Entertainment For Lively Minds
Beautiful Songs Written By Punk Rockers
Posted by bricameron on 17 March 2010 - 6:52am.
I'll Start with The Jam's English Rose.What can you think of?
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I'll add a couple of Joey Ramone songs
Don't Worry About Me (from his solo album) and 7-11 (from Pleasant Dreams - which I assume is one of Joey's)
Don't come close & I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend
.. sniff
Stranglers...
Probably a few here, but ones that spring to mind
Strange Little Girl
European Female
Golden Brown
La Folie
Always the Sun
Gold(and Silver)en Brown
I never understood why The Stranglers did not get sued by Quicksilver Messenger Service over the similarity to Gold and Silver.
Compare the original tune
to a version with words added
There's a bit more to it than adding words Carl.
Like an arrangement,a vocal melody & overall suss.
John Denver vs New Order
noted on another thread only today shows a song with far less similarity than Golden Brown had to Gold And Silver, yet Denver won.
Well if we're going down that route
Is this the daddy:
How 'bout...
Outside Tokyo - The Stranglers
You Say You Don't Love Me - Buzzcocks
Germ-free Adolescents - X-Ray Spex
good call
On Germ Free Adolescents
The Damned
Smash It Up Part 1
The Dog
I managed
I managed to inveigle Smash It Up pt1 into my wedding ceremony (the ring exchange bit - very romantic it was too)
holding back the years
by charlie drake-alike micky hucknall
If XTC were punks
English Rose is beautiful...
and grammatical mistakes don't usually bother me, but that horrible construction "could never tempt me from she" really grates. It ruins the song for me. Am I alone in this?
Brilliant!
Great comment, Raymo. Say it again as a Word blog post because it's worth a spot all of its own.
Don't worry, you're not alone...
we have highlighted this lyrical gem recently...
http://www.wordmagazine.co.uk/content/songs-i-hate-a-group-i-really-love...
Ah yes...
Some very wise & true things said there - and the word "clunks" has never been used more appropriately. The thing I don't understand is: how does a line *that* bad ever get recorded and released? Why, in all the stages leading up to actually releasing the record, did no-one point out to Weller how dreadful it sounds?
In my mind...
I'd love to imagine Rick and Bruce when confronted with the lyrics of "English Rose" shuffling their feet and eyeing each other nervously. Bruce steps forward..."err, Paul, me and Rick are thinking that maybe the lyrics could do with a bit of a...err, how can I put this...a "tweak". I...sorry, we, feel this song could go down in history as a classic bit of emotional, heartfelt songwriting but with these lines it could also go down as a complete stinker...what do you say Paul?"
A few days later a letter arrives at Bruce and Rick's solictor's signed by Paulo Hewitt p.p. Paul Weller - "Hey, what the f**k would you two know, you're only the f**kin' bassist and drummer, you know nuffink right - and to think you both advised me not to say i'd be voting Conservative - ha! that proves it right - the line stays and it will go down as sheer poetry mark my words".
That sounds very plausible
Yes, one has to factor in the element of sycophancy. Analogous, I suppose, to another question that has always puzzled me: how could the movie Mary Poppins possibly have been rehearsed, filmed and released without anyone pointing out the painfully obvious fact that Dick Van Dyke could not do a Cockney accent? The fairy tale of "The Emperor's New Clothes" expresses a very profound truth, doesn't it?
Give the kid a break.
How old was he when he wrote & recorded this? 18?,19? and when was it? 1977? I forget.Why can you not allow for poetic naivety and isn't it the more poignant for it anyway?
I wasn't attacking him
just the line, which is a dreadful line whoever it was written by and however old they were (18/19 is plenty old enough to see what's wrong with it). There's a long way to go before poetic naivety comes into it. As for it being poignant, do you mean it is poignant *because* it sounds naive? You see, to me, it doesn't sound naive so much as inept.
And didn't he.....
say that he was going to vote Conservative just to piss people off?
I vote for
I Never Cry - Alice Cooper
Another Girl Another Planet - The Only Ones
Ever Fallen In Love - The Buzzcocks
The Light Pours Out of Me - Magazine
I'm Not Down - The Clash
Good Man Six Dog..
The Light Pours Out Of Me is indeed brilliant, in any era.
Let mw add Love Cats and A Forest, both by the Cure. And Yazoo's Only You.
Ever Fallen In Love is
Ever Fallen In Love is definitely one.
Two that spring to mind
(since we seem to be extending the definition of punk quite widely)
That Jah Wobble has some form when it comes to beauty.
But I'm at work so all you're getting is the obvious...
The Clash
and Broadway....
Not strictly beautiful...
But "Stay Together For The Kids" by Blink 182 has a beautiful verse, even if the chorus is a little loud. And its about divorce. More emotive than beautiful perhaps, but it packs a punch. I may have something in my eye...
The Undertones
Oh - very good call, than
Oh - very good call, than man....
Wire
Piano solo - pah!
The shorter lp version without the piano "solo" is even better. A great song from the 12XU hitmakers.
Do Green Day count?
If so I'd vote for Good Riddance (Time of Your Life).
Lots to choose from
I'll go for the only ones.
Danny Says/ The Ramones
On The Beach/The Rezillos (or is it the Revillos)
I'll have to say Germ Free Adolescence seeing as it's the most played song on my ipod.
Danny Says
What a great song
Ultravox
My Sex.
Wreckless Eric - Whole Wide World
Tubeway Army - Jo The Waiter
Johnny Thunders - You Can't Put Your Arm Around A Memory
Jonathan Richman - The Morning Of Our Lives
Firehose - In Memory Of Elizabeth Cotton
and my favourite
Husker Du - Girl Who Lives On Heaven Hill
Sensitive Punks
Ramones "Questioningly"
Replacements "I'll Be You" - terible 80's production, video and make-up but great song!
Television...
This or the title track...
Ramones - Don't Come
Ramones - Don't Come Close
Stiff Little Fingers - Half A Life Away
Hazel O'Connor - Will You
The Replacements - Can't Hardly Wait
another fine 'Mats moment
is Here Comes A Regular, which frankly knocks every other song mentioned on this site in the past week into the most cocked of hats. Honestly, it's that good.
http://open.spotify.com/track/5dq1qq41hLoXlcQKICO7k2
Also, try "From Willesden To Cricklewood" from the first Mescaleros album, a lovely hymn to an unsung part of London.
http://open.spotify.com/track/6l1JbEOwG1TKBuSWc9SIcd
I honestly believe...
...that anyone who can't hear the untouchable beauty in "Here Comes A Regular" needs nailing to something before being displayed for six weeks in a gibbet by the side of the M1. Pour encourager les autres.
This...
by the former Nipple Erector and Gabrielle hitmaker:
Not that one for a start
As Davd Hepworth has pointed out it's one of the worst songs ever written. Six Dog has it right - The Buzzcocks Ever Fallen in Love is a gorgeous song as this Thea Gilmoe version makes clear
Replacements
Nice to see a bit of Replacements respect here...!
Replacements/Pogues punks?... close enough for me
so 2 more
I'm so Unsatisfied - The Replacements
Rainy night in Soho - The Pogues
I'm in a Jam-listening mood today so....
one of Weller's finer moments:
And there's more...
If xtc were punks 2
Lover's Rock - The Clash
more pretty than beautiful - but pretty good. Also "Straight to Hell" or "Ghetto Defendant" or "The Card Cheat" or "Stay Free" or "Train in Vain" or "The Call-Up"
("English Rose"? Shakes head, walks away, muttering)
two more from The Jam
and
Paul Weller (Can you see a theme emerging?)
Jam - Ghosts
You Do Something To Me
you can't wrap your arms
you can't wrap your arms around a memory-johnny thunder
Undertones again 'When
Undertones again 'When Saturday Comes'
Siouxsie and the Banshees 'Christine'