Various Artists - 1-2-3-4: Punk & New Wave 1976-1979 (5 Discs)

For such a precedent-shattering and groundbreaking genre, the Golden Age of punk rock was relatively short-lived. Although it's tough to nail down a definitive start to the punk era, 1975 seems to be the consensus, based on the rise that year of such New York City bands/musicians as The Ramones, Patti Smith and Television, and the emergence of The Buzzcocks and The Sex Pistols in the UK. But long before the end of the '70s, punk was already disintegrating, splintering into several different genres - post-punk, New Wave, hardcore, No Wave, Oi!, psychobilly, etc.

Even during its heyday, "punk" was more about the methods, means and attitude by which these musicians approached their music, rather than defining a uniform sound and approach. The Clash, The Jam, Talking Heads, X and The Damned are all considered some of the classic bands to come out of that era, but you'd be hard-pressed to come up with an all-encompassing description/definition of "punk" from their music. This wide variation in the sound and style of what was considered "punk" is one of the genre's strengths, but an aspect that makes the era particularly difficult to summarize and anthologize.

Now, I own a gazillion single- and multi-disc punk and New Wave compilations: Burning Ambitions: A History of Punk (Vols. 1 & 2); Rhino's D.I.Y. series from the mid-90s; The Number One Punk Album, and so forth and so on. I've got overviews of American punk, British punk, Australian punk - you name it. Some of them are pretty good, most of them are OK/so-so, and a couple are absolutely terrible. None of them serve to effectively capture the entire era. And for years, I figured that there would never be a release of any length that could do so. That is, until the late 1990s.

I recall reading about this set in the late winter/early spring of 1999, when I lived in Texas. There was an article about its upcoming release in one of the UK music magazines I regularly read back then - Q, the NME . . . I don't recall which one. But I do recall the glowing review the magazine gave to this box set; it completely whetted my appetite for it. There used to be a Virgin Megastore at the mall near where I used to live in Grapevine - I made a beeline down to it and immediately put in a special order for the set, since it was not slated to be released in the States. The thing finally arrived in May, a month after its UK release - a long black slab with protruding silver studs numbered "1, 2, 3, 4" on the front of the box, containing five enveloped CDs of music and a mammoth book of liner notes containing details on every single song.

Now, I'm usually against overarching compilations in general; I have been disappointed time and time again by these sorts of overviews falling short of their intentions. In my opinion, the only music comps in the past fifty years that have even come close to thoroughly cataloging and celebrating a specific genre are as follows:

1. The Nuggets garage rock compilation;
2. Harry Smith's Anthology of American Folk Music;
3.  . . . and this one.

The compilers do their best to pull together most of the highlights (and a few low-lights) from those years; check out the song lineup:

Disc 1:

1. Complete Control - The Clash
2. Anarchy In The UK - The Sex Pistols
3. New Rose - The Damned
4. Blitzkrieg Bop - The Ramones
5. Shadow - The Lurkers
6. Thinking Of The USA - Eater
7. Ain't Bin To No Music School - The Nosebleeds
8. Borstal Breakout - Sham 69
9. I Hate School - Suburban Studs
10. GLC - Menace
11. One Chord Wonders - The Adverts
12. Right To Work - Chelsea
13. Johnny Won't Go To Heaven - The Killjoys
14. Bone Idle - The Drones
15. Where Have All The Boot Boys Gone - Slaughter & The Dogs
16. C.I.D. - UK Subs
17. Can't Wait 'til '78 - The Wasps
18. Ambition - Subway Sect
19. I'm Stranded - The Saints
20. Orgasm Addict - The Buzzcocks

Disc 2:

1. In The City - The Jam
2. Your Generation - Generation X
3. First Time - The Boys
4. Get A Grip (On Yourself) - The Stranglers
5. Don't Dictate - Penetration
6. In A Rut - The Ruts
7. Big Time - Rudi
8. Don't Ring Me Up - Protex
9. Justa Nother Teenage Rebel - The Outcasts
10. Solitary Confinement - The Members
11. Emergency - 999
12. 19 And Mad - Leyton Buzzards
13. I'm In Love With Margaret Thatcher - Not Sensibles
14. Romford Girls - Riff Raff
15. Sick Of You - The Users
16. Gabrielle - The Nips
17. Where Were You - The Mekons
18. Murder Of Liddle Towers - Angelic Upstarts
19. Oh Bondage Up Yours - X-Ray Spex
20. Sweet Suburbia - Skids
21. Television Screen - The Radiators
22. Alternative Ulster - Stiff Little Fingers
23. Teenage Kicks - The Undertones

Disc 3:

1. Teenage Depression - Eddie & The Hot Rods
2. Rich Kids - Rich Kids
3. Baby Baby (I Know You're A Lady) - The Vibrators
4. Suffice To Say - Yachts
5. Roadrunner - Richman, Jonathan & The Modern Lovers
6. Don't Care - Klark Kent
7. Nervous Wreck - Radio Stars
8. Up Against The Wall - Robinson, Tom Band
9. So It Goes - Lowe, Nick
10. Police Car - Wallis, Larry
11. Hard Loving Man - Moped, Johnny
12. Love And A Molotov Cocktail - The Flys
13. Where's Captain Kirk - Spizzenergi
14. Sonic Reducer - Dead Boys
15. Search And Destroy - The Dictators
16. Born To Lose - The Heartbreakers
17. Modern Dance - Pere Ubu
18. Fuck Off - The Electric Chairs
19. California Uber Alles - Dead Kennedys

Disc 4:

1. I Belong To The Blank Generation - Hell, Richard & The Voidoids
2. 10.15 Saturday Night - TheCure
3. Rip Her To Shreds - Blondie
4. I Can't Stand My Baby - The Rezillos
5. All I Want - Snatch
6. Looking After No 1 - The Boomtown Rats
7. Take Me I'm Yours - Squeeze
8. Sex And Drugs And Rock 'n' Roll - Dury, Ian & The Blockheads
9. Spanish Stroll - Mink DeVille
10. Is She Really Going Out With Him - Jackson, Joe
11. Whole Wide World - Wreckless Eric
12. Part Time Punks - Television Personalities
13. Safety Pin Stuck In My Heart - Fitzgerald, Patrick
14. You Can't Put Your Arms Around A Memory - Thunders, Johnny
15. Psycle Sluts - Clarke, John Cooper
16. Jilted John - Jilted John
17. Kill - Alberto Y Los Trios Paranoias
18. Paranoid - The Dickies

Disc 5:

1. Public Image - Public Image Ltd.
2. Warsaw - Joy Division
3. Staircase Mystery - Siouxsie & The Banshees
4. Damaged Goods - Gang Of Four
5. You - Au Pairs
6. How Much Longer - Au Pairs
7. Read About Seymour - Swell Maps
8. Young Parisians - Adam & The Ants
9. Monochrome Set - The Monochrome Set
10. We Are All Prostitutes - The Pop Group
11. Typical Girls - The Slits
12. Mannequin - Wire
13. Shot By Both Sides - Magazine
14. Science Fiction - XTC
15. Do The Standing Still - The Table
16. Another Girl Another Planet - The Only Ones
17. Young Savage - Ultravox
18. Puppet Life - Punishment Of Luxury
19. Jocko Homo - Devo
20. Marquee Moon - Television

As I alluded to earlier, the purpose of box sets such as this one is to provide the listener with an overview of a particular era or type of music. I know full well that it's damn near impossible to include everything - that would defeat the purpose of having such a set. Instead of providing the whole kit and kaboodle, a compilation like this one should effectively answer two questions:

a) "Does this set provide the listener with a insightful look into the genre?" and
b) "Upon completion, has the listener learned something useful about the genre?" 

In the case of 1-2-3-4: Punk & New Wave 1976-1979, the answer to both questions, in my opinion, is YES.

It's been almost fifteen years after the release of possibly the most definitive punk compilation of all time, and you NEVER hear anything about this set. In fact, 1-2-3-4 is currently out of print, which I regard as just another example of the recording industry's insanity and ass-forward thinking. This comp should never be allowed to lapse.

Therefore, it lives on here. For your listening pleasure, I present to you the superb 1-2-3-4: Punk & New Wave 1976-1979, released on April 19th, 1999 by Universal Music (UK) Ltd. Enjoy these one hundred prime cuts of '70s musical goodness . . . and as always, let me know what you think.

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