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Who better to talk punk rock with than John Doe of X?
Thus, I used the occasion of X’s return to San Francisco to chat up the legendary X man about his all-time favorite punk albums. He was definitely game, but he broadened the topic to include records that influenced him as a punk-rock musician.
“Some are punk rock and some are on the borders of punk rock,” he said during our recent phone interview.
X — featuring vocalist-bassist Doe, vocalist Exene Cervenka, guitarist Billy Zoom and drummer D.J. Bonebrake — comes to the Fillmore Nov. 23-24 in an excellent double bill with Los Lobos. Elettrodomestico, featuring Jane Wiedlin of the Go-Go’s, is also on the bill. Show time is 8 p.m. and tickets are $55, www.livenation.com.
So here’s Doe’s list of albums, complete with his commentary. Albums are organized by year of release:
“Raw Power,” the Stooges (1973): “I came to this late. I didn’t hear ‘Raw Power’ until probably ’77. I was already in L.A. And when I heard that I thought, ‘Why didn’t somebody tell me about this before?’ And I was mad at all my friends in Baltimore, like, ‘What the (expletive)? You’re supposed to know things and help me out.’”
“The Modern Lovers,” the Modern Lovers (1976): “Another one I heard once I got to L.A. was the Modern Lovers’ record. I would say that was on pretty much everybody’s turntable. Anybody who could find a copy had that on their turntable.”
“Leave Home,” the Ramones (1977): ”It’s hard to pick a Ramones record. But you have to. If it’s anything that has to do with punk rock, you have to pick a Ramones album. So, I somewhat arbitrarily picked ‘Leave Home.’ I don’t know. I like second records of bands. It’s like they’ve gotten the first blast out and this is either where they fail or start hitting their stride.”
“Damned Damned Damned,” the Damned (1977): “It kind of blew our minds. They came to L.A. early on — like in early ’77. Maybe we had seen the Ramones. But maybe not. Their (the Damned) records were great because they were kind of messy. They were real punk-rock records. You could tell they didn’t have a great studio that they recorded in and that they didn’t have the best microphones. With the Sex Pistols, you could kind of hear that, ‘Oh, yeah, they’ve got big (expletive) microphones and fancy recording studio.’
“The Damned blew the Sex Pistols out of the water, to me. Because the Damned made a real punk-rock record. And they did it in a week — or less.
“When we saw them live, we realized, ‘Oh, you can do that. You can be that (expletive) crazy and loud and wonderful.’”
“(GI),” the Germs (1979): “When we saw the lyrics sheets to the Germs ‘(GI),’ we were like, ‘(Expletive), that’s what he was saying? Darby (Crash) is not an idiot. He’s really smart.’
“Don’t know if you ever met Darby, but he was very mysterious. He seemed like kind of a goofy, twisted surfer kid. But you knew something was there. Then you read the lyrics to the songs and thought, ‘(Expletive) this guy is deep!’
“Better Luck,” the Plugz (1981): Unbelievable record. Best recorded record. They had taken what they showed people they could do off the first record and just expanded — like made it 4D. It’s interesting, because it’s really hard to find. And if you could find a good copy of it, it’s (expletive) expensive – like a $200 record. Oh, it’s so good. It’s just a beautiful record.”
“The Make It All Show,” Skating Polly (2018): Exene produced a record of theirs about five years ago and I think at that time Peyton (Bighorse), the older sister, and Kelli (Mayo) were — I don’t know — like 15 and 11 or something insane. It’s kind of crazy. They are incredibly creative. And now they are getting some notice.“
“Friendship Music,” Surfbort (2018): They write punk-rock songs in a more classic style. It’s not hardcore. It’s more classic punk rock. They will get a good chorus — they will get one good line — and they just repeat it over and over again. I kind of like that.”
