4 Famous Hard Rock Songs With Punk Rock Roots

On paper, punk has little in common with hard rock. In its infancy, it rejected corporate bands, guitar solos, concept albums, and similar bloat that plagued the biggest artists of the 1970s. But some of the best music happens when those walls are removed, and genres merge into one another to create something new. Like the hard rock songs with punk roots listed below.

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“It’s So Easy” by Guns N’ Roses

Duff McKagan left Seattle’s punk scene and traveled south to Los Angeles. Slash had invited him to a show where he saw Axl Rose onstage performing with L.A. Guns. He’d never seen someone so unhinged. And the combination of Rose’s unpredictability and McKagan’s punk roots proved to be the perfect ingredients for “It’s So Easy”. This track sounds like a parallel universe where John Lydon doesn’t loathe classic rock.

“Live Wire” by Mötley Crüe

I’ve written before about how I think Too Fast For Love is Mötley Crüe’s best album. That’s not to discount what followed, but on “Live Wire”, you can hear Aerosmith and Kiss meeting New York Dolls and David Bowie. Few bands have a name more fitting for their members. Can you imagine this crew walking the Sunset Strip in 1981? But it wasn’t just the onstage gimmicks of Nikki Sixx lighting himself on fire. Sixx also had the tunes. He may have helped pioneer L.A.’s glam metal scene, but he was punk to his core.

“Seek & Destroy” by Metallica

Metallica was inspired by British punk and heavy metal. You can hear it on “Seek & Destroy”, which used Diamond Head’s “Dead Reckoning” as its blueprint. Both punk and heavy metal began as subcultures. They were youth movements that emerged with anti-establishment attitudes amid economic despair and feelings of alienation. Punk bands like Misfits, Sex Pistols, and Ramones shaped Metallica along with Britain’s new wave of heavy metal. Soon, the music industry learned there were plenty of misfits to buy these underground records.

“All My Life” by Foo Fighters

Grunge bands often merged punk ethos with heavy metal riffs. You can hear it on Nirvana’s “Scentless Apprentice”, which begins with Dave Grohl’s raw drums before Kurt Cobain drops a doom riff. A similar spirit has remained in Grohl’s own songwriting. “All My Life” is a Foo Fighters’ banger with a metal riff and punk attitude. This track has one of the best buildups of any tune. It’s the kind of anticipation engineered to send a stadium of people into utter hysteria.

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