Click to listen to Poly Styrene's "Thrash City"

Poly Styrene was a brace-faced kid in 1977 when she shrieked, "Oh, bondage: up yours!" on X-Ray Spex's debut single, but her crackling power made her a punk-rock legend. This April, Styrene died of cancer after an intermittent post-Spex career. She left behind this life-force of a new album (recorded before learning she had the disease), full of sharp, buoyant reggae and synth-rock that's true to her personal-is-political vision. She fights techno-alienation on the hilarious "Virtual Boyfriend," and "I Luv Ur Sneakers" big-ups fashion that doesn't harm animals. Her searing voice had mellowed but her passion burns bright: "I don't believe we are doomed," she sings on the green-energy plea "White Gold," a seize-the-day dare that's achingly poignant.

Punk Legend Poly Styrene Dead at 53

“Help Me”

Joni Mitchell wrote and recorded this song for her album Court and Spark, but she had to switch from her regular band to make the song sound exactly the way she wanted. "I had attempted to play my music with rock & roll players," she told Rolling Stone. "They’d laugh, 'Awww, isn't that cute? She's trying to teach us how to play.'" Mitchell switched to a jazz band, Tom Scott’s L.A. Express, and scored the biggest hit of her career in the process.