This 350+ page flexibound book is a revelatory guide to hundreds and hundreds of original seven-inch record cover sleeve designs--visual artifacts found at the heart of the most radical and anarchistic musical movement of the 20th century. The revolutionary do-it-yourself ethic of punk was applied to the aesthetic of design as much as it was to music, and record sleeves acted as lo-fi signifiers of anarchy, style, fashion, politics and more with an urban and suburban invective courtesy of the thousands of new bands--punk, post-punk, pre-punk, nearly punk and more--that emerged at the end of the 1970s.
This book is an exhaustive, thorough and exciting celebration of the stunning artwork of punk music--everything from the most celebrated and iconic designs through to the stark beauty of the cheapest do-it-yourself lo-fi obscurities.
Punk 45! is introduced and coedited by Jon Savage, author of the acclaimed definitive history of punk, England's Dreaming, and features a new introduction by Bobby Gillespie of Primal Scream. Contributors include Peter Saville, Richard Hell, Richard H Kirk, Seymour Stein, Geoff Travis, Martin Moscrop, Glenn Branca, Jamie Reid, Dave Robinson, Roger Armstrong, Martin Mills, Gee Vaucher, Savage Pencil, Dennis Morris and more.