Each week, SPIN digs into the catalogs of great artists and highlights songs you might not know for our Deep Cut Friday series.

In the spring of 1977, the Damned became the first British punk band to tour the United States, and played shows at ground zero of the American punk scene, CBGB, with the Dead Boys and Patti Smith Group. When the Damned arrived on the West Coast to play the Whisky a Go Go with Television, however, they found that Tom Verlaine’s band had asked to remove the Damned from the bill, possibly due to negative word of mouth from Verlaine’s friend Patti Smith. The Damned wore shirts bearing the phrase “Television are cunts,” and managed to book a couple of L.A. shows at a different venue before flying back to England with a grudge.

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The Damned’s first two albums, both released in 1977, were primarily written by founding guitarist Brian James. But as James began to run out of material for the latter album Music for Pleasure, recorded in August and released in November, he encouraged his bandmates to contribute songs. And bassist Raymond “Captain Sensible” Burns and Christopher “Rat Scabies” Millar took the opportunity to poke fun at Television with a song cleverly titled “Idiot Box.”

“Tom Verlaine, you may be art / But you sure ain’t rock and roll,” Damned frontman Dave Vanian sang over a midtempo riff that sounded more like a pastiche of Television’s sound than a standard Damned riff. “Billy Ficca, don’t waste my time.”

Music for Pleasure was poorly received commercially and critically, as was Television’s second album Adventure, and both bands broke up in 1978, but would later reform. The feud went no further, and the Damned only briefly performed “Idiot Box.” A 1977 live recording of the song was included on the compilation The Chaos Years: Rare & Unreleased 1977-1982, with Vanian giving an introduction: “This one’s about Tom Verlaine, we hate him.”

Three more essential Damned deep cuts:

“Fish”

The London SS never made a record or played for a paying audience in its brief existence in 1975. But every member of the band went on to play an important part in the British punk movement, with Brian James and Rat Scabies forming the Damned, Tony James forming Generation X, and Mick Jones and Terry Chimes forming the Clash. One London SS song co-written by Brian James and Tony James (no relation), “Fish,” wound up in the Damned’s repertoire, appearing on 1977’s Damned Damned Damned.

“Curtain Call”

The moody 17-minute epic “Curtain Call” took up the entire third side of the 1980 double LP, The Black Album, a key release in the development of the gothic rock genre.

“Life Goes On”

Captain Sensible sang lead on two songs on the Damned’s 1982 album Strawberries shortly after he launched a successful solo career. “Life Goes On” wasn’t released as a single, but is one of the band’s most popular songs on streaming services today.

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