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Dirty Water: The Birth of Punk Attitude

Various Artists
2 discs

0. DISC 1:
1. Dirty Water - The Standells
2. Evil Hoodoo - The Seeds
3. Garbage - The Deviants
4. Do It - The Pink Fairies
5. Bluejean Bop - Gene Vincent
6. Teenage Head - The Flamin' Groovies
7. Elemental Child - T. Rex (live)
8. I Hate You - The Monks
9. Oo Oo Rudi - The Jook
10. Moon Upstairs - Mott the Hoople
11. Space Age Love - Zolar X
12. Rocket Number Nine - Sun Ra
13. Rocket Reducer No. 62 (Rama Lama Fa Fa Fa) [Live] - MC5 (live)
14. Sisters Sisters (Sisters Rising) [Live] - The Up (live)
15. Politicians in My Eyes - Death
16. Do You Want My Love? [Live] - The Stooges (live)
0. DISC 2:
1. Up Against the Wall - David Peel & the Lower East Side
2. Confusion - Silver Apples
3. Get a Job - The Silhouettes
4. Do It Nice - Suicide
5. Subway Train - New York Dolls
6. On the Subway - The Last Poets
7. Hot City Symphony, Pt. 1, The (Vambo) - The Sensational Alex Harvey Band
8. Little Bit of Urban Rock, A - Third World War
9. Roxette - Dr. Feelgood
10. Nadir's Big Chance - Peter Hammill
11. Outside My Door - Can
12. Hurricane Fighter Plane - The Red Krayola
13. I'm Never Gonna Kill Myself Again - Rocket from the Tombs
14. Teenageerate - The Dictators
15. I Need You - Hollywood Brats
16. I'm Stranded - The Saints
17. Two Sevens Clash - Culture
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Additional Info

Manufacturer Part Number (MPN): 008
Credits

Producer
Engineer
Liner Note Author: Kris Needs.
Proto-punk compilations are nearly always worth hearing, since there are so few of them, and this one from Year Zero and compiler Kris Needs is no different -- better even than the usual cream of the crop. Needs is no stranger to great music, having championed great rock and dance music from the '70s and his time at ZigZag magazine all the way to the acid house era and his associations with Primal Scream and the Orb. The two-disc set includes 33 tracks over two discs, running basically in chronological order and beginning in a great place: the Standells' mangy and noisy "Dirty Water," a prime piece of garage rock. From there Needs draws from various streams of music, from glam (T. Rex, Mott the Hoople), the resurgence of rock & roll in the '70s (MC5, the Stooges, New York Dolls, the Up, Flamin' Groovies), pub rock (Dr. Feelgood), jazz and spoken word (Sun Ra, the Last Poets), and various strains of art rock (the Deviants, Pink Fairies, Silver Apples). Aside from the highlights, other tracks stand out: a live "Hurricane Fighter Plane" from Texas avant-acid pioneers Red Krayola, and obscurities from the Jook (oddly, a spinoff of John's Children) and Third World War (a working-class English rock band of the early '70s) and Death (one of Detroit's earliest punk bands circa the mid-'70s). The end of the second disc verges on straight-ahead punk rock at its best, including classics from the Dictators and the Saints, but ending with an excellent left-field choice, Culture's "Two Sevens Clash." ~ John Bush
Critic Reviews

The Wire (p.50) - "[An] expertly selected compilation....DIRTY WATER is a blast of rock-historical edutainment."
Mojo (Publisher) (p.119) - 4 stars out of 5 -- "Together, sequenced skillfully, they make one rip-roaring compilation."
Uncut (magazine) (p.105) - 4 stars out of 5 -- "[A] cultural revolution: Needs' admirably expansive definition of punk encompasses anyone who dared to show courage in adversity..."