Description/track list from http://futurenoisemusic.com/product.aspx?id=699

Various: Kris Needs presents...Dirty Water: The Birth of Punk Attitude

There have been many punk collections over the years and former Zigzag fanzine editor Kris Needs possesses most of them so, when it came to compiling his own, he decided to avoid the predictable, except where totally warranted. Although featuring names without whom such a compilation should never be without, the set also highlights less likely candidates through their influence, attitude or sheer courage in the face of adversity; mavericks and rebels shooting for the stars and going against the grain.

Every track on Dirty Water: The Birth Of Punk Attitude is there for a reason, whether it’s a band which Kris has known, worked with or believed in, or just thinking some hair-bristling track deserves to be heard again or highlighted.

After starting with two quintessential garage-punk bands, the Standells [whose ’Dirty Water’ provides the snotty title track] and Seeds [covered by Needs’ own long-forgotten band 35 years ago], the album approaches the punk spirit as a way of making music or conveying a message by any means necessary, which makes Harlem’s Last Poets prime candidates for laying a hiphop template in 1970 with their first album. Around the same time, downtown in Washington Square Park, David Peel and the Lower East Side were delivering stoner street anthems which could only be captured by a live recording. Kris’s lifelong New York obsession continues with the untouchable New York Dolls, senses-shattering electronic punks Suicide, plus two of their influences in Silver Apples and vocal group the Silhouettes, displaying doowop’s DIY spirit on ‘Get A Job’. The Dictators show how their degenerate raunch influenced the Ramones. The Deviants were at the forefront of UK’s 1967 counter-cultural revolution, like the UK’s answer to America’s Fugs, MC5 or Mothers Of invention when it came to forging a new society and playing free concerts, before handing the baton to the Pink Fairies. 1970s UK proto-punk is represented by Jook, Third World War and the Sensational Alex Harvey Band‘s sinister, cinematic missives, while rarest tune [on CD for first time] is the Hollywood Brats’ storming treatment of the Kinks’ ‘I Need You’. Oldest track has to be ‘Blue Jean Bop’ by Gene Vincent, the original black leather man. As the restless punk spirit is usually associated with teenage years, Kris found himself reaching back into his own adolescence, reawakening long forgotten emotions, although the buzz never left; hence the inclusions of Mott The Hoople [first band to welcome him on board while they carved their trail of mayhem and some of the best rock ‘n’ roll ever committed to vinyl], Dr Feelgood [who named another fanzine with their ‘Roxette’, while cutting though prog’s excesses like a demented flamethrower], emotional whirlwind Peter Hammill in his punked-up Rikki Nadir incarnation, Germany’s inestimably-influential Can, T. Rex when Bolan went electric and Detroit’s incendiary MC5, who led to another fixation, with the Motor City, also represented here by The Stooges [scorching 12-minute tear-up with the short-lived twin guitar lineup captured live in 1971], other MC5 sister band Up and brilliant but overlooked black punk trio Death, providing one of the highlights with their searing ‘Politicians In My Eyes’. Sun Ra was a profound influence on the MC5 and stayed with Up when in town but he’s here for his star-sailing individuality and DIY spirit of his indie-pioneering Saturn label. The album also casts its net around the rest of America with seminal Midwest outfits Red Krayola and Rocket From The Tombs, San Francisco’s fabulous Flamin’ Groovies, unique L.A. aliens Zolar X and the Monks [American G.I.s stationed in Germany]. Dirty Water ends perfectly in 1977 with the timeless roots prophecy of Culture‘s ‘Two Sevens Clash’, highlighting reggae’s towering presence in all this. The set will be accompanied by extensive liner notes from Needs.

Track Listing

CD 1
1. Dirty Water (The Standells)
2. Evil Hoodoo (The Seeds)
3. Garbage (The Deviants)
4. Do It (Pink Fairies)
5. Blue Jean Bop (Gene Vincent)
6. Teenage Head (Flamin' Groovies)
7. Elemental Child - LIVE (T. Rex)
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)
14. Sisters Sisters - LIVE (The UP)
15. Politicians In My Eyes (Death)
16. Do You Want My Love? - LIVE (The Stooges)

CD 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 (The New York Dolls)
6. On The Subway (The Last Poets)
7. The Hot City Symphony Part 1 (Vambo) (The Sensational Alex Harvey Band)
8. A Little Bit Of Urban Rock (Third World War)
9. Roxette (Dr. Feelgood)
10. Nadir's Big Chance (Peter Hammill)
11. Outside My Door (Can)
12. Hurricane Fighter Plane (Red Krayola)
13. I'm Never Gonna Kill Myself Again (Rocket From The Tombs)
14. Teengenerate (The Dictators)
15. I Need You (The Hollywood Brats)
16. I'm Stranded (The Saints)
17. Two Sevens Clash (Culture)

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0049985O6/?tag=imwan-20

i'm just trying to figure out what "dirty water" by the standells has to do with all of the other songs on this set.

Maybe this will give the Sensational Alex Harvey Band a little bump.

Garage has some connections with punk because of the raw sound/attitude......I think Dirty Water fits this collection, and at least also has similar connections to the Seeds, Deviants, Monks, and Red Krayola tracks on this set.

Never heard the Sensational Alex Harvey Band.

I have about 1/3rd of this already....but probably going to pick this up.

i think the standells leaned more toward pop than punk, but back in the 60's there was no pop or punk, so i guess it could be whatever you want it to be, but i think "dirty water" is the only, or one of very few, songs to chart on this set.

jimbo would know about that stuff much better than i.

I think you can draw a credible line from the Standells through to the '76-77 punk bands in terms of attitude, particularly on the American side of punk. That "Nuggets" collection was highly influential and was put together by Lenny Kaye who went on to be in Patti Smith's band.

But the real mystery for me is "Get A Job" by the Silhouettes. Stylistically it's Doo-wop.... lyrically...uh....maybe some vague connection with punk in that the singer is out of work? And the Offspring did a song called "Why Don't You Get A Job?"

I'm baffled.

The SAHB - think of a scottish version on FZ with a great keyboardist and guitar player and sometimes bagpipes.

Some folks think he was one of the godfathers of punk

best lp Next with itle song, Also Gang Bang, Last of the Teen Age Idols, Swamp Snake, Faith Healer and Giddy up a Ding Dong.

Best tune was Anthem from the Impossible Dream - reminds me of Watermelon in Easter Hay.
He opened for FZ in 74. Frank asked if he could have the bagpipe players join him on stage later...Alex said no - after that he never opened for them again...I sometimes wonder if Anthem stayed in FZ's head and might have influnced Watermelon.

Alex did have my favorite Christmas song of all time (from Framed lp) There's No Lights on the Christmas Tree Mother, They're Burning Big Louie Tonight.
Alex died on the eve of his 48th birthday in 1982 of a massive heart attack.

Years earlier his brother Les was electrocuted on stage by touching an ungrounded mic while performing with Stone the Crows in 1972.

Definitely sounds like something I'd like.

I just ordered a 2 disc set of Framed/Next. Seems like the best place to start.

Alex was a big influence on Nick Cave who covered The Hammer Song on his Kicking Against the Pricks album.

Almost all of the artists on this album influenced the Melbourne punk scene. I'm excited.

Count me in on this 2.