Customer Reviews

1 2 3 4 Punk & New Wave 1976-1979

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This collection of 100 Classic Punk Rock & New Wave music must represent some of the Finest moments in the 1976-1979 period. Everybodys here from the Sex Pistols To The Clash and Not forgetting some of our American Buddys The Ramones & Blondie... all the track are Original Recordings Lovingly assembled on Four CD`s by People who must have been there to have remembered.

I originally won my copy of this from Mojo Magazine a LONG time ago. At the time it was my most played box set ever. I must have listened to this about 20 to 30 times that year. Everything from the sound, the track selection, the booklet, the packaging (my original copy was the long box version with the 4 metal badges on the front) was just flat out top notch. If you want the perfect BRITISH punk sampler, then this is just about the only one you will ever need. It's about as perfect a compilation as you will ever find and THE best British punk one period. None of the others even come close.

Unfortunately a few years ago this was one of many items my ex wife stole from me and it was always on my top 10 list of things to replace that she stole.

Today I give up looking for a perfect copy with the original packaging and will be buying the version of this with the smaller box and without the badges. To me that packaging was a large part of the visual aesthetic of this box, but in the end it's the music I miss. Getting all these tracks in their original formats would set you back thousands of dollars. Seriously: get this and maybe this: "Step Forward Singles: I Wanna Punk Rock" (there might be one or two tracks overlap and if you can still play vinyl I HUGELY recommend the vinyl version of this Step Forward box) and as far as classic British Punk Rock goes you will be pretty much covered.

While I normally abhor compilations, Punk as a genre is a difficult one to sift through without help. The primary reason for this is the sheer number of bands who released albums. Also, because most were released independently, CDs of these bands are near impossible to find.

While some music magazines have done an admirable job of providing an overview of the genre in their pages recently ..., this compilation allowed me to discover many bands that those pubs didn't recognize (Gang of Four, Au Pairs and Alternative TV...just to name a few).

While I understand the compilation is a UK import, one complaint I have is the glaring absence of several notable U.S.-based bands such as Fear, Circle Jerks, Black Flag or Husker Du (although, these bands may have fallen out of the 1976-1979 parameters).

Another beef is that New Wave is given serious short shrift here and the examples they used could stand to be reexamined (including the glaring omission of Elvis Costello outside of the liner notes). In fact, I wonder why New Wave was even included, as a five disk compilation of Punk-only could have allowed for the inclusion of those bands that the editors note that were worthy of inclusion.

Despite those complaints, I would whole-heartedly recommend this compilation to anyone interested in discovering the genre or revisting the music of their youth