Throwback Tracks -- September 7, 2017
David R. Smith
It's going to be a quick one today; I'm right in the midst of my first week of classes and things I thought I was ready for... turns out I'm not. So I'm somewhat behind the eight ball today. As such., I'm going to try and fly through this to make sure you have all the songs you need, I've done my job but can also do my real job. You know; the one I'm contractually obligated to do...
I did promise that this month was going to be punk month and so punk month it shall be. And, as nobody sent me any suggestions, I'm gonna pick all the songs I want to pick!
The Guys From do not hold the rights to any of these songs, it is more our hope to expose our readers to new (*cough*) and different retro music, or re-expose them to things they may have forgotten about.
At the top of each section, will be the song name, followed by the artists' name linked to their website (if possible...which is totally hit and miss with oldies), so you can fall down the rabbit hole, finding and supporting what you dig.
The Passenger - Iggy Pop
This is a song I find sticks in one's head really easily. The random chorus of la la la la la-la-la-la is so easy and so damned catchy.
It's interesting, deciding to do a punk rock month because there are definitely artists over the next month that I wouldn't generally consider punk but here we are. Iggy Pop is one of those people. But when you decide to do a genre, it stands to reason that you'd have to get the godfather of punk in here somewhere. Why not to kick off our month o' punk?
Because The Night - Patti Smith
Speaking of godparents. Apparently Patti Smith is the godmother of punk. So it seemed that both proud parents should kick off this month.
This song, you would most likely remember from the 10,000 Maniacs version, but Patti was the writer and original recording artist, so it seemed right to get her version up here. Plus not all punk has to be loud and fast...
London Calling - The Clash
Ramping our way up into heavier, faster punk, I give you the Clash.
I just watched The Conjuring 2 recently, which takes place predominantly in the UK. When we first go across the pond, the first song we hear is this one. It helps set the time period, but it's also just a great song. It has a great beat, and one can't help but tap their feet when this song comes on.
The Clash weren't as heavy as some of their other UK peers, but they're still considered one of the best punk groups to ever surface in the UK punk scene. And with good reason. They're pretty damned good. But if we're going to be talking about the most famous punk group to come out of the UK...
Anarchy in the U.K. - Sex Pistols
Now this is punk. Punk is all about not sounding great and not caring. Johnny Rotten is not the best singer. But he doesn't care. He just gets up there and belts it out.
Could you imagine being alive in the time of this music? Being at one of the little clubs as the Sex Pistols were thrashing around? I went to a few punk shows when I was younger and it was awesome. We'd mosh and circle pit, and just have a great time. But that was nothing compared to what I can only imagine happened at these shows. Don't get me wrong; I'm very happy with the era I'm in now, but it would have been something else to transport there just to experience it for a day...
Now the best I have is the movie Sid and Nancy... Incidentally, if you haven't watched it, you should. It's very interesting. And also hard to watch. Nancy was a wingnut.
It's OK - Dead Moon
To be perfectly honest, I don't know a lot about Dead Moon. I didn't know anything about them when I was in my punk phase. The only way I know about them was because Pearl Jam sometimes tags this song when they play Daughter live... (Side bar; I was at that particular concert. It was the first time I'd heard It's OK tagged and I loved it.)
Recently I was going to just put this song up on a standard TBT but had a listen to it and remembered how punky this version was, so I figured I would wait until this punk month came up and I could add it there. So that's what I did.
Now I want to know who you think did a better job; Dead Moon or Pearl Jam...
I told you it was going to be a brief check in this week. I'll try to be more thorough next week, but at least I got something down for you! As it is a new month, here are the new August Throwback Track playlists for both Apple Music and Spotify.
2017
July 2017 TBT Playlist (and the July Spotify List), June 2017 TBT Playlist (and the June Spotify List), May 2017 TBT Playlist, April 2017 TBT Playlist, March 2017 TBT Playlist , February 2017 TBT Playlist
2016
Throwback Playlist for Dec 16/Jan 17, October 2016 Throwback Playlist, September 2016 Throwback Playlist, August 2016 Throwback Playlist, July 2016 Throwback Playlist, June 2016 Throwback Playlist, May 2016 Throwback Playlist, April 2016 Throwback Playlist
-D (@davidronn)