Friday, November 13, 2009

V.A. Punks on Drugs


"I can't understand why anybody should devote their lives to a cause like dope. It's the most boring pastime I can think of. It ranks a close second to TV."
Frank Zappa

"Frank Zappa is probably the single most untalented person I've heard in my life. He's two-bit, pretentious, academic and he can't play his way out of anything. He can't play rock n' roll because he's a loser. And that's why he dresses so funny. He's not happy with himself and I think he's right"
Lou Reed

After Lou Reed (more here) and all that smack-talk it's time to post this dodgy compilation, which even by Lou's standard has a pretty seedy track list:

1 New York Dolls - Pills 2:55
A fine 1973 demo.
2 Urban Dogs - Cocaine 2:23
UK Subs' Charlie Harper plus the Vibrators' Knox do a bracing version of Dillinger's reggae classic (itself an adaptation of an old blues song).

3 Johnny Thunders & The Heartbreakers - Chinese Rocks 2:55
Y'all know this one from L.A.M.F. - The Lost '77 Mixes.
4 Fallen Angels - Amphetamine Blue 2:32
The Vibrators' Knox plus half of Hanoi Rocks makes for a near perfect pop song.

5 Simpletones - I Like Drugs 2:09
The first band of Jay Lansford of the the Stepmothers (more here) and Channel 3(more here) offers up a classic early SoCal pop-punk song.
6 Chron Gen - L.S.D. 1:55
A UK '82 chant-along rocker.
7 Family Fodder - My Baby Takes Valium 3:26
Tinkly-synth post-punk from their Playing Golf (With My Flesh Crawling) single
8 Johnny Thunders & The Heartbreakers - One Track Mind 2:35
Thunders once said "I'm addicted to sex, my guitar and White Russians" but with songs like this who would believe him?
9 Urban Dogs - Speed Kills 1:20
Glad someone here said it.
10 UK Subs - Killing Time 2:19
A blazing track from the Harper-Garrat reunion of 1988.
11 Creaming Jesus - Smoke (Skin Up For Jesus) 2:05
(How did this crappily-named tuneless goth-metal band merit inclusion?)
12 Eater - Waiting For The Man 2:26
Eater were close to the bottom of '77's barrel but this Velvet Underground cover is charming.
13 Heroes, The - Too Much Junkie Business 2:24
Former Heartbreaker's Walter Lure and Billy Rath do their former boss's classic.
14 Adicts, The - Get Adicted 2:03
The Adicts drug of choice is stuttering, hooky punk rock as this song from 1982' Songs of Praise attests.
15 UK Subs - DF 118 2:04
Charlie Harper gets four tracks here(!), including this track from Occupied
16 Broken Bones - Secret Agent 2:52
Some more metallic UK hardcore here from the album Dem Bones.
17 Action Pact - Suicide Bag 1:54
Female vocals like fellow Uk 82'ers Vice Squad but lacking the strong personality of Bekki Bondage. From Complete Singles Collection.
18 Newtown Neurotics - The Mess 4:14
"Good pop on a bad budget" is how these eighties UK punks accurately described themselves. From Beggars Can Be Choosers
19 Slits, The - New Town (Live) 3:57
All-female reggae-punk, the Slits were (and are) a genre unto themselves. From In The Beginning
20 Only Ones, The - The Beast (Live) 6:09
The Only Ones (more here) never recorded a bad song. From The Big Sleep.



Punks on Drugs
CD

10 comments:

  1. well, OF COURSE imma gonna grab this!!!!!!

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  2. Hello,
    Whatever happened to "White Line Fever"....Lemmy grieves...davek

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  3. Golden brown-Stranglers,White punks on dope- Tubes? (a couple for the sequel?)plus maybe The Damned's version of White Rabbit?..Hell we all know the list is endless..unfortunately(?)...
    x-blogger

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  4. Its wierd how alcohol gets away with it!

    Cheers Jeff I shall grab this tomorrow when I'm a little less intoxicated.

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  5. Nazz
    "Punks on Drugs" would be a good sub-title for Bleedin' Out!

    davek
    The label has to do a volume 2 though for Motorhead's first song I might argue for Snaggletooth ("Speed don't Kill and I'm the proof").

    x-blogger
    I'd want 'Amphetamine Addiction' by the Zero Boys but like you say you could make a hundred volumes and still not scratch the surface.

    Longy
    Y'know I once posted a seven inch here called "songs about drinking" and I'd swear half the people who downloaded it, just took it for for the title alone.

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  6. Lou was the Mel Torme of smack, and he had the voice to prove it.

    Emerson

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  7. Nuzz
    MRML: your local supply!

    Emerson
    Velvet Fog = Velvet Underground. Why didn't I make that connection before!

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  8. Thanks! Ive been wanting to hear this. ...btw I think the cover Cocaine is not of Dillinger's version which took only one verse of the song and was titled "Cocaine in my Brain".

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  9. That's the second time I've been called to task on my hastily-written liner notes (which I was gonna skip but after I slammed Creaming Jesus I figured I better keep going with the context thing.

    Really with the Dylan quote at the start ("It used to go like that, now it goes like this") that he's probably doing the version from Live at the Gaslight (which has been bootlegged forever). For a guy that connects Dylan to everything that's pretty inexcusable.

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