PUNK: THE COMPILATION (Which of these tracks is the most UNpunk?)

wonder if Robert Palmer deserves a mention

Devo, true. Those pre-first album recordings that were compiled at some point in the 90s were pretty punky, but would anyone outside of Ohio locals have heard them at the time they were made?

Robert Palmer has roots ore in prog jazz rock than punk, coming from the Alan Bown.

not that he's punk exactly -- he's a fellow traveler. "Johnny and Mary" or "Looking For Clues" woulda made sense on this comp though

Nick Lowe's punk credentials mainly from producing Elvis Costello and The Damned

I've been hunting to the full tracklist to see what's missing from the list, but to no avail.

to

Haha same here. I keep getting this thread.

xxpost

Also from being the main force behind the proto-punk, pub rock Brinsley Schwarz.

Oh cmon Devo is totally punk

Nick Lowe and Billy Idol about the only ones here that have even some connection with punk rock.

I'll vote for Toni Basil

toni basil had a connection to punk (or post-punk): devo played on/produced "mickey" and the album it was on.

I'd forgotten about Lowe's Damned production turn, but the EC and Brinsley Schwarz things don't really cut him into punk imo.

Toni Basil did a bunch of Devo covers at some point, too.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t_4L_ZIES4g

oh lol I guess it was that very album. I've only ever heard them as standalones, so I had no idea they were on the Word of Mouth album.

"So it Goes" was ~~kind of~~ linked to the punk scene, no?

and "mickey" came from a power-pop song called "kitty":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eOXVcyVEO6A

Wow. I don't think I ever knew about that.

Early Elvis Costello (i.e. "Pump It Up") sounds plenty punk to me, but ymmv

"kitty" was co-written by mike chapman, blondie's producer.

Toni Basil, the unacknowledged punk pioneer

She's in the Monkees film "Head",,

And Easy Rider...

And Five Easy Pieces. And helped choreograph The T.A.M.I. Show.

get bent, that's amazing.

i think this compilation was put together by a punk scholar who just wanted to fuck with everyone.

voted Karma Chameleon. just come on.

(xpost) that said, i think quarterflash probably has the most degrees of separation from actual punk culture. i voted for escape club but in retrospect i'd change my vote.

xxp - Wiki sez Toni Basil changed "Kitty" to "Mickey" in honour of Mickey Dolenz (and to make the song about a man).

There's some serious gender-bending going on in that cover though given all the lyrics she didn't gender-flip, like "i'll take it like a man". Kinda have new respect for Toni Basil....

quarterflash were from portland; did they ever play at satyricon? did rindy ross ever have a beer with the wipers?

I've never even heard of Quarterflash.

"harden my heart" and "find another fool" were fairly big hits, but somehow they weren't swept up with the current wave of '80s nostalgia.

quarterflash were from portland...did rindy ross ever have a beer with the wipers?

Probably not, but maybe with Nu Shooz. (Led by another husband-and-wife team -- maybe they double-dated!)

i recall liking 'harden my heart' a lot as a wee lad

"harden my heart" would be a good song for someone like carrie underwood to cover.

Voted for "She's A Beauty" just on principle. I will take any opportunity to cast a vote against that ghastly song.

I really loved this ad though! If there were a DVD of compilation ads I would totally buy it. They are the perfect kind of ad.

Abbbottt super-otm, unsurprisingly

voting huey lewis because

a)the bouncy groove and yuppie sentiment of "i want a new drug" represent everything fucked about the 80s

b)he just sounds and looks too wholesome to be anything but UNpunk

Secret Love!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FIAhBaLap-g

Freedom Rock!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2eGWW8KOQiom

"Hey man, remember the good old days? You know, war. Protests."
"Going to JAIL!!"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2eGWW8KOQio

OK sorry to hijack this thread with old '80s compilation commercials. Carry on...

Voting "Karma Chameleon" because Boy George inspired a book called Like Punk Never Happened.

MTV used to constantly play the live video for Quarterflash Find Another Fool, which contained one of the great 80s sax solos.

does Huey Lewis get a pass for playing with the group that backed up on Elvis Costello's debut?

huey had severed his ties with clover by that point iirc

would be kind of hilarious if the rest of this comp was filled with like "lexicon devil" and "police story" and this was just what they put in the commercial to grab the curious

Voting "Karma Chameleon" because Boy George inspired a book called Like Punk Never Happened.

which makes the crucial point that many of the New Pop kewpie dolls started off as punks.

So one way to determine the most unpunk of the above is to determine which of them would have existed without punk.

It's really hard to determine whether x could happened if y had not happened (when y did happen - all these artists, including Quarterflash, exist in a reality where punk happened) but I have no trouble imagining that Cars-style new wave could have emerged without the Ramones or Sex Pistols also needing to emerge. Stuff like Flock of Seagulls or Erasure seems to me to owe more to disco and/or Kraftwerk than to punk rock.

Man, I wonder how many of those "only available from this TV offer" albums they sold. Had to be significant...

Erasure seems to me to owe more to disco and/or Kraftwerk than to punk rock.

The Quietus had a nice roundup of Andy Bell's 13 favorite albums, many of which are slightly more punk than this compilation's offerings. "I had been a rather reluctant punk as a teenager, finding the whole movement too aggressive for a Peterborough gay boy..."

can't find any evidence outside youtube that this thing ever existed

Ha, it would make sense if it's a fake.

Everlasting Love
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ZfxyhG12y8

"Do you recognize this dance? It's called The Shag"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_lSFDVhcD1g

Senior Prom
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PVsrcl55fmU

the Totally '90s comp contendo referred to upthread is actually comparably peculiar.

Tracklisting:

1. Unbelievable - EMF
2. The Only Living Boy In New Cross - Carter
3. Real Real Real - Jesus Jones
4. Sleeping Satellite - Tasmin Archer
5. Mr. Wendall - Arrested Development
6. Trouble - Shampoo
7. Well Did You Evah - Deborah Harry & Iggy Pop
8. Rubberband Girl - Kate Bush
9. I'll Be Your Baby Tonight - Robert Palmer & UB40
10. It Should Have Been Me - Adeva
11. Live Your Life Be Free - Belinda Carlisle
12. Outstanding - Kenny Thomas
13. I Like To Move It - Reel II Real
14. Independence - Lulu
15. Careful - Horse
16. Ice Ice Baby - Vanilla Ice

I don't know, that is way more 90s than PUNK is punk

yeah but it's like three or four no-brainers buffering a whole lot of pretty counterintuitive picks

that's three or four more than the PUNK compilation has!

I guess the idea of hardening your heart is a punk sentiment, but I'm not sure it's worth a distant finish behind bands with clear new wave affiliations.

at a guess, Quarterflash may have lost votes by being the only one on this list to be completely unknown in Europe?

that 90s comp looks like it came free with 10 purchases of a soft drink in early 1994, so I guess it is pretty 90s

Sorry for bumping such an old post, but, I have been searching for this for at least 5-6 years. I think I finally solved the mystery last night. Rather than bore you with all the details, I'll just refer you to the Reddit post where I explain the full story: https://www.reddit.com/r/Music/comments/3o3ens/minor_mystery_solved_90s_punk_cd_commercial/

The bolded titles are the songs not in the commercial (10), the other 26 match up with the known track listing featured in the commercial.

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80's Retro (Warner Special Products OPCD-3536) (discog info here: https://musicbrainz.org/release/43b18d5a-f488-4880-bac1-b8335c64a43c)

CD 1
1 - Hit Me With Your Best Shot - Pat Benatar
2 - Who Can It Be Now? - Men At Work
3 - Voices Carry - Til Tuesday
4 - Our House - Madness
5 - One Thing Leads To Another - The Fixx
6 - Rock Lobster - The B-52s
7 - What You Need - INXS
8 - And We Danced - The Hooters
9 - She Blinded Me With Science - Thomas Dolby
10 - I Want A New Drug - Huey Lewis & The News
11 - Whip It - DEVO
12 - Talking In Your Sleep - The Romantics
13 - Be Near Me - ABC
14 - She's A Beauty - The Tubes
15 - Human - The Human League
16 - Send Me An Angel - Real Life
17 - Harden My Heart - Quarterflash
18 - Eyes Without A Face - Billy Idol

CD 2
1 - Hold Me Now - Thompson Twins
2 - Stray Cat Strut - Stray Cats
3 - So Alive - Love and Rockets
4 - Video Killed The Radio Star - The Buggles
5 - Cruel To Be Kind - Nick Lowe
6 - Don't Dream It's Over - Crowded House
7 - Someday, Someway - Marshall Crenshaw
8 - Jeopardy - Greg Kihn Band
9 - Karma Chameleon - Culture Club
10 - My Sharona - The Knack
11 - 867-5309 (Jenny) - Tommy Tutone
12 - Chains of Love - Erasure
13 - I Ran (So Far Away) - A Flock of Seagulls
14 - Wild Wild West - The Escape Club
15 - Mickey - Toni Basil
16 - Precious To Me - Phil Seymour
17 - You Might Think - The Cars
18 - Here Comes The Rain Again - Eurythmics