop (real name James Osterberg), brothers Ron and Scott Asheton on guitar and drums, and Dave Alexander on bass. They added saxophonist Steve Mackay to the lineup and the band set out to record their second album, Fun House.

       Work for the album started on May 10, 1970 at Elektra Sound Recorders in Los Angeles and finished recording on May 24, 1970. The songs on the album were similar to their first album in that a lot of the songs were improvised and only featured only seven songs. With the addition of a saxophone; the album had a jazz feel to it in some cases and with their producer Don Gallucci playing keyboard on some songs (Gallucci was previously the keyboard player in The Kingsmen who had a hit with the song “Louie, Louie” in 1963). There were high hopes from both the band and their record company, Elektra, that the album would be a huge success unlike their previous album. But the album was a failure in terms of sales and with critical reviews when it was released in July 1970. Despite the terrible reviews and poor sale of the album, The Stooges became a huge concert draw and were noted for their outrageous live shows.

      Fun House would be citied as a source for many bands and musicians to come, including English band Deep Purple who in 1972 reworked The Stooges song “Loose” into their song, “Smoke on the Water” only slightly changing the guitar riff and chord structure. The album has been hailed as a classic and is considered one of the best rock albums ever made. Even though the album was the band’s last with Elektra Records and to feature the original lineup of The Stooges, it is their best effort as a band artistically and creatively.

Key Album Tracks: “1970 (I Feel Alright)”, “T.V. Eye” and “Loose”

       After shocking the music world with their debut in 1967, The Velvet Underground did evermore so with their second album; White Light/White Heat. After the disappointing reception of their first album, The Velvet Underground and Nico, the band had enough of manager/producer Andy Warhol and abounded Warhol, along with Warhol actress/model Nico, who sang on the band’s debut album. They mostly toured during 1967 and did a lot of improvisation on stage, which would end up being the songs on White Light/White Heat. Still composed of Lou Reed on lead guitar and vocal, John Cale on electric viola, bass, piano, and vocal, Sterling Morrison on guitar, backing vocals, and bass, and Maureen Tucker on percussion and drums. They were still on jazz label Verve Records and hired Tom Wilson, of Bob Dylan  and Simon and Garfunkel fame, to produce the album. Recording for the album started in September 1967 at Scepter Studios in New York and was recorded in a matter of days.

       There are only six songs on the album, but were in typical Velvet Underground fashion and dealt with many real life situations. The album’s title song was about the usage of amphetamine. “The Gift” was a short story written by Reed in college and narrated by Cale with the band making noise in the background. “Lady Godiva’s Operation” was about a transsexual who goes in for a operation, but ends up being a botched lobotomy and featured Cale and Morrison making surgical noises in the background. “Here She Comes Now” has been said to be about Lou Reed’s guitar and the title comes form a phrase Reed would say before performing a guitar solo in concert. “I Heard Her Call My Name” about meeting a girl and the albums epic 17 minute long song “Sister Ray” dealt of the subjects of debauchery and was mostly improvised in the studio while recording. The album was released on January 30, 1968 and did better than its predecessor by reaching #199 on the Billboard Charts. It was once, like their first album, poorly received by critics and was considered not listenable because of the heavy use of feedback and heavy distortion. It would be the Velvet’s last album with John Cale, who would leave later that year due to the tension he was facing at the time with Reed. The album’s was dark black with its title and the band’s names in white at the top. If held at a certain angel, a skeleton skull show was visible. The back photo featured a black and white photo of the band.

      The album sold very poorly even in the years after it was released and was not fully recognized until the late 1970s and early 1980s when it was citied as a influence by the punk bands at the time. It would influence many other bands and artists to come and has appeared on many best and most essential lists over the next forty years. Despite its lack of sales and interest, White Light/White Heat helped to show the dark and often real side of life.

Key Album Tracks: “Sister Ray”, “The Gift”, and “White Light/White Heat”

         Iggy Pop (real name James Osterberg) was an innovator in the early American punk rock scene. With the three albums he did The Stooges and his first solo album, The Idiot, he showed that there is a completely wild side to music and that the rules can be broken in rock music. Pop had had a drug addiction and checked himself into rehab in 1975 and one of his few visitors was his friend, musician David Bowie. When Iggy was somewhat cleaned up in late 1976, he and Bowie relocated to West Berlin to work on writing and recording music, also to help each other fight their drug additions. Bowie was able to get Pop signed to his record label. RCA and Bowie recorded two albums in Berlin: Low and “Heroes”, while Pop recorded The Idiot with Bowie on production duties. Iggy started work on his second album right after the release of his first album and a tour ending April 16, 1977. They entered the studio a few days later, with backing band, composed of brothers Tony and Hunt Sales on bass and drums, Carlos Alomar on guitar, Ricky Gardiner on guitar, and David Bowie on keyboards and backing vocals.

       The style of music was better rocking than his previous album, which many felt was way too David Bowie dominated. The album was entitled Lust for Life after a song with the same name on the album. The songs on the album had a much darker and haunting sound. The songs on the album were in typical Iggy Pop style with a certain attitude to them and dealt with issues of drugs and alcohol addiction, love, and the real issues of life. Recording for the album ended in June 1977 and was produced by Bowie, Pop, and Colin Thurston under the name “Bewlay Bros.” taken from Bowie’s 1971 Hunky Dory album. When Lust for Life was released on August 29, 1977 it went to #28 on the U.K. Album Charts and #120 on the Billboard 200 Album Charts. The album was a huge success and RCA planned a huge promotional campaign for the album. However due to the death of Elvis Presley, who was also on RCA, two weeks before all plans were canceled and instead turned to reissuing Presley’s entire catalogue. Despite this, the album still sold well and was very well reviewed by critics in both Europe and North America.

      Lust for Life would prove to be Iggy Pop’s biggest and best album in his entire solo career. It has been a huge inspiration over the years for many musicians and has appeared on many best of and essential lists over the years. The album was also Iggy’s album to have songs that would receive regular radio airplay and helped to make Pop a big star in the American punk scene of the 1970s. And even though it would be the last collaborative effort between Bowie and Pop, it was arguably their best effort between each other’s albums from 1977.

Key Album Tracks: “The Passenger”, “Lust for Life”, and “Some Weird Sin”

     Founded in early 1977 by drummer Stewart Copeland, The Police would become one the biggest bands of the punk and new wave scene in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Formed as Copeland on drums, Sting (real name Gordon Sumner) on bass and vocals, and Henry Padovani on guitar; The Police was a mixed up band with one American musician (Copeland), one English musician (Sting), and one Corsican musician (Padovani). They started rehearsing and writing songs soon after they formed as a band and May of 1977 saw the release of their first single “Fall Out” with the b-side of “Nothing Achieving”. The songs were failures and not very successful do to the poor production quality of the songs and the fact that it was not released on a real record label and was instead released on Illegal Records. The band added a second guitarist to line up with former Eric Burdon and the Animals guitarist Andy Summers (real name Andrew Somers) and The Police became a four man lineup. Copeland’s brother, Miles, became the band’s manager and set out to get the group a recording contract and set up a recording session with former Velvet Underground member John Cale. The session was a flop and the band was back to the clubs along with all the other punk bands at the time that already had recording deals. Padovani left the band and Summers became the main guitar player in the band. With the band back to trio, they set out to get a real recording deal. With songs that Sting had written, who was previously a secondary school English teacher, the band felt that they could really score a recording contract. Miles Copeland heard the band perform a song called “Roxanne” one night and with the song was able to the band a deal with A&M Records and in 1978 started work on their debut album.

     The Police entered Surrey Studios in January 1978 with a very low budget. The band also had no producer so they had to produce the album themselves and finished recording in March 1978. The band released two songs before the album was released: “Roxanne” on April 7, 1978 and “Can’t Stand Losing You” in September 1978. Both songs written by Sting, showed that The Police where truly different from their fellow punk rock comrades, but the two singles flopped and were banned by the BBC for their subject matter. “Roxanne” was about a prostitute and “Can’t Stand Losing You” was about a person committing suicide over a broken relationship. The songs on the album dealt with love gone wrong, the generation that Sting and Copeland had grownup in (Summers was about ten years older than the rest of his band mates), loneliness, prostitution and even a song half written by Sting and Andy Summers about a blowup doll called “Be My Girl-Sally”. Their first album Outlandos d’Amour (translated to outlanders of love) was released on November 2, 1978 it received very poor reviews and sold very poorly in both England and the United States. The band embarked on a low budget tour of the U.S., but started to receive on college radio stations and soon became a big concert draw. The next both their two singles from the album and the album itself became bug successes and went platinum in early 1979.

     Although the success of The Police was a slow on the first go around, their debut album has became a very influential and essential in not only punk and new wave music, but also jazz and reggae and has appeared on many best of lists. The album was just a springboard for the band’s future success and would help to make them the biggest band of the late 1970s and early 1980s.

Key Album Tracks: “Next to You”, “Can’t Stand Losing You”, and “Roxanne”

     By their third album, The Jam had really embraced the Mod revival with All Mod Cons. The album was heavily influenced by the British Invasion bands pop influences and became The Jams most successful album up to that point. The Jam still consisted of Paul Weller on guitar and lead vocal, Bruce Foxton on bass and vocals, and Rock Buckler on drums and set out to do an album different from their last two albums; In the City and This Is the Modern World. Weller wanted to try to get away from the punk rock title that the band had and felt the only way to do so was to change the style of music and songwriting that the band had been doing. They started work on the album on July 4 1978 and finished on August 17, 1978 and recorded the album at RAK and Eden Studios in London, England.

      Weller would later admit that there was a lack of interest of the music on the album by producer Chris Parry and the band had to re-record most of the album with the producer of their first two albums, Vic Coppersmith-Heaven. The songs on the album had the typical English feel to a Jam song and often dealt with serious issues of violence and life in England at the time. The song “David Watts” was a cover of a song by The Kinks from their 1967 album Something Else by the Kinks and became a hit single for The Jam. “Down in the Tube Station at Midnight” tells of a young man on his way home to his wife and is beaten by a group of thugs in a tube station in downtown London.

     The album was very well received by critics in U.K. and sold very well, and the album was a small success in the United States as well and was The Jam’s best selling in the U.S. The album has been a source of inspiration for many future British bands including; Oasis, The Smiths, and The Stone Roses who took their name form the song on the album “The English Rose.” All Mod Cons would become the bands most successful and critically acclaimed album and helped to bring a whole new side to punk rock and new wave music.

Key Album Tracks: “All Mod Cons”, “David Watts”, and “Billy Hunt”