Damned Damned Damned
The Damned
Released by Stiff Records on February 18, 1977, Damned Damned Damned is The Damned’s debut and is widely credited as the first full-length album issued by a British punk group. Produced by Nick Lowe, it captures the original lineup—Dave Vanian, Brian James, Captain Sensible, and Rat Scabies—at a moment of fast, irreverent invention. Its 12 songs turn simple rock ’n’ roll structures into brief, loud, reckless explosions, driven by James’s jagged guitar riffs, Scabies’s propulsive drumming, and Vanian’s theatrical snarl.
The album begins with the charging “Neat Neat Neat” and includes the landmark single “New Rose,” which had already become the first UK punk single in late 1976. Elsewhere, “Fan Club,” “I Fall,” “Born to Kill,” “Feel the Pain,” and “See Her Tonite” combine catchy hooks with confrontational energy, while the closing cover of the Stooges’ “I Feel Alright” makes clear the band’s debt to Detroit proto-punk. Lowe’s brisk, unfussy production preserves the record’s rough edges without blunting its hooks, so the result is not merely historically important but vividly alive: a compact, humorous, menacing, and high-speed statement of first-wave British punk.
Damned Damned Damned
The Damned
Released by Stiff Records on February 18, 1977, Damned Damned Damned is The Damned’s debut and is widely credited as the first full-length album issued by a British punk group. Produced by Nick Lowe, it captures the original lineup—Dave Vanian, Brian James, Captain Sensible, and Rat Scabies—at a moment of fast, irreverent invention. Its 12 songs turn simple rock ’n’ roll structures into brief, loud, reckless explosions, driven by James’s jagged guitar riffs, Scabies’s propulsive drumming, and Vanian’s theatrical snarl.
The album begins with the charging “Neat Neat Neat” and includes the landmark single “New Rose,” which had already become the first UK punk single in late 1976. Elsewhere, “Fan Club,” “I Fall,” “Born to Kill,” “Feel the Pain,” and “See Her Tonite” combine catchy hooks with confrontational energy, while the closing cover of the Stooges’ “I Feel Alright” makes clear the band’s debt to Detroit proto-punk. Lowe’s brisk, unfussy production preserves the record’s rough edges without blunting its hooks, so the result is not merely historically important but vividly alive: a compact, humorous, menacing, and high-speed statement of first-wave British punk.