By: Adam McGovern

Just one day on which perhaps the arms could be laid down for good.

By: Miranda Mellis

“Some people think little girls should be seen and not heard…”

By: Luc Sante

It was like all the music we were listening to then compressed into a pill.

By: Stephanie Burt

“I made Wilson up one day when I was feeling all alone.”

By: Joshua Glenn

I didn’t want my punk policed.

By: Douglas Wolk

There are no South Africans mentioned in “Soft South Africans.”

By: Jessamyn West

“All systems go to kill the poor tonight.”

By: Mark Kingwell

The song is actually ironic, something I did not appreciate at the time.

By: Deb Chachra

“And if I start a commotion….”

By: Devin McKinney

A noir voice, voice of both the detective and the femme.

By: Adrienne Crew

It’s hard to be black in this world, and it always has been. But we will survive.

By: Dan Fox

The song was a top-notch comedy classic, a work of formal perfection.

By: James Parker

I was 11; I was at an all-boys boarding school in Suffolk, England.

By: Mimi Lipson

“Sex Bomb” was a party I wanted to get to.

By: Joshua Glenn

Our summer series on punk songs c. 1974–1983 begins…