My Top 1000 Songs #925: Sheena Is A Punk Rocker

Growing up sheltered in the midwestern suburbs, still a ways off from my teen years and wedded to my transistor radio and the local pop station, the murmurings I'd hear about "punk music"--vague allusions in the articles I was reading as I started to seek out music that lay outside the Top 40--sounded scary and intimidating. Definitely too aggressive and nasty for this shy, nerdy kid.

But, somehow, songs like the Ramones' "Sheena Is A Punk Rocker" (a single on their third LP, 1977's Rocket To Russia) hit my radar screen--I have no recollection how, certainly not on that Top 40 station--and all of a sudden, punk didn't seem so scary. This was pop music, not radically different from what I'd already been listening to, just wrapped up in tattered jeans and leather jackets. I might find some good music outside the safe confines of that handheld transistor radio after all.

Animated video:

Live:

Husker Du live cover (audio):

Shonen Knife:

Yo La Tengo live:

The Rubinoos live: