Punks Not Dead

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Punks Not Dead
Studio album by The Exploited

Publication
(s)

1981

Label (s) Secret Records, The Exploited Record Company, Poko International, Roadrunner Records , Intercord

Format (s)

LP, MC

Genre (s)

punk

Title (number)

15th

running time

37:33

occupation
  • Wattie: lead vocals
  • Big John: guitar, vocals
  • Gary: Bass, vocals
  • Dru Stix: drums, vocals
  • Carole & Navi: background vocals

production

Dave Leaper, The Exploited

chronology
- Punks Not Dead On Stage
(Live album, 1981)

Punks Not Dead is the debut album by the British band The Exploited .

Track list

  1. Punks Not Dead - 1:51 (J. Duncan)
  2. Mucky Pup - 1:43 ( Puncture Cover)
  3. Cop Cars - 1:53 (G. Campbell / J. Duncan / G. McCormack)
  4. Free Flight - 3:34 (G. Campbell / J. Duncan)
  5. Army Life - 2:39
  6. Blown to Bits - 2:37 (J. Duncan)
  7. Sex and Violence - 5:09 (J. Duncan)
  8. SPG - 2:07 (J. Duncan)
  9. Royalty - 2:06 (J. Duncan)
  10. Dole Q - 1:50 (J. Duncan)
  11. Exploited Barmy Army - 2:28 (G. Campbell / J. Duncan / G. McCormack)
  12. Ripper - 2:03 (J. Duncan)
  13. Out of Control - 2:53 (J. Duncan)
  14. Son of a Copper - 2:39 (J. Duncan)
  15. I Believe in Anarchy - 2:01 (J. Duncan)

Music style and lyrics

Morat, the author of the band's online biography, wrote that Punks Not Dead was "as much a gathering battle cry as a record". Rainer Schmidt from Rolling Stone wrote about Wattie Buchan that no one had a “more beautiful, battered voice” than him. The band played mercilessly, and the album was "a high-voltage outcry of the second generation against the alleged disintegration of the punk scene". The band “screamed against war and poverty, against decadence and the prevailing order”. Johnny Loftus from Allmusic described the album as a reaction to the then "punk ' establishment '", Jan Jaedike from Rock Hard as a necessary "slap in the face of all the heroes of the first wave of punk who wandered into pop , new wave and major label affiliation". The title song is the answer to Punk Is Dead from the debut album The Feeding of the 5000 by the English anarcho-punk band Crass .

reception

Punks Not Dead reached number 20 on the UK charts and sold 150,000 copies. Morat wrote that when punk was dead, no one told the band's growing “Barmy Army”. Punks Not Dead is admittedly not the best record ever made, but as an opening gambit it was unbeatable. Loftus called songs like SPG , Out of Control and I Believe in Anarchy as early models of the future US hardcore . The album was acclaimed and reviled. That was okay for the band, they just wanted a reaction. The Rolling Stone recorded the album at number 28 on the list of 50 most important punk albums. Schmidt wrote: "Songs like 'I Believe In Anarchy' or 'Exploited Barmy Army' became hymns of anger and despair in the Thatcher years". The fact that "years later, National Front supporters came out as fans" was not foreseeable at the time and did not reduce "the importance of this great success". Jaedike, however, classified the album as “not really necessary”. It was "of course [...] a necessary slap in the face of all the heroes of the first wave of punk who had migrated to pop, new wave and major label affiliation", and "of course" were the theme song, Cop Cars , Army Life and I Believe in Anarchy classics, which "still appear in the live program today", but the "600 pound production" sounds powerless, has "a barely existing guitar sound and pretty small eggs". Buchan was already more than 20 years old at the time, but he sounds “like a moody teenager”. In addition, the album contains "various tracks that nobody cares anymore", the low point is Sex and Violence , "with its three words text (yes, exactly: 'sex and violence') one of the stupidest pieces in the band's history". Any subsequent release by the band played "at least two leagues higher". If a purchase has to be “at all”, the best version is the re-release of Captain Oi! from 2001.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Morat: The Exploited History. The Exploited, January 2003, accessed February 27, 2015 .
  2. ^ A b Rainer Schmidt : The Exploited . Punk's Not Dead. In: Rolling Stone . Axel Springer Mediahouse Berlin GmbH, Berlin July 2011, p. 62 .
  3. ^ A b Johnny Loftus: Punks Not Dead - The Exploited. Allmusic , accessed on January 31, 2015 .
  4. ↑ a b c Jan Jaedike: Dissecting table . The Exploited. In: Rock Hard . No. 332 , January 2015, p. 93 .