It should be obvious to those looking here that punk is not about the style or being bratty just to get on your parent's nerves. That would be "punk rock," aka Good Charlotte/Yellowcard/any other generic pop-punk today. Punk was a position, a radical position at the time. New wave, while there were redeeming moments, corrupted this ideal and made it safe. Early grunge and underground music made it wild again, until the former became mainstream and redundant, leaving the latter to gradually rise up in opposition. But this was where it started. And thank God.
This collection is for anyone who wants to be reassured, or potentially taught, that punk did not just mean simple, generic, almost alike songs. There may be those that say punk was the "return to the great two-and-a-half minute singles," and while this was true to a great extent, there were those exceptions that made the classification special and exciting. All of this is represented in just the right amounts, just enough simple British punk, just enough art-punk, just enough hardcore, etc. It's also a way to show anyone who writes off punk as interminal skronk as people who were seriously engulfed in their work, even if their work wasn't entirely serious. It's catchy as hell, even the artsy stuff, and even with those that "couldn't play," there are still those that can truly play their instruments. This box set shows every side of things related to the genre.
Most importantly, there are the songs themselves. Every song has a right to be on here, as they all represent something similarly primal in its spirit but different in its execution. It's incredibly difficult to pick out the best songs, as practically all amaze me; still, the ones that most amaze me are the things I had not heard before, potentially for that reason. I knew the Ramones, the Clash, Television, Suicide, Dead Kennedys, Richard Hell, X, etc. When I finally heard work of bands I had heard of but never listened to, the true revelations began: the Buzzcocks (especially "Ever Fallen In Love..."), the Germs ("Lexicon Devil" is now in my top five favorite songs), the Only Ones ("Another Girl, Another Planet" is the best power-pop song ever), the Cramps ("Human Fly" is one of the weirdest catchy songs I know), the Rich Kids (the melody of "Ghosts of Princes in Towers" is irresistable), Subway Sect (I love the synth effects on "Ambition"), X-Ray Spex ("Oh Bondage Up Yours!" is just plain fun), etc.
You could argue that the absence of the Sex Pistols is a big detriment to the credibility of these discs. And yes, sure, the Sex Pistols were the greatest punk band of them all. But if you don't own their "Never Mind The Bollocks..." then you should buy it immediately. Every song on there is indispensable, making it the first necessary punk purchase (a fact confirmed in the liner notes to this box set, actually). Once you own that, there's arguably little need for the rest of the Sex Pistols material, and then their appearance on this set would be pointless. After that, one could argue bands like the Au Pairs, the Raincoats, and the no-wave movement are inexplicably missing. And one of my personal favorite bands I didn't expect to find here but I was really hoping: Simply Saucer (their album "Cyborgs Revisited" is a true unknown noisy masterpiece that only gets better with each repeated listen). Still, this box set distills the best of the rest with their best songs, and places them together in a totally cohesive manner, that allows for repeated, continuous listening, something uncommon for box sets. This is both a testament to Rhino for being able to put together such a comprehensive collection and to the musicians present for their truly timeless music, in all its rage and joy.
