Electric Wizards JR Moores · Reaktion, 2021

CHAPTER 06

Punk Rock: The Non-Heavy Genre That Was Vital to Heaviness

The genre that mattered by refusing to be heavy

20 works, in the order the book names them

  • 001/Album/1977

    Never Mind the Bollocks, Here’s the Sex Pistols

    Sex Pistols

    The rhythmic chugging and Stooges-derived scuzziness of Steve Jones’s guitar riffs certainly had something to offer in the oomph aspect, captured as it was on Never Mind the Bollocks, Here’s the Sex Pistols by none other than Chris Thomas, the man who had once produced ‘Helter Skelter’ in the absence of The Beatles’ usual studio partner George Martin.
    Open in YouTube ↗

  • 002/Album/1979

    Unknown Pleasures

    Joy Division

    Coming from a punk rock background, Joy Division were appalled by what Hannett did to their debut album, Unknown Pleasures (1979).
    Open in YouTube ↗

  • 003/Album/1980

    Closer

    Joy Division

    After falling in love with this intriguing album, when the young fan got to see Joy Division perform, Haslam was confused to find ‘the band were a slightly chaotic blurred noise and the sound was a bit rushed.’ Despite their qualms, Joy Division must have suspected that Hannett had captured something special, as they used his services again on their second and final album, Closer, released shortly after Curtis’s suicide in 1980.
    Open in YouTube ↗

  • 004/Album/1979

    Cut

    The Slits

    With its striking and provocative cover on which the band posed topless in loincloths, The Slits’ debut Cut (1979) is the album that has graced a thousand listicles purporting to count down the ‘Greatest Punk Albums of All Time’.
    Open in YouTube ↗

  • 005/Album/1981

    Return of the Giant Slits

    The Slits

    Continued neglect has been the fate of the band’s second studio LP, Return of the Giant Slits (1981).
    Open in YouTube ↗

  • 006/Album/1979

    Y

    The Pop Group

    Their debut album, Y (1979), is still remarkable for its formless, spooky and liberated feel, with Stewart howling away like a caged animal snarling in vain at the corpse of its own neglectful mother.
    Open in YouTube ↗

  • 007/Album

    For How Much Longer Do We Tolerate Mass Murder?

    The Pop Group

    As with so many follow-up albums, 1980’s For How Much Longer Do We Tolerate Mass Murder? would have fared better if it had appeared out of the blue like its predecessor.
    Open in YouTube ↗

  • 008/Film

    The Adventures of Robin Hood

    Michael Curtiz & William Keighley

    The album ended with ‘Rob a Bank’, a flimsy reinterpretation of Carl Sigman’s theme tune to The Adventures of Robin Hood.
    Open in IMDb ↗

  • 009/Album

    20 Jazz Funk Greats

    Throbbing Gristle

    Unlike Throbbing Gristle, whose 1979 album was titled 20 Jazz Funk Greats in order to trick unsuspecting members of the public into buying an album they wouldn’t actually enjoy, A Certain Ratio were engaged in a sincere attempt to play jazz and funk.
    Open in YouTube ↗

  • 010/Album/1979

    Entertainment!

    Gang of Four

    Elsewhere on their 1979 debut album Entertainment!, Gang of Four explored and often critiqued themes including the Troubles in Northern Ireland, the flawed ‘great man’ theory of history and the threat of nuclear war.
    Open in YouTube ↗

  • 011/Album/1979

    Metal Box

    Public Image Ltd

    Uglier, odder and heavier still than the post-punk endeavours mentioned above was Public Image Ltd’s Metal Box (1979).
    Open in YouTube ↗

  • 012/Album

    First Issue

    Public Image Ltd

    Lydon was also recovering from the acrimony that PiL’s early activities and debut album (1978’s First Issue) had attracted from purist punks as well as the critics who seemed eager to knock the precocious Johnny down a peg a two.
    Open in YouTube ↗

  • 013/Book

    The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

    Samuel Taylor Coleridge

    Across ten minutes of metallic guitar licks and dubby rhythms, the track’s improvised lyrics channel Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s The Rime of the Ancient Mariner as Lydon repeatedly insists that he is ridding himself of his albatross.
    Open in Goodreads ↗

  • 014/Album/1981

    The Flowers of Romance

    Public Image Ltd

    Wobble had already left the group before 1981’s The Flowers of Romance, a sparse and uncanny record on which the drums were awarded unusual prominence.
    Open in YouTube ↗

  • 015/TV series

    Top of the Pops

    BBC

    Big-voiced ABC singer Martin Fry was busy thrusting his gold-lamé-clad thighs all over the stages of Top of the Pops.
    Open in IMDb ↗

  • 016/Album

    Penis Envy

    Crass

    Crass were a unisex band of committed feminists and on 1981’s Penis Envy the band’s female members provided all the vocals for an album that delved deep into the themes of sexism, repression and inequality.
    Open in YouTube ↗

  • 017/Book

    The Wonders of the Universe

    Brian Cox & Andrew Cohen

    Duff McKagan from Guns N’ Roses tweeted his support of the campaign, as did Earache Records, and even Professor Brian Cox from BBC2’s The Wonders of the Universe and The Science of Doctor Who (and formerly D:Ream).
    Open in Goodreads ↗

  • 018/Book

    The Science of Doctor Who

    Simon Guerrier & Marek Kukula

    Duff McKagan from Guns N’ Roses tweeted his support of the campaign, as did Earache Records, and even Professor Brian Cox from BBC2’s The Wonders of the Universe and The Science of Doctor Who (and formerly D:Ream).
    Open in Goodreads ↗

  • 019/Album/1980

    Ace of Spades

    Motörhead

    Image-wise they dressed in biker gear or else, as on the cover of Ace of Spades, looked like a gang of Hell’s Angels who had got a bit lost and wound up as mercenaries in the Wild West.
    Open in YouTube ↗

  • 020/Album

    Sacrifice

    Motörhead

    When recording his improvised solo for ‘Make ’Em Blind’ from 1995’s Sacrifice, Phil Campbell tripped over a couch halfway through, landing flat on his back.
    Open in YouTube ↗