{"id":420,"date":"2011-01-10T05:54:43","date_gmt":"2011-01-10T10:54:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=420"},"modified":"2026-07-22T08:05:17","modified_gmt":"2026-07-22T12:05:17","slug":"cd-review-dirty-water-the-birth-of-punk-attitude","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2011\/01\/10\/cd-review-dirty-water-the-birth-of-punk-attitude\/","title":{"rendered":"CD Review: Dirty Water – The Birth of Punk Attitude"},"content":{"rendered":"

As its name makes clear, Dirty Water: the Birth of Punk Attitude<\/em> takes a unique approach to the concept of punk: here it\u2019s defined more as an attitude than a genre. This shift in emphasis is a liberating one, because it results in a collection that\u2019s more hip mixtape than historical anthology or chronological overview.<\/p>\n

Punk fanzine editor Kris Needs<\/strong> compiled the 2cd set for UK label Year Zero — a label affiliated with Fantastic Voyage, the people who have given us excellent reissues and compilations of older and forgotten music. Needs\u2019 approach here is to bring together music that — for him \u2013 represents that punk attitude. And his wide-net philosophy \u2013 perhaps best defined as the idea that punk is anything that refuses to be bound by convention \u2013 results in a collection that is free to include Sun Ra<\/strong> alongside the MC5<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

The idea seems to be that punk is whatever the artist wants it to be: you can draw upon older influences if you wish, but you get to decide which influences, and how they\u2019re applied. So punk is as likely as not to look to early rock and roll for inspiration.<\/p>\n

Across 33 tracks, Needs\u2019 collection tosses in artists familiar and obscure. For every New York Dolls<\/strong> (\u201cSubway Train\u201d from their first LP) there\u2019s an all-but-unknown Zolar X<\/strong> track. When you hear Zolar X\u2019s 1974 demo \u201cSpace Age Love\u201d (recorded in Memphis at Ardent!) you might say to yourself, \u201cI bet The Damned<\/strong> listened to this song.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some of this stuff is truly weird. The Deviants\u2019<\/strong> \u201cGarbage\u201d is elemental and crude, but it\u2019s also almost (dare I say) progressive in its arrangement. Yes, there\u2019s simulated (or real) vomiting, but there are also several distinct movements that draw upon musique concr\u00e8te, Bo Diddley<\/strong>, free jazz, sixties garage and the Fugs<\/strong> (or perhaps Lenny Bruce<\/strong>). If that\u2019s<\/em> not punk, then nothing is.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s definitely a British point of view to the track selection. While they\u2019re recognized now for their work, back in the day acts like the Pink Fairies<\/strong>, Dr. Feelgood<\/strong> and the Sensational Alex Harvey Band<\/strong> were all but unknown in the USA. In Britain they were a bit less obscure. Plenty of American acts are included, though: The Dictators<\/strong> and the Seeds<\/strong> are both represented, and by less-than-obvious tracks, too.<\/p>\n

Punk is too easily dismissed as full of anger or lack of direction; that\u2019s simply not always the case. Gene Vincent\u2019s<\/strong> \u201cBlue Jean Bop\u201d is in its own way as punk as the Stooges<\/strong> (the latter represented here by a rare bootleg-quality live noisefest), but it\u2019s fun and celebratory in a way that Iggy<\/strong> and his pals weren\u2019t.<\/p>\n

This collection is all over the stylistic map, which one suspects is precisely the point. A set that includes Flamin\u2019 Groovies<\/strong>, Can<\/strong>, Red Krayola<\/strong> and Silver Apples<\/strong> is certainly aiming outside the mainstream. But the selections (and their non-chronological sequencing) hold up well. Hardcore rock fans will likely have a good half of this music elsewhere in their collections, but some gems like the Last Poets\u2019<\/strong> \u201cOn the Subway\u201d and \u201cOo Oo Rudi\u201d from the Jooks<\/strong> may be new (and welcome) to their ears.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s some important history here, too. A live (Peel sessions) reading of the rare T. Rex<\/strong> cut \u201cElemental Child\u201d neatly bridges Marc Bolan\u2019s<\/strong> fey, hippy-dippy early work with his harder-rocking later style. And Death<\/strong> \u2013 the African-American punk\/metal trio recently rediscovered and championed in the mainstream press \u2013 is represented by \u201cPoliticians in My Eyes.\u201d\u00a0 Yes, if you\u2019re getting the impression that Dirty Water: The Birth of Punk Attitude<\/em> covers an impressive bit of ground in under three hours, you\u2019d be correct.<\/p>\n

Needs\u2019 annotation \u2013 in a thick booklet included in the attractive package \u2013 is a useful, informative and entertaining accompaniment to the music. Ultimately, if you\u2019re open to the idea that Sun Ra — whose 1973 track \u201cRocket Number Nine\u201d inhabits a musical galaxy that connects Spike Jones<\/strong> and Parliament\/Funkadelic<\/strong> — \u00a0is punk, then Dirty Water: The Birth of Punk Attitude<\/em> will be a fascinating listen, one you\u2019ll likely turn to for sonic enjoyment again and again.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As its name makes clear, Dirty Water: the Birth of Punk Attitude takes a unique approach to the concept of punk: here it\u2019s defined more as an attitude than a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[810],"class_list":["post-420","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-review","tag-fantastic-voyage","cat-65-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/420","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=420"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/420\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31999,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/420\/revisions\/31999"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=420"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=420"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=420"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}