There's no denying the incredible influence of the Velvet Underground and, upon reflection, they were probably more worthy of a spot on my list than Colourbox, great as they were. Agreed on the Stooges and MC5, as well as the New York Dolls. I was making a judgement based upon the thread author's request for a list of ten only. There are so many great and influential punk-era and pre-punk era bands that more modern artists cite when they are asked about their influences, it's hard to limit the list to ten particularly when I tried to cover the whole Rock genre :-)
I just recently went to youtube and listened to the Velvet Underground for the first time. I can hear how the whole punk scene blossomed from their droning sound.
There’s no denying that The Dolls, The Stooges. The MC5 and the Velvets contributed heavily to what would become punk rock.
They were all big influences on The Ramones who practically invented it. IMHO, punk began the night in 1974 when The Ramones played their first gig at CBGB’s.
If we get into influences and who’s sound contributed to the mix of music that led to the genre, we could retrace the whole of music indefinitely.
The last real original music was probably composed by Ugg using a rock and a stick 20,000 years ago.