BLACK FLAG – THE FIRST
FOUR YEARS (SST RECORDS)
In many circles this
is considered the best Black Flag
album. Certainly it is the most compact
and economic bust out 16 songs in only 26 minutes. And they aren’t just hardcore bursts of energy;
they are tastily crafted balls of anger sewn into solid songwriting that does
not exhibit an ounce of fat. Greg Ginn described what they
were doing as “modern blues”. It seems
he already had one eye on legacy and tradition.
Essentially it’s a
compilation but to refer to it by such terms feels demeaning and severely
missing the point. Early into Get
In The Van, Henry Rollins
states that “in my opinion the finest Black Flag record released is The First
Four Years compilation. Its all the
singles and compilation cuts that the band made before I joined. The record
spans three singers that came before me.
Its 34 minutes (sic) and it’s about three full length albums worth of
anyone else’s music. It is the densest
batch of jams I have ever heard on one record besides the Fun
House album by The
Stooges. When you put it up against
what’s out there today, its hilarious.
These bands would have been eaten alive at a Black Flag show. Music has mellowed out to the point where it
just doesn’t interest me anymore. And
I’m not a snob either, I just can’t forget what I know.”
“Self as cell, body as
cage”.
The onslaught kicks
off with “Nervous
Breakdown” and the subsequent additional three tracks from the EP which was
the first SST release. It features Keith Morris on vocals who
always offered a more snotty, swinging style than Mr Rollins. “Nervous Breakdown” is a concise explanation
of circumstances referencing the anxiety and energy that comes with being a
punker. The playing is wickedly tight
with slicing hooks that punch proceedings as the words pierce the senses and
serve the mind. Early Black Flag was
such a well oiled machine.
The following tracks
from the first EP are equally stonking and astonishing. “Fix Me” possesses the finest countdown ever
in music and within a minute so many expressions and emotions are displayed in
relentless fashion. The next track “I’ve
Had It” succinctly represents the frustrated mind with threats of “I’m going to
explode” in heavy emphasise. And then
there is the pure joy of “Wasted”, of delirium and reckless abandon. The manner in which Morris drags out the
hooks and chorus makes the words bigger and more powerful than they ought
be. Within a few listens, you already
know these lyrics by heart. The words
were already it just took this band to bring them out in you.
Up next is the “Jealous
Again” EP and five tracks of frustration.
“Jealous Again” is a solidly condensed one way conversation, a brief
interview with a hideous man/woman. In
the words of Rodney
Dangerfield: “I can’t condone it but I can understand it”. Continuing the frustrated flow the equally
aggressive “Revenge” arrives like a war-cry and disgusting declaration. This is the sound of a person getting things
done.
Then we arrive at
“White Minority”, a song the word problematic was born to be strapped/tagged
onto. It is a rant about being the
underclass, a section of society where race isn’t necessarily an issue when the
main consideration is survival. I have
compared it to being their version of “White Man In Hammersmith” but that song
never had the ferocity or hook of this rocketing explosion. A great song and very bold holding gestures
that could worryingly misappropriated by right wing wrong ‘uns.
Remaining on the
Jealous Again EP, “No Values” follows which is another crushing track from the
off unleashing a ferocious first few lines of “I don’t care what you think, I
don’t care what you say”. It is a song
that truly motors and pummels all in its path as the band plays out the part of
a crucified nihilist. And with good
reason. Then finally this section closes
with the slightly slower tempo “You Bet We’ve Got Something Against You” which
also serves to bulldoze surroundings and the bystanders inhabiting. With Chuck Dukowski booming
condemnation on his sole singing role it verbally busts heads open.
Track ten is “Clocked
In” which originally appeared on the New Alliance
compilation Cracks
In The Sidewalk which was the first release by the label run by the guys
from the Minutemen
(D Boon and Mike Watt). “Clocked In” is also legendarily the song
Henry Rollins jumped onstage and sang with the band when he was merely a fan
and not a member. It is a ninety three
second blast of griping about doing menial work and being tied to a clock. Again the Ginn playing is spacious and
chunky, happily going way out when it comes time to provide one of his weird
solos. And even though it sounds like
Rollins singing, it is actually the first vocal workout by Dez Cadena on the record
(Rollins ain’t anywhere on here).
The original version
of “Six
Pack” brings in the next three tracks from what was the third Black Flag
EP. To be honest the Cadena sung variant
doesn’t sound much different to the form Rollins later owned on Damaged. “Six Pack” is a celebration of denial,
escapism and wilful disregard. It is the
band rocking satire big time. From here
things move onto “I’ve Heard It Before” which is a prolonged threat that exists
like a bomb with a lit fuse. When it
eventually arrives the track explodes as another aggressive dismissal and
heated message. Closing the EP is
“American Waste” a song about positioning and celebration of the fact that the
band knows its place in the grand scheme and is fighting to ascend on its own
terms when really knowing the game is rigged and a big win is beyond their
realm/means.
“Machine” arrives
screaming as another track that previously appeared on a New Alliance
compilation (this time the twelve song twelve band Chunks). It’s a swift blast very much playing one note
with the declaration of raging against the machine long before it became vogue.
With that we enter the
final release of the compilation and the Black Flag take on “Louie
Louie” by The Kingsmen. In the process of making this a staple they
mutate the words and amplify the riff sculpting it for their own needs. Then with that it all ends on “Damaged I” and
an early workout of what would later become the title track of their debut
album. “Damaged I” the song was
described by Simon
Reynolds in his book Rip
It Up And Start Again as a “slow-grind as drawn out as the death throes of
a wound animal”. This was where the band
was heading.
At this point many
argue that when Henry Rollins he ruined the band. There was certainly something of an audible
change between these tracks and those of Damaged. Whether this was increase or decrease is down
to the tastes of the listener. Black
Flag the band changed music forever.
Thesaurus moment:
effectual.
No comments:
Post a Comment