Various – Burning Ambitions: A History Of Punk

Played the crap out of this back in the day, when punk records weren’t always easy to come by. Spent a number of years trying to collect all the originals. Great compilation!

Living in the US Midwest when this was released, I had already heard the Ramones, Sex Pistols, and Clash, but avenues for discovering other bands were somewhat limited. So while this compilation’s glaring ‘omissions’, for which the liner notes apologetically address, might seem like a negative, this actually beneficially made space for some excellent bands that I had yet to hear. Yes, it’s UK-centric, but given that I already had the “Decline of Western Civilization” soundtrack, this album perfectly filled the void. As such, while “Burning Ambitions” might not be the definitive punk anthology, it proved an important and revelatory punk compilation for me.

This was one of the first albums I ever owned, back in the early 80s. It was a revelation to me. I still love it though no sex pistols, clash, ramones, X, dead boys, etc means it's overly biased towards British punk and particularly 2nd wave and Oi! bands. Still a great listen and really takes me back to when I was a timid suburban kid just discovering this music.

When will this be released in full on CD ?

I got this compilation on tape in the late 80s while our country was still occupied by Soviet Union. I thought it's the best punk compilation I've ever heard. Meanwhile I have heard many punk compilations, and then I heard it again in the 90s, in the 00s etc. -- and it was still the best. Now it's playing on my turntable, year is 2020 and I'm an almost old man, but this is still the best punk compilation I've ever heard. Every next song continues the line somehow very logically. Don't know why, maybe I got some kind of habit off this compilation? (Sorry, I'm not able to say my thoughts in proper English.)

Agree with everyone, this is a great compilation. Just picked up a nice used copy.

perhaps the best and most essential punk compilaton from those days ever!

This release should have been titled History Of BRITISH Punk.

On this day I found it .both LP's in a gatefold sleeve.bless tha pants of whoever left it in the rubbish pit.punk lives!

Back in the 80's, I had a tape of a tape from a friend's tape who had dubbed it off his brother's original double cassette collection. I'd always thought it was cool. So I had to buy it. I'd found it on cassette as well. This is a great collection. I'd wished it had more bands. There are some obscure punk bands. There are like 2 or 3 US punk bands. I mean, come on, there should've been more US bands: Ramones, maybe?!?!

I'd always loved this collection no matter what.