1. Patrik Fitzgerald - Safety Pin Stuck In My Heart
90% of the time I was sure this was my lead track. It's essentially acoustic but biting. The crescendo gets more desperate, more pained and perhaps I am too fond of the "beat beat beat beat beating" part. :P
2. Buzzcocks - Ever Fallen In Love (With Someone You Shouldn't've)
A classic. Probably the first song that should spring to mind when thinking of punk rock love songs. The song takes on an extra layer when taking into account the singer's bisexuality. Also according to wikipedia, this song was inspired by a line from Guys and Dolls. Yay! <3
3. The Clash - 1-2 Crush On You
A b-side! Very sweet and poppy almost :)
4. The Casualties - Punk Rock Love
A long time ago, I would listen to college radio stations and hit record on a cassette deck to tape songs. Somewhere I have this song lovingly starting with the crackle of static. I almost made this the first song.
Not related to this song except by title, Aaron Cometbus once wrote a piece called "Punk Rock Love Is...", a line of which goes: "and you're thinking how she is maybe even better than the Ramones." :D
5. T.S.O.L. - Code Blue
C'mon, I HAD to. It's about necrophilia. I know every single word and I chant along. Fav line: "I don't even care how she died / I like it better when she smells like formaldehyde." The Bouncing Souls would cover this live quite often when I saw them years ago. I wonder if they still do? "Do what I want and they don't complain!" XD
6. Stiff Little Fingers - Barbed Wire Love
I'd heard a cover of this before I found the original. You think, oh how sweet another metaphorical song about how love hurts and all that, except they're from Northern Ireland in the 70s and maybe those barbed wires aren't so metaphorical after all. Ted Leo loves them, covers "Suspect Device" all the time. He should cover this one :)
7. Bouncing Souls - Quick Chek Girl
Love Jersey style! The kids would scream for this one all the time and we'd scream along though perhaps the song demands more introspection, like when Greg makes a nice pause during "But I thought about the way she looked at me and said to myself... maybe." Also the date he describes definitely could be on Cometbus's list. Trufax! This song is so cute BUT SO HEARTBREAKING by the time he says "do you want me to help you count the papers?" Gah.
8. The Guttersnipes - Addicted to Love
Another really poppy song, off a compilation. The handclaps make this for me.
9. Limp Wrist - I Love Hardcore Boys, I Love Boys Hardcore
Shortest song on my mix, but entirely essential for its mayhem and catchy simple chorus. One of my best show experiences ever. Subtextual homoeroticism in hardcore mosh pits made explicit? :)
10. Gang of Four - Damaged Goods
This might've been my first song, especially for the cutting line "Sometimes I'm thinking that I love you / But I know it's only lust." Still, I stuck with Patrik Fitzgerald for the focus mostly on love, however messed up. "Your sweat so sour" is great alliteration.
11. Rancid - Corazon de Oro
Aww, I had to go soft for another moment. Rancid tones down their more typical punk-sound for this, where the chorus goes "I'm just looking for a girl, the girl with a heart of gold." As always, I love Tim's way with words; the way he says "with her total recklessness" has a tinge of pride and rebuke.
12. Ramones - Today Your Love, Tomorrow The World
Winnar!! The title alone would make it a fitting ending to my mix, except it's more than that. It's that most of the song is about a Nazi German soldier fighting for the fatherland, even though Joey is Jewish! That it makes a strange juxtaposition, the thrill of war and of love, both as conquests, and that feeling of being on top of the world.
So it turns out that a muxtape is 12 songs, not 14 as I originally thought. Which was almost a good thing as I was stuck between getting rid of my last cuts: Bratmobile's P.R.D.C.T. and the Adicts' Love Sucks. Arg, they fit so perfectly into the mix! Bratmobile would've been my only female sung track and it's about a "punk rock dream come true." The Adicts song is self-explanatory, but catchy as always and humorous. Oh well.
Here are the other tracks I had to cut:
- Outcasts - Love You For Never
- Outcasts - Self-conscious Over You
- Pansy Division - Luv Luv Luv (another track by a gay group, but it was one of their less punk-sounding ones, though the topic was about how all love songs really just suck)
- Operation Ivy - Bombshell (Haha, short song but with the chorus "She she she she's a bombshell!")
- Rancid - Radio, Radio (this was love for music, so it had to go)
the Adicts - Tango (Has the tantalizing lyrics: "We had laughter / And then after" ...) - Bratmobile - Panik (About a crush on a girl who's "the Joanest Jett around!")
- Joe Strummer - Love Kills (Joe!! But one of the longer tracks and was more from his pop-rock phase)
- Raooul - I Had Jesse Blatz (Erg, another girl (literally, they were a bunch of sixteen year olds) sung short ditty about having their way with one of Berkeley's more wellknown punk scenesters. Also completely hilarious. "Lay off babe! I'll call you later. But I never did.")
- Anti-Nowhere League - Woman (Great song that starts off all slow and mellow with the guy professing his love for this woman and marrying her and by the time three minutes have passed they hate each other completely and want to divorce/murder/suicide. Ha!)
- Jilted John - Jilted John (Oh man. I spent a long time tracking this down, as I read about it several times in punk history books. The character John is dumped by Julie and spends the rest of the song making fun of her and her new boyfriend. "Gordon is a moron! Gordon is a moron!")
- The Damned - Love Song
- Lunachicks - Don't Want You (Erg, I wanted so much for more girls on my mix. Maybe I'll make one with just punk rock girls. This song is self-explanatory. Has the great line: "I thought you could be the butter for my toast" :)
- Bratmobile - Gimme Brains ("A girl could starve on a boy like you / With nothing left to offer so that means that we're through / And yeah so that also means that we're not friends, alright!" That alright part always gets me.)
- The Distillers - Dismantle Me (Another female-sung song. Oi, there's drama between Brody and Tim of Rancid. I can't bring myself to hate her though, especially with that primal wail she lets out near the end of the song. Respect.)
