THE BEST OF BOMP, VOLUME ONE
Venus and the Razorblades released “Punk-a-Rama” as their first single on Bomp! Records, a terrific song that provided an overview of the early punk rock scene. I first encountered the song on Bomp’s initial compilation album, Best of Bomp, Volume One, which I recently cleaned up from Katrina.
(December 2013)
* * *
Before long, I began locating albums by newer Bomp! artists, and I have nearly all of the compilation albums that have been released by Bomp! Records over the years: Destination: Bomp!, Straight Outta Burbank, Best of Bomp, Volume One, etc. Numerous UARB’s over the years have been Bomp! artists, and my post for May 2013 talked in some detail about this.
(June 2017)
* * *
Anyway, once Kill City broke the ice, Bomp! Records and their affiliated labels like BFD Records, Voxx Records, AIP Records, Mohawk Records, and others began pressing LP’s by the truckload almost immediately. The label’s first compilation album, The Best of Bomp, Volume One was originally released in 1978. The Pebbles Series of 1960’s garage rock and psychedelic rock songs that number nearly 100 albums in all began shipping in 1978; besides Pebbles, the various series (both LP’s and CD’s) include the Highs in the Mid-Sixties Series, The Continent Lashes Back, Best of Pebbles, Great Pebbles, etc. Their other reissues of 1960’s music include the English Freakbeat Series, the Rough Diamonds Series, and the Electric Sugar Cube Flashbacks Series.
* * *
In the liner notes for Destination: Bomp!, Greg Shaw says: “‘I Got a Right’ . . . remains one of Ig’s best songs ever, and one he still performs regularly.” Both “I Got a Right” and “Gimme Some Skin” are included on The Best of Bomp, Volume One (as is the flip side of the first Bomp single, “Him or Me” by the Flamin’ Groovies); that’s where I first heard them.
* * *
For whatever reason, although Bomp! Records received the box of tapes from James Williamson in 1977, and even though both “I Got a Right” and “Gimme Some Skin” were included on The Best of Bomp, Volume One (1978), the records in The Iguana Chronicles series itself were apparently not started until the early 1990’s. The 45 release on Bomp! Records with these two songs is dated 1991 (although Discogs shows a copy with a white label that has a hand-written date of December 21, 1990). The entry on “I Got a Right” in the liner notes of the 1994 compilation album Destination: Bomp! refers to the single that was released in 1977 on Siamese Records.
* * *
A 12” single called I Got a Right was also released by Bomp! Records in 1991; Side 1 had the songs from the original Siamese Records 45, “I Got a Right” and “Gimme Some Skin”, both identified as “Final Mix”. Side 2 had the same two songs from the James Williamson box that appeared on The Best of Bomp, Volume One, both called outtakes, plus a second outtake of “I Got a Right” that was previously unreleased.
(December 2017)
