It’s easy to classify now-classic albums from the punk/new wave/alternative scene as flat-out “punk as fuck”. Pick one, any one or a whole bunch of your favorites — Never Mind The Bollocks, Damaged, Double Nickels On The Dime, Rocket To Russia, Plastic Surgery Disasters, The Modern Dance, even proto-punk pre-Ramones platters like Fun House, Kick Out The Jams and White Light/White Heat.
But punk is just as much an attitude as it is a musical approach. Having punk attitude in your music doesn’t mean relying on distorted guitars or sneered vocals. Many a punk band has proven that to be true, be it with the Clash’s musical excursions from London Calling onward to Against Me!’s folk-inspired slant. As the late and legendary D. Boon of the Minutemen so put it, “Punk is whatever we make it to be.” Put forth for discussion here are a bunch of albums that, while not punk in musical genre, have that same uncompromising viewpoint behind their musical approaches.
The Beatles — Please Please Me (Parlophone, 1962)
Upon catching the wind of the Sex Pistols, John Lennon openly remarked to friends, “That’s how the Beatles were like onstage before [their manager] Brian Epstein had us clean ourselves up and get organized — we were completely au naturel.” The Beatles weren’t much far removed from their residencies at Hamburg, West…
