49. The Sonics — !!!Here Are The Sonics!!! (1965)

Misleadingly clean cut

1. I’ve at least heard of the vast majority of the artists on this list so far, but The Sonics are totally new to me. What a delightful discovery. I had no idea punk rock existed this early, nor that the Seattle rock scene was a thing in 1965. This album is raw and aggressive and everything that rock would end up becoming (at least until it became neutered by electronic sounds in the 2010s). This is prototypical garage rock. It’s awesome.
2. The first track, “The Witch,” makes clear that this is definitively a punk album. The drums smack you across the face; the guitars make you want to smash something; the vocals are intense. We haven’t heard anything quite like this yet.
3. It’s a bit of a shock to the senses when the album shifts gears immediately into the poppier rock and roll covers of “Do You Love Me” and “Roll Over Beethoven.” These are good tracks, no doubt, but I’ve heard those songs, and I’ve heard them by bands that are better built to play them. They’re a bit heavier here than when performed by a group like The Beatles, but they’re still relatively straightforward covers. I like The Sonics more when they start slamming again, and they jump back into their sound with hte original “Boss Hoss,” building back up nicely to the peak track on the album, their definitive cover of “Have Love Will Travel.”
4. That cover of “Have Love Will Travel” is revelatory. The original, by Richard Berry, is fine. It’s a song. It happens. The Sonics’ cover gives it a complete overhaul to the point of being practically unrecognizable, changing the chord structure, adding fuzzy guitars, and a pounding drumbeat. This song could be released today exactly as it was recorded in 1965 and it’d fit in just fine. It’s no wonder The Black Keys covered it as well; the Keys have basically spent their career chasing the sound that the Sonics perfected here. Any remake should have a reason for existing; you could argue that a few of the covers on !!!Here Are The Sonics!!! don’t have a good reason for being (with the caveat that this was just the way pop music worked), but “Have Love Will Travel” is absolutely necessary.
5. On a whole, this is the sort of thing I love about doing this list. I’ve discovered a rad new band, and can draw a clear line directly from them to the punk rock of The Clash on to grunge (with bonus seattle connection!) and finally through to the garage rock revival of the Strokes/White Stripes/etc in the 00’s. I have a better sense of everything now. Awesome.

One Essential Song:

Listen on Spotify: