Thursday 20 March 2008

Top 5 songs by The Sonics

A bit earlier than normal as it's a Bank Holiday weekend and, more importantly, I'm off to see The Sonics play live at the Forum on Friday night. I was introduced to The Sonics about 5 years ago and they pretty much turned everything I thought I knew about music on it's head. Formed in the early sixties they were initially an instrumental band until Organist Gerry Roslie began to sing vocals in 1964. Roslie's raw vocals combined with the band's wild distorted music to create a proto-punk vibe. More than ten years before the Ramones or the Sex Pistols, The Sonics were the true originators of a punk rock sound. They were pretty much over by 1968, and apart from a brief reunion gig in 1972 haven't played together for over 35 years. I'm really quite excited about seeing them.

All of my choices come from their 1965 debut album "Here Are The Sonics" (which means I clearly need to re-do my top 5 albums), I did try to squeeze something in from second album "Boom" but these five were just too good to ignore.

1. Strychnine


2. Have Love Will Travel


3. Witch


4. Dirty Robber


5. Psycho

.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Boss hoss, he's waitin...also great tunes.