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| No Thanks! The '70s Punk Rebellion | 
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| Artist: Various Artists
Label: Rhino / Wea
Category: Music
List Price: $64.98
Buy New: $39.99
You Save: $24.99 (38%)
New (25) Used (10) from $30.97
Avg. Customer Rating:  49 reviews
Sales Rank: 47420
Format: Box Set
Media: Audio CD
Discs: 4
Shipping Weight (lbs): 2
Dimensions (in): 12.3 x 6.1 x 1.4
MPN: 73926
UPC: 081227392628
EAN: 0766481275145
ASIN: B0000DD539
Release Date: October 28, 2003
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: Brand new, factory sealed. Fast shipping!
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| Customer Reviews:
 Amazing, Then And Now March 5, 2005
10 out of 10 found this review helpful
It should be obvious to those looking here that punk is not about the style or being bratty just to get on your parent's nerves. That would be "punk rock," aka Good Charlotte/Yellowcard/any other generic pop-punk today. Punk was a position, a radical position at the time. New wave, while there were redeeming moments, corrupted this ideal and made it safe. Early grunge and underground music made it wild again, until the former became mainstream and redundant, leaving the latter to gradually rise up in opposition. But this was where it started. And thank God.
This collection is for anyone who wants to be reassured, or potentially taught, that punk did not just mean simple, generic, almost alike songs. There may be those that say punk was the "return to the great two-and-a-half minute singles," and while this was true to a great extent, there were those exceptions that made the classification special and exciting. All of this is represented in just the right amounts, just enough simple British punk, just enough art-punk, just enough hardcore, etc. It's also a way to show anyone who writes off punk as interminal skronk as people who were seriously engulfed in their work, even if their work wasn't entirely serious. It's catchy as hell, even the artsy stuff, and even with those that "couldn't play," there are still those that can truly play their instruments. This box set shows every side of things related to the genre.
Most importantly, there are the songs themselves. Every song has a right to be on here, as they all represent something similarly primal in its spirit but different in its execution. It's incredibly difficult to pick out the best songs, as practically all amaze me; still, the ones that most amaze me are the things I had not heard before, potentially for that reason. I knew the Ramones, the Clash, Television, Suicide, Dead Kennedys, Richard Hell, X, etc. When I finally heard work of bands I had heard of but never listened to, the true revelations began: the Buzzcocks (especially "Ever Fallen In Love..."), the Germs ("Lexicon Devil" is now in my top five favorite songs), the Only Ones ("Another Girl, Another Planet" is the best power-pop song ever), the Cramps ("Human Fly" is one of the weirdest catchy songs I know), the Rich Kids (the melody of "Ghosts of Princes in Towers" is irresistable), Subway Sect (I love the synth effects on "Ambition"), X-Ray Spex ("Oh Bondage Up Yours!" is just plain fun), etc.
You could argue that the absence of the Sex Pistols is a big detriment to the credibility of these discs. And yes, sure, the Sex Pistols were the greatest punk band of them all. But if you don't own their "Never Mind The Bollocks..." then you should buy it immediately. Every song on there is indispensable, making it the first necessary punk purchase (a fact confirmed in the liner notes to this box set, actually). Once you own that, there's arguably little need for the rest of the Sex Pistols material, and then their appearance on this set would be pointless. After that, one could argue bands like the Au Pairs, the Raincoats, and the no-wave movement are inexplicably missing. And one of my personal favorite bands I didn't expect to find here but I was really hoping: Simply Saucer (their album "Cyborgs Revisited" is a true unknown noisy masterpiece that only gets better with each repeated listen). Still, this box set distills the best of the rest with their best songs, and places them together in a totally cohesive manner, that allows for repeated, continuous listening, something uncommon for box sets. This is both a testament to Rhino for being able to put together such a comprehensive collection and to the musicians present for their truly timeless music, in all its rage and joy.
Thanks For NO THANKS December 16, 2003
9 out of 10 found this review helpful
Rhino Records, Thanks for this collection! Having just sold my turntable and having just burnt through my (second copy of)"Burning Ambitions: A History of Punk Rock" LP, I have been given the best gift an old punk could get. This 4 CD collection really does touch on all the major and minor bands from the time (minus one, of course). Many of these songs I already own on CD, but to have them mixed in with all thier brothers and sisters is awesome! I am not going to touch on the songs-you can read the list yourself. Nothing there not to like.
What I want to do is mention the book-The liner notes by Chris Morris are perfect. This is someone that truly loves this music and presents the history in a manner that is interesting, fun and accurate. The notes to this set really help the punk movement (in my memories) come alive again. Also, Rhino's book is the best one that I have ever found. I mean that in the sense that you can read it and it wont fall apart, no more pages coming loose and spines breaking. I knew that it could be done!
Boy, listening to this collection, and reading this book really makes me wonder what has happend to music. I know that there are some good bands out there-Interpol, White Stripes, etc., but the state of radio today and what kids will settle for. I am glad that my generation didn't judge the music by the hip-huggers. Buy this for yourself, make your chidren listen.
As Chris Morris says in the notes (I paraphrase), "maybe it'll inspire you to start a band, a fanzine or open a record store."
The key word in that sentence is "inspire". That is what this music does. I don't know how anyone could get much inspiration from Greenday.
Amazing and Essential July 23, 2005
9 out of 9 found this review helpful
Want a near-perfect primer on punk? A set of dozens and dozens of tracks by the bands who got it going? Well, you could do a whole lot worse than this four-CD set. No, the Pistols aren't here - they wouldn't allow it, apparently. But with so many great tunes by so many bands, this is more just observation than complaint.
What you do get with "No Thanks," is the Ramones, the Jam, the Clash, Richard Hell and the Voidoids, Patti Smith, Generation X, the Dictators, the Damned and scads of others reminding us one more time just what you can do with a few chords, a few scruffy friends, and a dislike of the music you're currently hearing on the radio. And the tunes? Howzabout "Born to Lose," "Blitzkrieg Bop," "Search and Destroy," "Alternative Ulster," "X Offender," "Sonic Reducer" and "Hanging on the Telephone" to name but a few? In fact, plowing through these discs - and skimming the COOL book included with this set - it's amazing to think that almost all of these tunes and these bands came out within just a few short years of each other. Incredible.
But even though "No Thanks" is comprised mainly of tunes from Punk's mid-70s to 1980 heyday, there are tracks by the Stooges, New York Dolls, Modern Lovers and a few others just to show us how Iggy and his like paved the sonic path to New York and London of '76. Likewise, there's a nod to the LA punk of a slightly later vintage (Fear, X, Black Flag).
Of course, whatever it is that's represented here couldn't last. Whatever was punk rock at one time has splintered into various factions, died, been resurrected and, for better or worse, become a bigger part of popular culture than it ever was when the bands represented here were at their peak. For today's up & coming punk kids, after all, it might be hard to imagine why Blondie or Nick Lowe would ever have been considered punk to begin with. But "No Thanks" is a look back at a time when 'punk' was less about a narrowly defined style of music as it was about a certain attitude that went along with several loosely related styles of music. Which is why this set, in capturing a whole herd of prime exponents of a musical/cultural scene, is so worthwhile for both kids and their postpunk moms and dads. It's fast, catchy, wild, and just about as much pissed-off fun as you can cram onto four CDs.
 Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Boxset February 17, 2006
9 out of 14 found this review helpful
Everyone can gripe about what they left out but I am more concerned about what was included. You get the obvious (Blitzkrieg Bop, Search and Destroy, White Riot, Blank Generation), a few real gems (Patti Smith's deconstruction of Hey Joe)and some real duds (The Strangler's "Peaches", Ian Dury "Sex and Drugs and Rock and Roll") to stuff that isn't even punk (Joe Jackson, Elvis Costello). Though its cool not to always pick obvious songs by an artist it seems that perhaps some of the choices were because they couldn't get the rights to better known songs. I mean whoever heard of The Soft Boys "I Want to Be an Anglepoise Lamp". I would have picked "I Want to Destroy You". Or Ultravox "Saturday Night in the City of the Dead". It was from the first album before they even developed their sound. So yes this is a history of punk but with pub rock and deservedly lesser known pop punk bands. Whoever thought that punk would some day be watered down into parent-friendly pop punk/emo that would crowd out the bands with real talent. So if you know about punk then the boxset may not really give you any more ideas but if you can't wait to catch the Warped Tour every year then "No Thanks" might save you from a life of desperation.
another generation's music became mine August 4, 2004
7 out of 7 found this review helpful
where to start? how 'bout here: next to pavement's sprawling masterpiece, _wowee zowee_--which introduced me to the independent musical underground and everything that followed--this box set of tracks culled from punk's golden age is the most influential, most inspiring, most educational, most...important musical purchase of my entire life. want proof? since buying this set in march, i've bought albums by the buzzcocks, the modern lovers, blondie, elvis costello, nick lowe, two by the pretenders, t.rex, wire, sex pistols, gang of four, two by joy division, three by ultravox, five by joe jackson, four by david bowie...and on top of that, *box sets* by pere ubu, the talking heads, brian eno, the clash, the misfits, and i'm pondering laying down the dough for the jam's new set. this is not to mention the dozens of bands featured on _no thanks!_ that are still on my waiting list (the boys, iggy pop, generation x, soft boys, the damned, richard hell, x, ian dury, the vibrators, tom robinson band, x-ray spex, etc etc). even if all of these aforementioned artists weren't included on this set, references in the literature--and in the songs of the bands that were included--to their music and their influence prompted me to check them out. most of these records were purchased by selling off albums in my own collection. that's how fundamentally this music changed me.
it literally changed my world. before listening, i was indifferent punk, thought it was overrated if i thought anything at all: low on talent, low on discipline, low on melody. _no thanks!_ and the folks at rhino who put it together taught me i was wrong on all counts (well, except maybe the "discipline" bit...this music could not have been made by disciplined individuals...it is anti-discipline). everything here is essential, everything inspirational one way or another. it's all so friggin' passionate! it demands to be heard. it forces life back into an art form that had been commercialized and parodied to the point of emerson lake and palmers and grand funk railroads. not to mention disco. the accompanying literature--two historical articles and at least a paragraph on every single song included--does an excellent job of putting it all into perspective, demonstrating why the music was important then, and why it's still important today. listening and reading along, i was converted...a thousand doors opened at once.
i honestly can't recommend this boxed set highly or sincerely enough. it will change you.
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