Wire | The Che Underground

(Guest columnist Paul Kaufman picks his favorite late ’70s LP as part of the ongoing series originated by Wallflowers frontman David Rinck.)

Best album from 1977? There’s a lot of competition. Of course, a lot of press covered the Sex Pistols’ “Never Mind the Bollocks” and the first Clash album; deservedly so.

But if I had to choose just one from that year to take to a desert isle, it would be “Pink Flag” by Wire. This primitive collection of 20 very short songs (some under 1 minute) dramatically threw down the aesthetic gauntlet back then: all you boring, epic-writing, guitar soloing prog rockers are now obsolete. Without the overt political slogans of the time, they were nevertheless revolutionary in their sound and approach. Spare three chord music; spare imagery:

Read moreThis we Dug: Wire

(Here’s Part Three from Che stalwart Paul Kaufman on how his young self was Dead Wrong on some major issues of our time.)

In the comments following Dave Rinck’s recent “This We Dug: The Sex Pistols” post, Dave Ellison perfectly nailed how I felt about hearing those records for the first time: “the Sex Pistols album made all the rock music, clothes, hairstyles, etc. that were around at the time seem completely outdated.” It’s hard to cast your mind back to fully capture how revolutionary it felt.

It was so clear in 1977. The Ramones and Patti Smith at CBGB, the Sex Pistols, Clash, Wire, X-Ray Spex, 999 and all the rest in England. So vibrant, making commercial radio (and San Diego was ALL commercial radio) taste like a mouthful of ashes. As a 13-year-old, I envisioned all the old boring stuff would be swept away in a tide of cultural and political enlightenment in the US. The UK was actually having records in the Top 10 that you didn’t have to leave the room for — why not in the US, too?