80s Jams #42: The Soft Boys "I Wanna Destroy You" (1980)

The Soft Boys were never a punk rock band -- their sound was most clearly influenced by psychedelia and '60s pop -- but it's impossible to imagine their gloriously engaging yet fractured sound coming together without the liberating influence of the punk movement, and the group's masterful second album, Underwater Moonlight, opened with what would become an enduring post-punk anthem, "I Wanna Destroy You." Coming from a band and a songwriter who generally seemed most comfortable with Syd Barrett-influenced surrealism, "I Wanna Destroy You" was a surprisingly direct and vehement attack on the standing social and political order. In less than three minutes, Hitchcock lays lyrical waste to the military/industrial complex, hatred in many forms, and the unscrupulous press, closing with an all-encompassing attack on everything in the world he finds ugly and frustrating. -- Allmusic http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=33:fcfwxzy5ldfe

Note: This youtube video is labeled incorrectly and this song and album were both definitely released in 1980...