49. The Sonics - !!!Here Are the Sonics!!! (1965)

1. The Witch*

2. Do You Love Me

3. Roll Over Beethoven

4. Boss Hoss*

5. Dirty Robber

6. Have Love Will Travel

7. Psycho

8. Money (That's What I Want)

9. Walking the Dog

10. Night Time Is the Right Time

11. Strychnine*

12. Good Golly Miss Molly

A-

So this album wasn't the first instance of hard rock. The Kinks released "You Really Got Me" in 1964, and "Louie Louie" came out in 1963. But even so, it's a fucking heavy record. It's comprised mostly of covers, but the real standouts are the original compositions. "The Witch", with it's stop-start guitar riff and thunderous drums, is unlike anything else. And it's about a witch, for some reason, which is awesome and prefaces the bizarre subject matter of so much punk rock. Then you have "Boss Hoss", a thunderous ode to a kick ass automobile that again features a fantastically heavy sound and deeply odd timing. "Psycho" is just pure vitriol, and wonderful. And "Strychnine" is like nothing else. I mean what do you make, in 1965, of a band singing a thunderously heavy ode to drinking a deadly poison?

So yes, the Sonics were an odd bunch.

The rest of the album consists or remarkably solid covers of 1950s rock tunes. The sound is heavy and strange throughout. "The Witch" features almost surf-like guitar solos. Many of the tracks are accompanied by a saxophone that hits like a punk guitar solo. It's all pretty magnificent. One of the best songs (included on the rerelease but not the original LP) is "Santa Claus", where in response to the question "what fills my stocking at Christmas" singer Gerry Roslie just screams "NOTHING!" over and over again.

I'm always a bit iffy about regarding things as proto-punk. As Borges said, things tend to create their own antecedents. But then again, several of these songs were issued on important compilations in the early 70s, and did in fact have a big and direct influence on punk. But putting all that aside, this is just a great rock & roll record. It's about as heavy as you could get in 1965, and it's wonderfully catchy while also being deeply strange. Everything is recorded in the red. Roslie bellows like a lunatic, and the rhythm section is just plain evil.  If you like 50s rock but always wished it hit harder, or you're interested in the birth of punk, then this is a pretty great record to get. It's the platonic ideal of the "strip it down and crank it up" approach to rock.