Punk Rock Love Songs

Don't let all that sneering and stage diving fool you. Beyond their rough and ready-to-fight exterior, punk rockers are as ravaged and wrecked by love, lust, and longing as the rest of us. That includes such unlikely Lotharios as Henry Rollins (the sludge-slinging "I Love You"), the Ramones (backed by the three hopeful chords of "I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend"), Richard Hell (a surf guitar-riding version of "Love Comes In Spurts," featuring his future Television bandmate, Tom Verlaine), and Joe Strummer (the slinky sax and rambunctious riffs of "1-2 Crush On You"). They're not the only ones, either. There are enough jilted/overjoyed lovers in our Next Steps to soundtrack an entire punk rock-driven V-Day party.

Put the patch-studded leather jacket down for a second and admit it . . . you can't help but scream "Amen!" when MxPx declares "Everything Sucks (When You're Gone)" to the speaker-rattling tune of sputtering drums and candied chords. Not to be outdone in the "we have feelings too" department are the Germs (an endearingly sloppy rendition of the Archies' "Sugar Sugar"), Rise Against (the pit-stirring sing-along hardcore of "Like the Angel"), NOFX (the pressure-cooked hooks of "Falling in Love"), or Wire (the lean love-letter verses of "Fragile"). As for the vulnerable — and sometimes venomous — jams in our Deep Cuts, they strike a balance between familiar favourites (Alkaline Trio, the Misfits) and smaller acts with devoted followings (the Casualties, Screeching Weasel).

Believe it or not, Pennywise — a band best known for circle-pit classics like "Bro Hymn" and "Fight Till You Die" — once tackled a track as tender as Ben E. King's "Stand By Me." Speaking of priceless punk rock covers with a heart of gold, Me First and the Gimme Gimmes had a hell of a time tweaking the torch-ballad tempos of Barry Manilow ("Mandy") . . . almost as much as the Misfits did with the Drifters' "This Magic Moment." And then there's New Found Glory's delirious take on "The Glory of Love," a totally '80s anthem lifted from The Karate Kid, Part II. If that one doesn't leave you channelling your inner (hopeless) romantic — or, at the very least, your inner Daniel LaRusso — nothing will.

Maybe it's his reputation for rolling around in saw-toothed piles of glass and peanut butter. Whatever the case, Iggy Pop isn't the kind of shirtless guy you haphazardly bring home to Mom. You see, he's a lover and a fighter, as heard through the steady howling and spiralling, heat-seeking hooks of "I Wanna Be Your Dog." With Iggy leading the way, the accompanying playlist is a thorough overview of every punk scene/subgenre that's ever let its guard down in the name of love, from the punk rock kingpins of SoCal (X, Black Flag), New York (the Ramones, Johnny Thunders), London (the Clash, the Damned) and Toronto (the Diodes), to the bands that have conquered pop charts (the Offspring, Green Day, blink-182) and skate parks (Descendents, Rancid, T.S.O.L.) in the decades since.