2020 COVID-19 Top 50 Punk Songs List

[Dr. Medulla]

yeah, we all need to see each other's top 20s!

Right so we can deride others choices. Right?

That's what I signed up for!

[JennyB]

I'm going to *try* and keep it one song per artist. These are all pretty obvious, but they are so for a reason. Here we go (in no particular order):

1. Judy is a Punk - Ramones
2. Complete Control - The Clash
3. Blank Generation - Richard Hell and the Voidoids
4. Teenage Kicks - The Undertones
5. Marquee Moon - Television
6. Let's Submerge - X Ray Spex
7. Johnny Hit and Run Pauline - X
8. California Uber Alles - Dead Kennedys
9. Sob Story - Minor Threat
10. Anarchy in the UK - Sex Pistols
11. New Rose - The Damned
12. What Do I Get? - Buzzcocks
13. Mother - Babes in Toyland
14. Gary Gilmore's Eyes - Adverts
15. Gordon is a Moron - Jilted John
16. Add it Up - Violent Femmes
17. Nervous Breakdown - Black Flag
18. X Offender - Blondie
19. I Wanna be your Dog - Stooges
20. Celebrated Summer - Husker Du

[revbob]

I'm going to *try* and keep it one song per artist. These are all pretty obvious, but they are so for a reason. Here we go (in no particular order):

1. Judy is a Punk - Ramones
2. Complete Control - The Clash
3. Blank Generation - Richard Hell and the Voidoids
4. Teenage Kicks - The Undertones
5. Marquee Moon - Television
6. Let's Submerge - X Ray Spex
7. Johnny Hit and Run Pauline - X
8. California Uber Alles - Dead Kennedys
9. Sob Story - Minor Threat
10. Anarchy in the UK - Sex Pistols
11. New Rose - The Damned
12. What Do I Get? - Buzzcocks
13. Mother - Babes in Toyland
14. Gary Gilmore's Eyes - Adverts
15. Gordon is a Moron - Jilted John
16. Add it Up - Violent Femmes
17. Nervous Breakdown - Black Flag
18. X Offender - Blondie
19. I Wanna be your Dog - Stooges
20. Celebrated Summer - Husker Du

How am I supposed to deride any of these?
Good picks JennyB

[JennyB]

I'm going to *try* and keep it one song per artist. These are all pretty obvious, but they are so for a reason. Here we go (in no particular order):

1. Judy is a Punk - Ramones
2. Complete Control - The Clash
3. Blank Generation - Richard Hell and the Voidoids
4. Teenage Kicks - The Undertones
5. Marquee Moon - Television
6. Let's Submerge - X Ray Spex
7. Johnny Hit and Run Pauline - X
8. California Uber Alles - Dead Kennedys
9. Sob Story - Minor Threat
10. Anarchy in the UK - Sex Pistols
11. New Rose - The Damned
12. What Do I Get? - Buzzcocks
13. Mother - Babes in Toyland
14. Gary Gilmore's Eyes - Adverts
15. Gordon is a Moron - Jilted John
16. Add it Up - Violent Femmes
17. Nervous Breakdown - Black Flag
18. X Offender - Blondie
19. I Wanna be your Dog - Stooges
20. Celebrated Summer - Husker Du

How am I supposed to deride any of these?
Good picks JennyB

Thanks, RB!

[Toppers Boppers]

As a distraction/quarantine time killer type thing...how could we do something like this? I'm talking about compiling a consensus list of the 100 greatest punk songs ever.

What if we all nominated 10-20 songs each to create a master list and then we could run a survivor type poll to narrow the list down until we got to 50 songs and then continued to narrow the list down, but keeping track of what song was ousted at 50, 49, 48, 47 and so on.

What do you guys and gals think?

I'm in. But only 50? I'm gonna struggle.

[Heston]

The Clash - Complete Control
Sex Pistols - Anarchy
Buzzcocks - I Don't Mind
Stiff Little Fingers - Alternative Ulster
Angelic Upstarts - I'm An Upstart
The Undertones - Get Over You
The Ruts - Babylon's Burning
The Stranglers - Grip
The Damned - Smash It Up
Rancid - Ruby Soho
The Rich Kids - Ghosts of Princes in Towers
The Members - Sound of the Suburbs
Siouxsie and the Banshees - Christine
The Jam - All Around the World
The Skids - Masquerade
The Boys - The First Time
Cock Sparrer - Tough Guys
The Ramones - Don't Come Close
The Rezillos - Top of the Pops
Dead Kennedys - Holiday In Cambodia

Obviously I may have forgotten some, and it's tricky deciding what is "punk", but I'm happy enough with that list.

[revbob]

The Clash - Complete Control
Sex Pistols - Anarchy
Buzzcocks - I Don't Mind
Stiff Little Fingers - Alternative Ulster
Angelic Upstarts - I'm An Upstart
The Undertones - Get Over You
The Ruts - Babylon's Burning
The Stranglers - Grip
The Damned - Smash It Up
Rancid - Ruby Soho
The Rich Kids - Ghosts of Princes in Towers
The Members - Sound of the Suburbs
Siouxsie and the Banshees - Christine
The Jam - All Around the World
The Skids - Masquerade
The Boys - The First Time
Cock Sparrer - Tough Guys
The Ramones - Don't Come Close
The Rezillos - Top of the Pops
Dead Kennedys - Holiday In Cambodia

Obviously I may have forgotten some, and it's tricky deciding what is "punk", but I'm happy enough with that list.

Another good list. Im mainly picking my top artists amd then my favorite song from them but also some bands just have some great songs like Dead Boys Sonic Reducer, probably not a top 20 band for me but that's a great song.

[101Walterton]

I’m in - is it only 1 song per artist for top 20?

[Dr. Medulla]

A lot of obvious stuff here and I tried to stick with songs that we'd all agree are aesthetically punk, but I did try to spice things up a little. In no order other than alphabetical:
ATV, “Life”
Buzzcocks, “Boredom”
Dead Kennedys, “Saturday Night Holocaust”
Devo, “Mongoloid”
Joy Division, “Warsaw”
Killing Joke, “The Wait”
Ramones, “Blitzkrieg Bop”
Richard Hell & the Voidoids, “Blank Generation”
Sex Pistols, “God Save the Queen”
The Adverts, “One Chord Wonders”
The Clash, “Complete Control”
The Damned, “Neat Neat Neat”
The Germs, “Forming”
The Lurkers, “Ain’t Got a Clue”
The Runaways, “Cherry Bomb”
The Slits, “Vindictive”
The Undertones, “Teenage Kicks”
The Weirdos, “We Got the Neutron Bomb”
X-Ray Spex, “Oh Bondage, Up Yours”
X, “Los Angeles”

[Low Down Low]

Clash - White Man
SLF - Alternative Ulster
Boomtown Rats - Rat Trap
Stranglers - Down in the Sewer
Sham 69 - If the kids are united
Sex Pistols - Anarchy
Damned - New Rose
Dr Feelgood - Milk & Alcohol
Ramones - Blitzkrieg Bop
Richard Hell - Blank Generation
Undertones - Jimmy Jimmy
Spizz Energi - Where's Captain Kirk?
Generation X - Valley of the dolls
Skids - working for the yankee dollar
Blondie - Rip her to shreds
Crass - Big A Little A
Adam and the Ants - Antmusic
Splodgenessabounds - Two Little Boys
Members - Offshore Banking Business
Buzzcocks - Why cant i touch it?

[Heston]

The Clash - Complete Control
Sex Pistols - Anarchy
Buzzcocks - I Don't Mind
Stiff Little Fingers - Alternative Ulster
Angelic Upstarts - I'm An Upstart
The Undertones - Get Over You
The Ruts - Babylon's Burning
The Stranglers - Grip
The Damned - Smash It Up
Rancid - Ruby Soho
The Rich Kids - Ghosts of Princes in Towers
The Members - Sound of the Suburbs
Siouxsie and the Banshees - Christine
The Jam - All Around the World
The Skids - Masquerade
The Boys - The First Time
Cock Sparrer - Tough Guys
The Ramones - Don't Come Close
The Rezillos - Top of the Pops
Dead Kennedys - Holiday In Cambodia

Obviously I may have forgotten some, and it's tricky deciding what is "punk", but I'm happy enough with that list.

Another good list. Im mainly picking my top artists amd then my favorite song from them but also some bands just have some great songs like Dead Boys Sonic Reducer, probably not a top 20 band for me but that's a great song.

Yeah, that's kind of what I did. Probably loads of good one-off singles I've forgotten. Lucky Number by Lene Lovich springs to mind straight away.

[Low Down Low]

The Clash - Complete Control
Sex Pistols - Anarchy
Buzzcocks - I Don't Mind
Stiff Little Fingers - Alternative Ulster
Angelic Upstarts - I'm An Upstart
The Undertones - Get Over You
The Ruts - Babylon's Burning
The Stranglers - Grip
The Damned - Smash It Up
Rancid - Ruby Soho
The Rich Kids - Ghosts of Princes in Towers
The Members - Sound of the Suburbs
Siouxsie and the Banshees - Christine
The Jam - All Around the World
The Skids - Masquerade
The Boys - The First Time
Cock Sparrer - Tough Guys
The Ramones - Don't Come Close
The Rezillos - Top of the Pops
Dead Kennedys - Holiday In Cambodia

Obviously I may have forgotten some, and it's tricky deciding what is "punk", but I'm happy enough with that list.

Another good list. Im mainly picking my top artists amd then my favorite song from them but also some bands just have some great songs like Dead Boys Sonic Reducer, probably not a top 20 band for me but that's a great song.

Yeah, that's kind of what I did. Probably loads of good one-off singles I've forgotten. Lucky Number by Lene Lovich springs to mind straight away.

Fuck, forgot that too, lene lovich should be in everybody's list!

[Kory]

1. Clash—Complete Control
2. Pistols—No Feelings
3. Damned—Neat Neat Neat
4. Buzzcocks—Whatever Happened To?
5. Adverts—Great British Mistake
6. The Slits—Shoplifting
7. SLF—Alternative Ulster
8. XRS—World Turned Dayglo
9. Crass—System/Big Man, Big M.A.N.
10. Banshees—Mirage
11. 999—Emergency
12. X—Los Angeles
13. Circle Jerks—Wild in the Streets
14. Dead Kennedys—Let's Lynch the Landlord
15. Misfits—Hybrid Moments
16. Germs—Circle One
17. Ramones—Pinhead
18. Rezillos—(My Baby Does) Good Sculptures
19. Mission of Burma—Max Ernst
20. Wire—Reuters

Might edit later

[Dr. Medulla]

20. Wire—Reuters

Funny, you picked the song off Pink Flag that I often invoke to make the argument that it's not a punk album but a post-punk one. May your days be haunted by Death Cab records …

[Kory]

20. Wire—Reuters

Funny, you picked the song off Pink Flag that I often invoke to make the argument that it's not a punk album but a post-punk one. May your days be haunted by Death Cab records …

I totally agree, but it's such a damn great song. Here we are, discussing what's punk again!