Playlist | Proto-Punk 🧷

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Inspired by the comments on a reddit post, I wanted to dig into some pre-“punk” proto-punk. I set Gemini, ChatGPT, Perplexity, & Copilot to the task as I’m fascinated by their ability to parse & compile information if prompted accurately. (I’m also fascinated my their penchant to provide completely incorrect or even made-up information. Some time I will have to blog about my experiment in having them search restaurant menus in an area to see if they serve shellfish. Copilot recommended some seafood places, so clearly it wants to kill me.)

I added my own stuff that some of them disagreed with, but it is my list after all. 🤣 Going back to little Richard and including Black Sabbath’s “Paranoid” were points of contention, as I would expect from a conversation with people.

Music snobs aficionados, audiophiles, and punk rock gatekeepers will argue all day every day about the origin of punk… but for me, to be clear, it’s the moment that the Ramones’ self-titled album dropped. So, with that in mind I gave the language models this prompt:

There is and always will be constant debate, but if we agree for the premise of this exercise that the Ramones self-titled debut album was the first punk album… What are 25 songs that should belong on a proto-punk or punk precursor playlist?

I would assume bands that get mentioned as the progenitors would most likely include The Kinks, the Sonics, Link Wray, The Stooges, the MC5, the Velvet Underground, New York Dolls, & more I’m sure to be missing. Maybe even the band Death who hailed from Detroit MI?

All songs on the list should have been released before April 23, 1976… and be listed in order if release date by single or album, whichever dropped first.

This has been corrected for my typically egregious spelling/typing/lack-of-proofreading errors. After tossing the rules to the wind, keeping to the spirit of punk rock, we arrived here:

  • “Little Demon” – Screamin’ Jay Hawkins (1956)
  • “Tutti Frutti” – Little Richard (1955)
  • “Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On” – Jerry Lee Lewis (1957)
  • “Rumble” – Link Wray (1958)
  • “La Bamba” – Ritchie Valens (1958)
  • “Love Me” – The Phantom (1958)
  • “Louie Louie” – The Kingsmen (1963)
  • “Surfin’ Bird” – The Trashmen (1963)
  • “Baby Let Me Take You Home” – The Animals (1964)
  • “House of the Rising Sun” – The Animals (1964)
  • “I’m Crying” – The Animals (1964)
  • “You Really Got Me” – The Kinks (1964)
  • “Gloria” – Them (1964)
  • “I Can’t Explain” – The Who (1964)
  • “Dirty Water” – The Standells (1966)
  • “My Generation” – The Who (1965)
  • “Strychnine” – The Sonics (1965)
  • “I’m a Man” – The Yardbirds (1965)
  • “We Gotta Get Out of This Place” – The Animals (1965)
  • “96 Tears” – ? & The Mysterians (1966)
  • “Wild Thing” – The Troggs (1966)
  • “Complication” – The Monks (1966)
  • “Psychotic Reaction” – Count Five (1966)
  • “Pushin’ Too Hard” – The Seeds (1966)
  • “7 and 7 Is” – Love (1966)
  • “I’m Not Like Everybody Else” – The Kinks (1966)
  • “You’re Gonna Miss Me” – The 13th Floor Elevators (1966)
  • “Talk Talk” – The Music Machine (1966)
  • “I’m Waiting for the Man” – The Velvet Underground (1967)
  • “Doctor Please” – Blue Cheer (1968)
  • “Sister Ray” – The Velvet Underground (1968)
  • “Fire” – The Crazy World of Arthur Brown (1968)
  • “Jigsaw Puzzle” – The Rolling Stones (1968)
  • “Kick Out the Jams” – MC5 (1969)
  • “I Wanna Be Your Dog” – The Stooges (1969)
  • “Little Doll” – The Stooges (1969)
  • “TV Eye” – The Stooges (1970)
  • “Paranoid” – Black Sabbath (1970)
  • “Get It On” – T. Rex (1971)
  • “School’s Out” – Alice Cooper (1972)
  • “Suffragette City” – David Bowie (1972)
  • “Raw Power” – Iggy & The Stooges (1973)
  • “Search and Destroy” – The Stooges (1973)
  • “Personality Crisis” – New York Dolls (1973)
  • “Jet Boy” – New York Dolls (1973)
  • “Urban Guerrilla” – Hawkwind (1973)
  • “Violence” – Mott the Hoople (1973)
  • “Cum On Feel the Noize” – Slade (1973)
  • “Editions of You” – Roxy Music (1973)
  • “Ooh La La” – Faces (1973)
  • “Subway Train” – New York Dolls (1974)
  • “Hey Joe” – Patti Smith Group (1975)
  • “Piss Factory” – Patti Smith (1975)
  • “Roxette” – Dr. Feelgood (1976)
  • “The Next Big Thing” – The Dictators (1975)
  • “Chez Maximes” – The Hollywood Brats (1976)
  • “After Eight” – Neu! (1975)
  • “Ghost Rider” – Suicide (1977)
  • “Little Johnny Jewel” – Television (1975)
  • “30 Seconds Over Tokyo” – Pere Ubu (1975)
  • “Burn My Eye” – Radio Birdman (1976)
  • “Politicians in My Eyes” – Death (1976)
  • “Cherry Bomb” – The Runaways (1976)
  • “Roadrunner” – The Modern Lovers (1976)
  • “She Cracked” – The Modern Lovers (1976)
  • “Shake Some Action” – Flamin’ Groovies (1976)
  • “Blank Generation” – Richard Hell & the Voidoids (1977)
  • “Anarchy in the U.K.” – The Sex Pistols (1976)
  • “Sonic Reducer” – Dead Boys (1977)
  • “Neat Neat Neat” – The Damned (1977)
  • “Chinese Rocks” – Johnny Thunders & The Heartbreakers (1977)
  • “Psycho Killer” – Talking Heads (1977)

I used Tune My Music to import it to Spotify from a text file, then copy to Amazon Music from there. I tried to go to Amazon first, but it messed up quite a bit of the songs. I did have to add “7 and 7 Is” by Love manually as it shows as “Seven and Seven Is” on Spotify. It weirdly plopped a Bob Marley song in that spot. Amazon was full of weird covers and the wrong songs when trying to import from text.

So, what do you think of the list? What’s missing? What needs added? Are my parameters skewed? Do you not accept anything past the date of what parameters were set? What obscure band that 14 people heard at the time is missing from this list? Don’t come at me with the Sex Pistols over the Ramones. Should we whittle it back to 25? Only have 1 song per artist? Come at me with healthy discourse.

7 thoughts on “Playlist | Proto-Punk 🧷”

  1. So, after reading the blog post, ChatGPT had a few more suggestions:

    Missing Bands/Songs: A few obsessive picks for deeper crates:

    The Standells – “Sometimes Good Guys Don’t Wear White” (1966)

    The Savage – “Quiet Town” (1968, extremely raw)

    Los Saicos – “Demolición” (1965)

    The Monks – add “Black Monk Time” (1966)

    The Third Bardo – “I’m Five Years Ahead of My Time” (1967)

    The Litter – “Action Woman” (1967)

    The Remains – “Why Do I Cry” (1966)

    Los Shakers – “Break It All” (Uruguay, 1965)

    Third Rail – “Run Run Run” (1967)

    The Hombres – “Let It Out (Let It All Hang Out)” (1967)

    The Sonics – “The Witch” (1965)

    Off-the-wall Influences:

    The MC5’s “Looking at You” (1968 single version)

    Shocking Blue – “Love Buzz” (1969)

    Davie Allan & The Arrows – “Blues’ Theme” (1966, motorcycle fuzz)

    Can – “Mother Sky” (1970) (proto-post-punk/Krautrock)

    Michael Yonkers – “Microminiature Love” (1968/2002 release, but recorded late ’60s)

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  2. Grok suggested these tracks:

    – The Monks “We Do Wie Du” (1966) – Velvet Underground “Heroin” (1967) – The Stooges “1969” (1969) – Velvet Underground “Sweet Jane” (1970) – Pink Fairies “Uncle Harry’s Last Freakout” (1971) – Lou Reed “Vicious” (1972) – New York Dolls “Trash” (1973) – The Dictators “Master Race Rock” (1975) – Patti Smith “Gloria” (1975)

    https://x.com/grok/status/1956484687536570784

    Should I be worried that it suggested a song called “Master Race Rock?”

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  3. Post-post suggestions from Copilot:

    🎯 Deep Cuts Worth Adding🔥 Raw Garage & Fuzz Freakouts

    • Simply Saucer – “Bullet Proof Nothing” (1974, Canada) Lo-fi, sci-fi garage with Velvet Underground vibes and synth squalls. A cult classic from Cyborgs Revisited.
    • Zakary Thaks – “Bad Girl” (1966) Texas garage rock with snarling vocals and fuzzed-out guitar. Total punk energy.
    • The Litter – “Action Woman” (1967) Already suggested by ChatGPT, but worth emphasizing—this is pure proto-punk swagger.

    🧪 Genre-Bending Oddballs

    • Iron Virgin – “Rebels Rule” (1974, UK) Glam-punk anthem with a football chant chorus. Think Slade meets the Ramones.
    • Michael Yonkers – “Kill the Enemy” (recorded 1968, released later) Distorted, paranoid, and way ahead of its time. Yonkers is proto-punk’s ghost in the machine.

    🌍 Global Rippers

    • Los Saicos – “Demolición” (1965, Peru) Already on ChatGPT’s list, but it’s worth doubling down—this track is proto-punk chaos incarnate.
    • The Saints – “(I’m) Stranded” (1976, Australia) Technically post-Ramones, but recorded early enough to feel proto. Raw and rebellious.

    🧠 Conceptual Picks

    • The Fugs – “Kill for Peace” (1966) Satirical, noisy, and politically charged. Proto-punk in spirit and execution.
    • Death – “Politicians in My Eyes” (1975) Detroit power trio that prefigured punk and hardcore. Their rediscovery is punk lore.

    🧷 Integration Ideas

    “AI Didn’t Catch These”: A cheeky blog add-on that shows your human edge.

    “Global Garage & Fuzz”: A themed section or playlist slice.

    “Too Weird to Ignore”: Yonkers, Iron Virgin, The Fugs—tracks that stretch the proto-punk label.

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  5. Post-post suggestions from ChatGPT:

    📌 Potential Additions

    I’ll keep these pre–Ramones (April 23, 1976) unless they’re too good to leave off, even if slightly later. I’ll also aim for some global & fringe entries. U.S. Garage / Proto-Punk

    • The Remains – “Don’t Look Back” (1966) – snarling Boston garage-rock.
    • The Shadows of Knight – “Oh Yeah” (1966) – Chicago blues-punk attitude.
    • Los Saicos – “Demolición” (1965, Peru) – South American proto-punk chaos.
    • The Monks – “I Hate You” (1966) – Even more abrasive than “Complication.”
    • The Sonics – “The Witch” (1964) – Probably their rawest track.

    Detroit / Midwest Aggression

    • Death – “Keep On Knocking” (1974) – earlier than “Politicians in My Eyes.”
    • The Rationals – “Respect” (1966) – garage-soul with grit.

    UK Pub Rock / Glam Crossovers

    • Dr. Feelgood – “She Does It Right” (1975) – rougher companion to “Roxette.”
    • Eddie and the Hot Rods – “Teenage Depression” (1976) – pre-punk UK energy.
    • Slaughter and the Dogs – “Cranked Up Really High” (1976) – walking the punk edge.

    Proto-New Wave / Art-Punk

    • Modern Lovers – “Pablo Picasso” (recorded 1972, released later) – caustic wit + minimalism.
    • Devo – “Mongoloid” (1977, recorded earlier) – subversive Ohio art-punk roots.

    International Curveballs

    The Rats – “Turtle Dove” (1974, Zambia) – Zamrock grit meets garage rawness.

    Shocking Blue – “Love Buzz” (1969, Netherlands) – psychedelic fuzz with punk drive.

    Os Mutantes – “Panis et Circenses” (1968, Brazil) – Tropicalia freak-energy.

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  6. The Cramps – “Goo Goo Muck” (not proto, but the best mutant child of Hasil’s DNA)

    Link Wray – “Hidden Charms” (’65, swampy & raw)

    Charlie Feathers – “Bottle to the Baby” (’56, rockabilly sneer that predates punk’s attitude)

    Hasil Adkins – “She Said” (1961).

    Hasil Adkins – “No More Hot Dogs”

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