Damaged
Black Flag
1981
Working backwards from the '00s (when I first became conscious of the existence of the deeper world of music) has its speed bumps. For instance, I absolutely would have only known who Henry Rollins was because of his appearances on VH1-type talking head pop culture shows. I remember thinking "hmmm I wonder who that is" (and possibly also "oh well I guess I'll just wait 20 years and find out during some dumb fucking blog project"). Well, here's the answer. He's the frontman of an '80s punk band, Black Flag... among other things, I'd imagine, but that's not really how this column is designed, nor is that how my week of listening to music could possibly function. I'm just listening to Damaged. It was pretty good.
Oh yeah, I guess I was also familiar with the name Henry Rollins—beyond the This Was the '80s or whatever the fuck, and beyond knowing generally that he was in a punk band just not really knowing which or when—from the Ataris song "You Need a Hug," which features the chorus "Life ain't all that bad, life ain't all that bad / Even if Henry Rollins is your dad." I can't decide whether this means that Rollins is generally known as a cranky person in his advanced age, or if it's a tongue-in-cheek thing about a dude who doesn't gatekeep and would probably be okay with the Ataris busting his balls. Regardless, all that is almost assuredly a couple decades after Damaged, which features a 20-year-old Rollins being gleefully snotty and singing harbingers of doom like the most sober punk at the keg party.
Not to be a total fucking square as I say this (it's unavoidable, I'll never be one of the cool kids!), but this shit is very badass. It's music for the pit when the pit is in someone's basement and it's just seven dudes swinging their fists. It's music that hits you in the soft spots that you tried so hard to hide when you were a teenager, speaking to rebellion because the world was fucked and sometimes speaking to rebellion for rebellion's sake. It's punk music that scared the parents both because it was loud and abrasive and because it so honestly spoke to how much they were fucking their kids up. I obviously view all this at a bit of a remove, socially and chronologically speaking, but from a purely emotional standpoint, I really connected with Damaged, and hear everything that I'm supposed to hear from a certifiable "punk-rock classic."
As I said, context is impossible to fully capture, but we can try for a moment. Damaged was Rollins' debut as the frontman of Black Flag, and apparently some of the songs showcase a few warts that only the true heads are gonna notice. It was the first of five albums with Rollins singing lead, and its been said that he grew in confidence as he advanced in age from a young newbie 20-year-old to a grizzled veteran 24-year-old. Then he left and started his own band and we start to leave the purview of what can be covered in this space. But the point here being, I think, that this was a moment in time for a genre that still exists but is constantly mutating and improving and here you get to listen to the nascent stages of true bonafide punk. It's not the moment when proto-punk (à la the Stooges) switches over the punk, but it's one of the moments. And for a music anthropologist like myself, it's cool to hear that switch in action.
Not to be a total fucking square as I say this (it's unavoidable, I'll never be one of the cool kids!), but this shit is very badass. It's music for the pit when the pit is in someone's basement and it's just seven dudes swinging their fists. It's music that hits you in the soft spots that you tried so hard to hide when you were a teenager, speaking to rebellion because the world was fucked and sometimes speaking to rebellion for rebellion's sake. It's punk music that scared the parents both because it was loud and abrasive and because it so honestly spoke to how much they were fucking their kids up. I obviously view all this at a bit of a remove, socially and chronologically speaking, but from a purely emotional standpoint, I really connected with Damaged, and hear everything that I'm supposed to hear from a certifiable "punk-rock classic."
As I said, context is impossible to fully capture, but we can try for a moment. Damaged was Rollins' debut as the frontman of Black Flag, and apparently some of the songs showcase a few warts that only the true heads are gonna notice. It was the first of five albums with Rollins singing lead, and its been said that he grew in confidence as he advanced in age from a young newbie 20-year-old to a grizzled veteran 24-year-old. Then he left and started his own band and we start to leave the purview of what can be covered in this space. But the point here being, I think, that this was a moment in time for a genre that still exists but is constantly mutating and improving and here you get to listen to the nascent stages of true bonafide punk. It's not the moment when proto-punk (à la the Stooges) switches over the punk, but it's one of the moments. And for a music anthropologist like myself, it's cool to hear that switch in action.
I don't know what else to say. If you like "punk music" in any form, then it's probably important to know this one. If you don't like punk music, then you're not going to hear anything that's going to change your mind. I don't even need to convince you; I don't think that's a function of this space (despite the fact that the album is gonna be embedded at the bottom anyway). It's more like: hey, this exists, I know it now, I appreciate it, I know "music history" just a tiny bit better now, and maybe you can too, if you take the journey with me, and let Henry Rollins finally reveal himself.
No comments:
Post a Comment