So why is The Sonics’ Here Are The Sonics on this best 1,000 albums ever thing?
I mentioned in the best 1,000 albums ever piece on the excellent RocknRolla soundtrack (#295). my entry point to The Sonics was their featured track on that album, “Have Love Will Travel.”
I do believe that the RocknRolla soundtrack turned me onto the old school garage rock stylings of The Sonics. “Have Love Will Travel” is one of their best, as close to punk rock as you could have stumbled across circa 1964.
I love thinking about The Sonics doing their thing in the Pacific northwest in the mid-1960s, decades before anyone uttered the word “punk rock,” let alone “grunge.”
This is music that’s made with zero concern for radio play and mainstream appeal. It’s dirty, powerful, kick [REDACTED] garage rock. I mean, check out the absolute flamethrower of a track that is “Strychnine.” This must have blown the minds of people back then – and sent some more running for the hills.
Back to “Have Love Will Travel.” It’s wild when you compare The Sonics’ down and (musically) filthy version versus the doo-wop original, recorded by Richard Berry* in 1960.
* Arguably even wilder: Berry wrote “Louie Louie,” and then signed over the rights to what would become one of the most iconic rock songs of all time to The Kingsmen, receiving “little financial credit for it until the 1980s.”
Side note: Richard Berry is super talented.
There are also some other really fun covers on Here Are The Sonics, including the ‘60s standard “Money,” which has been taken on by the likes of The Kingsmen, The Beatles, and The Doors.
I’m always a sucker for the line, “Stomp, shout, and work it on out!”
“Walkin’ the Dog” proves that The Sonics can slow down the tempo and the volume a touch while still rocking out as hard as ever. This one swings and moves really nicely.
But this band is really in its wheelhouse when they lean hard into grimy garage rock that’s begging to be covered by every modern up-and-coming garage punk band worth its salt. Perfect example: “The Witch.”
Some stats & info about Here Are The Sonics
- What kind of musical stylings does this album represent? Rock Music, Garage Rock
- Rolling Stone’s greatest 500 albums ranking – not ranked!
- All Music’s rating – 4.5 out of 5 stars
- When was Here Are The Sonics released? 1964
- My ranking, the one you’re reading right now – #277 out of 1,000
Here Are The Sonics on Spotify
A lyrical snippet from Here Are The Sonics that’s evocative of the album in some way, maybe
Some folks like water, some folks like wine. But I like the taste of straight strychnine.
What does the “best 1,000 albums ever” mean and why are you doing this?
Yeah, I know it’s audacious, a little crazy (okay, maybe a lot cray cray), bordering on criminal nerdery.
But here’s what it’s NOT: a definitive list of the Greatest Albums of All-Time. This is 100% my own personal super biased, incredibly subjective review of what my top 1,000 albums are, ranked in painstaking order over the course of doing research for nearly a year, Rob from High Fidelity style. Find out more about why I embarked on a best 1,000 albums ever project.