If you don't like punk, try these albums...

1. Ramones “It’s Alive” 1977-The best live punk album of all time. Live albums are tough to record. When you are playing in front of a live audience you are going to make mistakes that can’t be fixed. Think of the difference between watching a play and watching a movie. You can’t yell “cut” in front of a live audience. From the beginning when Joey yells “We’re the Ramones this ones called Rockaway Beach” till the ending “We’re a Happy Family” this album exemplifies everything that makes the Ramones great. Minimalist punk style, raw energy and a tough, no nonsense sneers. Best songs are “Oh, Oh I Love Her So”  “Judy is a Punk” and “Havana Affair.”

2. “Never Mind the Bollocks Here’s the Sex Pistols”-For a band so influential and genre defining, it’s amazing to think this was the Pistols first and only overall studio recording. Few bands define their own genre better than the Sex Pistols. Everything required in punk from the anti-establishment look to the Mohawks started with this band.  For many fans of the genre, this was the first album they bought. “Anarchy in the UK” was deeper in the album (it’s the 7^th song on the album) than I originally thought. It’s the punk anthem and sets the tone for overall sound of the album. Their version of “God Save the Queen” is sung by virtually very punk/metal band on their trips to England. 

3. Dead Kennedys “Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables”-If you want an interesting dinner guest; invite Jello Biafra, the lead singer of this band. The Dead Kennedys set the stage for political punk, and to this day no band does it better.  It’s often not noticed that Biafra (in his early days anyway) was just as critical of communism as he was about capitalism. He deserves huge credit for that. In “Holiday in Cambodia” the opening lyrics are “So you’ve been to school for a year or two and you know you’ve seen it all” he goes on to smash the prevailing progressive thought at the time-then on the next song rips into capitalism and it’s excess.  Punk turns the tables on everything, and in his earlier days no one did it better than Biafra