The 16 greatest albums from the punk movement, according to Elvis Costello
Trends come and go with the changing of the tides, but the advent of punk rock was so much more than a run-of-the-mill musical fad. It was an all-encompassing cultural revolution.
Built upon staunch DIY principles, a rejection of the musical mainstream, and taking rock back to its raucous roots, the punk scene was unlike anything that had come prior. Among the safety pins, bondage trousers, and heroin needles, Elvis Costello was among the most promising young songwriters to emerge from the punk age, and he soon eclipsed its parameters.
An archetypal angry young man, Costello’s attitude was inescapably punk rock, but his musical material was far more expansive. The slogan ‘Here’s three chords, now start a band’, is often cited as the core manifesto of the original punk wave, but by the time The Damned released ‘New Rose’ in 1976 – officially kicking off the UK’s punk age – Costello already boasted prolific songwriting skill and a broad musical taste to boot.
From childhood, Costello had been surrounded by a wide range of music, incorporating everybody from Burt Bacharach to Cilla Black into his list of inspirations. His own father, Ross MacManus, had been a professional trumpet player from Birkenhead, so he was raised amid a wealth of different musical styles, and the knowledge that it was a viable career. This led to a broad appreciation from a young age, it just so happens that he rose to the fore as the snarlin’ age got startin’.
What’s more, Costello never particularly subscribed to the aesthetics of punk, either. While groups like the Sex Pistols or The Clash were decked out in scruffy, hand-painted shirts and brightly-coloured PVC, Costello was most often seen in smart suits with his trademark thick-rimmed spectacles. In a scene full of people desperate to stand out from the crowd, Costello was a true original, too non-conformist even for punk.
As he explained, “I acknowledge that at least two of the Sex Pistols’ singles are excellent,” but he also swiftly added, ”I felt that early punk rock deliberately sought attention with elements like safety pins. Thrashing around in blind fury often doesn’t convey a point as effectively as a quiet threat and can sometimes be a bit vain.”
Nevertheless, punk rock opened up the songwriter’s musical avenues. The world was first introduced to the defiant tones of Elvis Costello on the 1977 album My Aim Is True, but his performing career stretched much further back. And it was the open ear of punk that helped to open doors for him.
Throughout the early 1970s, Costello performed in various folk-rock outfits and eventually became a disciple of pub rock, worshipping groups like Dr Feelgood and his pal Nick Lowe. When punk came around, everything seemed to fall into place for the songwriter, and he took full advantage.
But perhaps it was his wry, direct, and pithy attitude that most closely aligned him with the movement. As he comically summarised pop songwriting in its entirety, “There are five things to write songs about: I’m leaving you. You’re leaving me. I want you. You don’t want me. I believe in something. Five subjects, and 12 notes. For all that, we musicians do pretty well.”
Given that punk rock gave Costello his first burst into the musical mainstream, it should come as no surprise that the songwriter still holds a lot of those early punk releases very close to his heart. Back in 2013, the ‘Radio, Radio’ singer curated a list of 500 essential albums for Vanity Fair, and among his impressively diverse picks, there was a healthy representation of punk and alternative rock.
In addition to citing the precursors to punk, such as The Velvet Underground, Costello highlighted 16 albums from the golden age of the genre. Largely concerned with the prominent groups of the UK scene, such as The Clash, The Jam, and The Sex Pistols, Costello also made sure to pay tribute to the efforts of those across the Atlantic, with Iggy Pop, Richard Hell, Blondie, and The Modern Lovers and the great Television all present within his list.
Costello’s list of punk albums reads like a comprehensive history of the genre as a whole. From its core beginnings, in the form of New York Dolls, to the various different scenes it soon splintered into, such as the mod revival of The Jam, or the new wave sounds of Blondie. If anything, the list showcases how quickly the movement branched out. Clearly, it didn’t fizzle out, it just evolved. If the Pistols can still be heard in the Pogues that gives you a good idea of its reach beyond ‘77.
The songwriter’s picks are expectedly diverse, and speak both to his famously extensive music taste as well as the undeniable impact he had on those early days of punk rock in the United Kingdom. And we’ve wrapped all the releases up into a cracking playlist at the foot of the piece for your enjoyment, too.
Elvis Costello’s favourite punk albums:
- Blondie – The Best of Blondie (1981)
- The Clash – London Calling (1979)
- The Clash – The Singles (1991)
- Ian Dury – New Boots and Panties!! (1977)
- Richard Hell and the Voidoids – Blank Generation (1977)
- The Jam – All Mod Cons (1978)
- The Modern Lovers – The Modern Lovers (1976)
- New York Dolls – New York Dolls (1973)
- The Pogues – Rum, Sodomy & the Lash (1985)
- Iggy Pop – The Idiot (1977)
- Iggy Pop – Lust for Life (1977)
- The Pretenders – Pretenders (1980)
- The Pretenders – The Singles (1987)
- The Sex Pistols – Never Mind the Bollocks, Here’s the Sex Pistols (1977)
- Television – Marquee Moon (1977)
- The Undertones – The Undertones (1980)
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