20 pulverizing punk essentials from the 1970s

“City Kids” by Pink Fairies (1973)

The Pink Fairies brand of proto-punk went in a different direction from New York Dolls. They were a jam band from London that was prone to extended blues-based guitar romps. “City Kids” has the energy and the volume of classic punk but the song – the lead track from their third album, Kings of Oblivion, was the debut of new frontman Larry Wallis who would go on to play with Lemmy Kilmister in the original incarnation of Motorhead a few years later. Not surprisingly, “City Kids” is not merely protopunk, but also proto-thrash.

“Agitated” by Electric Eels (1975)

You can argue all you want about where the line is between protopunk and punk. For me, this is it. This is where you drop the “proto.”

Electric Eels' origin story is foundational punk rock. As band leader John Morton tells it, three friends went to see legendary rock experimenters Captain Beefheart one night and thought the opening act was awful. So they began learning to play instruments themselves. Morton played guitar. Brian McMahon played piano. Dave E. McManus sang by default because, according to Morton, “he didn’t do anything else.”

They eventually became a band and didn’t last long. But it was long enough to record some songs. They recorded the grinding “Agitated” with McManus’s snotty, snarling vocals in 1975 but it didn’t receive formal release until 1978, by which time this kind of music was actually beginning to gather an audience. The Eels no longer existed as a band, but their fingerprints were all over the new music.