Ok, it's time for some Punk Rock selection.
If you are a fan of the genre you can have a look at my personal choices or if you are not, maybe it's a good excuse to discover some classics of the genre that you may have missed out. I try to cover different decades and only one song per band, as always.
10) The clash - London calling
Let's start with a super classic. Joe Strummer and Mick Jones are telling us that London is calling. The song was released at the end of 1979 but you still can hear the song everywhere. A classic, you know this one for sure. Enjoy the official video.
3) Ramones - Blitzkrieg BopA pure punk tune, no frills, straightforward like a freight train, catchy and well performed (for the punk standard, at least). What do you want more? Pearl Jam used to cover this one a lot.
Probably the hymn of Punk rock. If you ask around: "tell me one punk rock song", I think this one would win the poll. Not my favourite, but it represents the movement amazingly (well, Sex pistols in general do).
Glenn Danzig brought a new subgenre called horror punk and Last Caress contains some of the most uncomfortable lyrics in the history of music: “I got something to say/ I killed your baby today”. Metallica often covered this.
I'm honest: I know this one because it was covered by Guns N' Roses (in The spaghetti incident). New rose is a fantastic song with an old-fashioned rock n' roll riff. Check out both versions. If you click on the title, the original one will appear (in another tab).
Good old times the 90s and the second wave of Punk. I chose the "Smash" opener (the album launched the band), a super energetic album by The offspring, before getting a little too commercial....
A punk rock song from a non-punk band (well, almost). Eddie Vedder shared the love for vinyl (and for punk music, of course) with this beautiful Spin the black circle, from their album Vitalogy.
A great, historical, band with tons of hits to choose from. I chose probably the most famous one: If the title is not familiar to you, what if I say "Hey, ho, let's go"? Exactly, that one. I prefer it live (like basically all the songs from the band) but here is the famous studio version.
To me this is the description of the perfect punk rock song (the title as well): great sound, great vocals, simple, catchy, great chorus. Did you know that hidden somewhere there is also Eddie Vedder singing in there? Great band and great song.
1) Green day - Basket case
I was 14 when this song (and this video) was literally everywhere. The previous punk generation labeled this as garbage and to be honest I thought this second movement of punk was a temporary trend. It kind of was, but Green Day are still one of the biggest rock bands on the planet and, after almost 30 years, of listening to this song, I'm still not tired of it.
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