Man this one is hard because the 70’s is when punk exploded and anyone who’s known me for awhile knows this is one of my favorite genres in music. So I’m going to cheat and give you a few. Suck it.
For a brief bit in high school I dated this guy Matt Thompson (everyone in Bakersfield knows who I’m talking about.) and I mean it was brief, maybe a month or so, but this was one of the bands he turned me on to, as well as being the first person to show me the Decline of Western Civilization. Matt’s still a good friend and I’m sure there are legion of people back home that owe some little bit of their music collection to Matt.
The Ramones “I wanna be your boyfriend,” dude who doesn’t love the Ramones just a little bit? I love this song because it’s so sweet and light. It’s not exactly what all Ramones songs sound like but who knows maybe I have a soft spot for it after it’s been sang for me a few times… Obviously not by the Ramones themselves, although I did get to see them on the Adios Amigos tour. Epic.
Most people stick Blondie firmly in the 80s but “Heart off Glass” came out in 1976. I remember this album being one of my favorites as a little kid. See my dad is in radio too and I always had piles and piles of records to play with. I used to make my own radio shows on my grandpa’s stereo system with either a little radio shack plug in mic or those Fisher Price mics that would broadcast over empty FM dials (as it turns out I am not the only radio person who used to do this as a kid, yes Jojo I am looking at you.) and I always loved “Parallel Lines,” most likely because of the cover and how glam Debbie Harry looked on it.
If you can’t relate to The Buzzcocks “Every fallen in love with someone (you shouldn’t have fallen in love with?)” you’ve probably never really left your house. I discovered this song of all places on some cheap compilation disc I bought at a Thrifty’s check out for like 6 dollars because it had some other more well known punk song on it. I was on lunch break from Bakersfield College and needed to buy eyeliner or something and went into Thrifty’s and there it was in the 6.99 bin and I bought it. This QUICKLY became my favorite song on the comp and oh yes, it very much does remind me of some one. Don’t worry though, honey I won’t out you here. You probably know who you are. 🙂
I was having a conversation with my new boss the other day and he said something pretty profound, “If you don’t want Bob Marley to be your number one testing record, don’t test it.” It’s true, most people like Bob. Its everything that came after that causes a lot of the arguments about if reggae is stupid or not. “Is This Love,” from 1978 is a gorgeous song and I pretty much put it on any jukebox that has it if I’m out and about.
Spin Spin Sugar 