 In the summer of 1977 , " Sheena Is a Punk Rocker " was released as a single , being an outtake from the band 's previous release , Leave Home . This period was extremely significant to the punk rock genre , as it was the initial wave of New York City 's underground punk bands retrieving recording contracts . New York based clubs CBGB and Max 's Kansas City began to see bigger audiences crowd in to hear these bands . Punk fans commonly believed that this musical style would soon top the market , to which author Tom Carson explains : " To be in New York that summer was to have some sense of what it might have been like to live in San Francisco in 1966 or ' 67 , or in London when the Beatles and the [ Rolling ] Stones first hit . " 
