INTRO
This is something that I wanted to do in a long
while, so here it is finally. I always liked to write about the music and bands
I love and that inspires me a lot and the bands I write about are usually the
80's hardcore punk classics because those bands are what got me into hardcore
punk in the first place and some of the best hardcore punk records were
recorded and released in that era, in my opinion. One of those bands is
definitely Black Flag. Love them or hate them, you can't deny the impact of the
band and that some of the records and songs Black Flag put out are some of the
best hardcore punk music ever written. Black Flag is one of my favorite
(hc/punk) bands and the band influenced me a lot through the years and it's not
just about the music or the lyrics, with Black Flag it's something more than
that. To this day I'm still fascinated with the band and with the stories from
the time when the band was active, so that's why I chose Black Flag for the
first band in this written blog series where I'll be writing about some of my
favorite hc/punk bands and records. The goal is to write about every official
(and even some unofficial) record of the band.
The reason why I wanted to do this except for
the love of the bands and their music is to express my opinion about certain
bands and records because often reading stuff about some classic hc/punk bands
and records I keep seeing that lots of people are very uninformed about the
bands and records that they supposedly like. People tend to think they are so
right in their opinion and write completely inaccurate information about some
bands and records. That thing always bugged me and Black Flag is definitely a
band that draws a lot of misinformed fans and there's a lots of nonsense
written about the band out there. Also, people tend to pick sides with Black
Flag, which singer is the best, which is the worst, some people don't like some
particular members (usually Henry Rollins is the most hated guy) and people who
are like that instantly feel insulted if your opinion is different from their
or if you don't care to go into a long and unneccesary argument about who's the
„best“ Black Flag singer. I definitely don't care about these kind of
arguments, I think they are quite silly and sometimes even stupid. Also I
understand if you prefer a certain Black Flag singer or a record and that's OK
but going into a heated argument with someone about this is just dumb as far as
I'm concerned. Also it's OK to like more than one Black Flag singer, haha. And
the big one, I don't think that Rollins ruined Black Flag and this argument is
also very often the one that make some people want to kill eachother because
they have some pick with Rollins and don't like the guy for some (usually dumb)
reason. Which just confirmes my critic that lots of people are not very well
informed about Black Flag and are talking and writting bunch of bullshit and
have some strange bias with some of the band members, records or whatever.
I won't write about how many pressings of the
records were released or about all the different versions of the records
because this is something that don't interest me that much. If collecting
records, writting, talking and reading about it is your thing, fine by me, but
I won't cover that in my blog rants. Also, one record that I won't write about
is the last Black Flag record from 2013. I haven't listened to that record and
I have no interest in listening to it so that's that. Other Black Flag blog
posts won't have the intro, but since this is the first one, I wanted to
clarify few things before I go into the Black Flag discography. Also, the
photos are taken from the various sources on the net. Hope you'll enjoy my
writtings. If not, that's also OK.
BLACK FLAG – NERVOUS BREAKDOWN – 7˝ EP (SST
Records, 1979.)
Members playing on the record are: Keith Morris
– vocals, Greg Ginn – guitar, Chuck Dukowski – bass (originally credited on the
record by his real name: Gary McDaniel) & Brian Migdol – drums (although on
early pressings Robo was credited as the drummer). As most of you may know,
Black Flag was formed by Greg Ginn and Keith Morris in 1976 in Hermosa Beach,
California, USA. After few different short time bass palyers and drummers,
Dukowski and Migdol joined the band. At the time, the band was called Panic and
they changed the name to Black Flag in late 1978. It's interesting that at the
time when Nervous Breakdown was recorded which was January 1978, the band was
still called Panic. The name Black Flag was suggested by Raymond Pettibon,
Ginn's brother who also designed the band's famous bars logo and he pretty much
created almost every Black Flag record, flyer and poster art. The band under a
Black Flag name first played a show on January 27, 1979 at the Moose Lodge Hall
in Redondo Beach, California.
The EP was recorded at Media Art Studios in
Hermosa Beach, California. The record was produced by the band (probably Ginn
and Dukowski), David Tarling was a record engineer and Spot (a friend and a fan
of the band who also played bass before Dukowski joined) was a recording and
mix engineer. While the EP contains 4 songs, the band recorded 8 songs during
the session. The other 4 songs that didn't end up on the EP were later released
in 1982 on the bands compilation of unreleased recordings called Everything
Went Black. Originally the record was supposed to be released on Bomp! Records
(well known Los Angeles based indie record label lead by Greg Shaw and Suzy
Shaw that released bunch of great punk rock, proto punk, garage rocknroll and
power pop bands and records). For some reason that never happened and Ginn
decided to release it under his and Dukowski's (new at the time) label SST
Records. Nervous Breakdown 7˝ EP was the first SST release and it was released
in January of 1979.
The EP opens with the record title track
Nervous Breakdown, probably one of the well known songs of the band and you
could say, one of the bands best songs, at least I think it is. The opening
riffs of the song are so iconic and catchy that you can't help but nod with
your head with a smile on a face every time you hear it, the opening is that
great. The lyrics also have some catchy classic lines like the opening verse
and chorus: „I'm about to have a nervous breakdown, my head really hurts, If
I don't find the way out of here, I'm gonna go berserk. 'Cause I'm crazy and
I'm hurt, head on my shoulders it's going berserk˝. The whole song can be
described as an powerfull assault on your ears and your brain. Nervous
Breakdown is the only song on the EP that clocks above two minutes and it's the
only song on the A side.
B side opens with another classic BF song: Fix
Me which is also one of my early favorites of the band. Fix Me is a bit faster
than Nervous Breakdown and even more direct and in your face. The theme of the
song is similar to the previous song with more classic lines like: „Some day
I'll feel no pain, Some day I'll have no brain. They'll take away the part that
hurts and let the rest remain. Fix me, fix my head, fix me please I don't want to
be dead˝. The song is intense and short, it clocks under a minute which at
the time when it was recorded, this was something new in music. Even the most
raw garage rocknroll bands at the time mostly had songs that were around two
minutes long if not longer. The third song on the EP is I've Had It which is my
least favorite song on the EP. Not that song is bad, far from that, it's just
that I have the feeling that it was a new song at the time of the recording, so
it feels kind of sloppy performed and it's a bit slower than the rest of the
songs. The theme of the song is again very similar to previous two songs on the
EP, personal frustration with work, school and people around you. While I think
that Ginn was a good lyricist as riff maker, the range of his topics was not
too diverse. Which is OK for the Black Flag music, especially the early period
of the band. Just to be clear one more time, I don't dislike the song, but the
thing is that I like better the live versions of the song on various BF live recordings
that I've heard so far. The fourth and the last song on the EP is Wasted, a 50
seconds surfy punk rock anthem. While all 3 previous songs were written by
Ginn, this one's written by Ginn and Morris which means that Morris wrote the
lyrics and Ginn wrote the music. The song is about Morris being wasted on
alcohol and drugs and how he was „a hippie, a surfer, he had a skateboard
and he lived on the strand“. In 1980 Morris formed Circle Jerks after
leaving Black Flag and recorded slightly changed version of Wasted on their
debut 12¨ called Group Sex. That caused some turmoil between the two bands. As
for me, I like both versions.
Production of the EP is very raw, especially
the guitar sound and while the drums are little buried in the mix, you can
still hear the surfy tight punk rock beat by Migdol who sounds pretty good on
the record. The bass guitar is like the drums a bit behind the loud guitar and
vocals which are more up front. Still, the powerfull and raw production of the
EP creates the feeling like you're there with the band in the studio. Artwork
was done by Raymond Pettibon and originally the drawings that were used for a
front and back cover of the EP were published in a fanzine called Captive
Chains that Pettibon was doing at the time. From early on, Pettibon became an
important part of the band (he even played bass for a short time before
Dukowski joined the band). I think that each of Pettibons Black Flag covers and
flyers are iconic and they speak for themselves so I won't go too much into cover
art, but I will say that I like most of the cover art by Black Flag.
When you listen to Nervous Breakdown EP, you
have to realise one thing, that at the time of the EP recording there was
nothing like it musically. While by the time the EP was released, some other
early hc/punk bands like D. O. A., The Misfits, The Germs and Middle Class
released records before Black Flag, but with the exception of Middle Class,
Nervous Breakdown blows all these records by its intensity and rawness
(although, all the mention bands put out great EP's in 1978.). The same can be
said for early LA punk rock bands like The Zeroes or Weirdos who were at the
time basically playing traditional rocknroll mixed with power pop. Also, you
have to consider the fact that the songs from Nervous Breakdown were written in
1977 and maybe even earlier and when you also compare the EP with some of the
most popular punk rock bands at the time like The Clash, Ramones, Sex Pistols
or The Damned, all these bands sounds quite mellow comparing to Black Flag.
Nervous Breakdown was also released on Black
Flag compilation called The First Four Years, originally released on Cassette
in 1983 by SST Records. Later the compilation was also released on vinyl and CD
format. The compilation contains the first four EP's by the band plus few comp
tracks and it's an essential material not only for the Black Flag fans but for
any hardcore punk newcomer. I think that the EP is also still in print on
original 7˝ vinyl format on SST Records.
That pretty much covers it what I wanted to say
about one of the most important records ever, at least in my opinion. Bare in
mind that all of this was written from my point of view as a music „fan“, I'm
not a rock critic or journalist but I may know few things about hardcore punk.
I also want to mention that two of the bands where I play/ed covered Nervous
Breakdown and Wasted and we played it live many times. Nervous Breakdown was
even recorded and released on a record by one of my old bands. If you want to
comment about this post, be free to do so, you can do it also through my
instagram account: @deadly_138 Also,
thanks for reading this. The next review on the blog will be the Jealous Again
12˝ EP by Black Flag, hopefully very soon so stay tuned.
I am The Snake
PS - I couldn't find any photos with Migdol on drums, so all the band photos are from the period when Robo already joined the band
