Ranking the best British punk albums of 1977
Since the rise of The Beatles and the subsequent British Invasion, no movement in music has had such a monumental impact as that of punk. The genre’s roots are generally traced back to proto-punk outfits of the late 1960s and early ’70s, such as The Velvet Underground, The Stooges and New York Dolls. The subsequent transition to pure punk was generally attributed to Ramones in the mid-70s before it took flight across the Atlantic.
Punk arrived in the UK with first-wave artists like Sex Pistols, Buzzcocks and The Clash, who invariably put their talents to good use framing politically-charged commentary. There were nuances between these early punk groups due to differing pools of influence. For instance, Sex Pistols were heavily inspired by classic British rock, American proto-punk and glam rock, while The Clash took stronger cues from British pub rock and reggae music.
Intriguingly, The Stranglers can just about qualify as having been a proto-punk, punk and post-punk group over the course of their highly influential career. Upon forming in 1974, they were identified as a pub rock group and incidentally were a pivotal influence on The Clash’s late frontman Joe Strummer.
As Hugh Cornwell of The Stranglers recalled in a 2023 interview with Classic Rock, John Mellor, the aspiring singer of the pub rock band 101ers, was among his band’s earliest and most devout disciples. “He was in tears backstage after one gig,” Cornwell commented. “He said, ‘I want a band like yours.’ The following week he changed his name to Joe Strummer and was in The Clash.”
“None of us were really punk,” he added in the same conversation. “But it was an opportunity. Who cares what they call us? This is our chance to get in through the door. The necessity of adopting a pose appealed to our provocative nature.”
As Cornwell outlined, punk wasn’t the perfect fit for many groups that have, all the same, fallen beneath the banner. A wide sprawling genre, its members are bound by a knack for provocation and cultural turbulence. With this in mind, The Stranglers’ 1977 debut album qualifies as just one of the year’s brilliant British punk records.
Below, we rank the best British punk albums from 1977, the year that witnessed the first wave of the genre in the UK. I’d finally like to note that I haven’t forgotten you, Buzzcocks fans, but I’m afraid the brilliant Spiral Scratch doesn’t qualify for this list as an EP.
The best British punk albums of 1977:
6. The Damned – Damned Damned Damned
It feels somewhat unjust to place The Damned at the bottom of the pile, but one has only to review the below masterpieces to understand that this is still a position of honour. The Damned was formed in 1976 with all the elements of a successful punk band. With nicknames like Captain Sensible and Rat Scabies and a host of raw, provocative hits, they were an obvious contender for Sex Pistols’ throne.
In February 1977, The Damned released their debut album Damned Damned Damned and became the first UK punk group to release a full-length record. The album includes the band’s 1976 breakout single ‘New Rose’, which was joined by other highly influential classics like ‘Neat Neat Neat’, ‘Fan Club’, ‘See Her Tonite’ and ‘I Fall’.
5. The Jam – In the City
While Sex Pistols garbed themselves in designer rags, chokers and chains, Paul Weller steered The Jam in quite the opposite direction, aesthetically. With bands like Small Faces and The Who among their biggest influences, The Jam sought to revive the Mod wave of the late 1960s. Crucially, this involved sharp suits and lengthy sideburns.
While the influences of Mod rock can be heard in The Jam’s material, especially their latter albums, In The City is the most punchy, unrefined and thus the most emblematic of the concurrent emergence of punk. The album is by no means the band’s best, but the eponymous single and ‘Art School’ still hold up as indispensable classics of the era.
4. Wire – Pink Flag
In November 1977, Wire made their first notch on punk’s battered bedpost with the explosive debut, Pink Flag. The album has a distinctive sound thanks to distorted rhythm guitar progressions and Colin Newman’s gravelly, lisping vocals. Thanks to the Wire’s deviation from contemporary punk convention, they’ve garnered a strong cult following and were highly influential on the later emergence of noise rock and hardcore punk.
Several factors deem Pink Flag a rare gem, but most bizarrely, it consists of 21 tracks across just two sides of 12″ vinyl. Many of these artistic fragments don’t even breach the one-minute mark but never fail to rouse the eardrums. Most memorable, of course, are the album’s fully fledged songs, including ‘Reuters’, ‘Ex Lion Tamer’, ‘Lowdown’, ‘Strange’ and ‘Mannequin’.
3. The Stranglers – Rattus Norvegicus
Though they had been a small venue haunt since 1974, The Stranglers introduced their unique punk-meets-pub-rock sound to the wider market with their seismic debut album, Rattus Norvegicus. With Dave Greenfield’s melodic keys and JJ Burnel’s dynamic bass playing, punk wasn’t a perfect fit but close enough for the band to join their peers and benefit from the burgeoning craze.
Rattus Norvegicus is best known for ‘Peaches’, its popular second single fraught with innuendo. With the impetus of Burnel’s catchy bass hook, the ‘Peaches’ soared to number eight on the UK Singles Chart. Elsewhere on the album, ‘Sometimes’, ‘Hanging Around’, ‘(Get A) Grip (On Yourself)’ and ‘Down in the Sewer’ fleshed out what is undoubtedly the band’s masterpiece.
2. Sex Pistols – Never Mind the Bollocks, Here’s the Sex Pistols
It would be sacrilege for Sex Pistols not to appear in the upper region of this list. In fact, some out there will no doubt rebuke me for not having it in first position. Johnny Rotten and the gang weren’t the most talented musicians in the world, nor on this list, for that matter. However, credit must be paid to those who can lift a middle finger to the man and spur cultural upheaval with provocative hits like ‘God Save the Queen’.
“It was just about the attitude,” Peter Hook, the bassist of Joy Division and New Order, said while discussing the Sex Pistols gig that changed his life in an interview with Far Out. “The fact that what they were doing was so different. The week before, I’d been to see Led Zeppelin, and that was great; they played fantastically, but they weren’t inspiring – as in, come along and change your life, inspiring. So, yeah, the Sex Pistols spoke to me and said, ‘Pack it in’, okay, ‘give up your job, and get out and join the circus.'”
1. The Clash – The Clash
Sitting proudly at the top of the pile is The Clash’s eponymous debut of April 1977. Inspired by The Stranglers’ early pub-rock gigs in London, Joe Strummer led The Clash in a more contemporaneous direction to meet the demands of the punk wave. While Johnny Rotten thrived on a vocal style of over-enunciation, Strummer gave a more relaxed lisping drool not dissimilar to that of Wire’s Colin Newman.
Musically, The Clash prospered over the late 1970s by welcoming threads of rockabilly, ska, reggae and funk to their sound, but the band presented their purest punk material in The Clash. Sociopolitical impulses were ubiquitous on the album with memorable titles like ‘White Riot’, ‘Janie Jones’, ‘London’s Burning’ and ‘Police & Thieves’, a jagged, punk-infused cover of Junior Murvin’s original foretelling of the reggae influences to come. For cultural influence, poignant significance and musical enjoyment, The Clash crosses the line a nose ahead.
