Black Flag : Damaged/ My War
Black Flag
is an American
Punk Rock Band
formed in 1976
in Hermosa
Beach, California.
Initially called
Panic,
the band was
established by
Greg Ginn,
the guitarist,
primary songwriter,
and
sole continuous member,
and singer
Keith Morris.
They are widely considered
to be one
of the first
hardcore punk bands,
as well as one of
the pioneers of
post-hardcore.
After breaking up
in 1986,
Black Flag
reunited in 2003
and again in 2013.
The second reunion
lasted well over a year,
during which they
released their
first studio album
in nearly three decades,
What The...
(2013).
The band announced
their third reunion
in January 2019.
Black Flag's
sound mixed
the raw
simplicity of
the Ramones
with a style of
atonal guitar
soloing compared
to that of
the New York Dolls’
lead guitarist
Johnny Thunders,
and,
in later years,
frequent tempo shifts.
The lyrics were written
mostly
by Ginn,
and like
other punk bands
of the late 1970s
and early 1980s,
Black Flag
voiced an
anti-authoritarian
and
nonconformist message,
in songs
punctuated with
descriptions of
social isolation,
neurosis,
poverty,
and paranoia.
These themes were
explored further
when
Henry Rollins
joined the band
as lead singer
in 1981.
Most of the
band's material
was released on
Ginn's independent
record label
SST Records.
Over the course
of the 1980s,
Black Flag's sound,
as well as their
notoriety,
evolved.
In addition to
being central
to the creation of
hardcore punk,
they were innovators
in the first wave of
American West Coast
punk rock
and are considered
a key influence on
punk subculture
in the
United States
and abroad
Damaged
is the debut
studio album
by the
American Hardcore
Punk Band
It was released by
SST Records in
November 1981.
The album was
largely ignored
by critics
and the public
at the time
of its release,
but has since
been recognized
as a classic
and one of the
most influential
punk rock records
ever made,
appearing on a number of
"best of"
lists by fans
and critics alike.
The album was
ranked number 340
on Rolling Stone's
2012 list of
The 500 Greatest Albums
of All Time,
though moving down to
number 487
in the
2020 revision.
Pitchfork
also ranked it
number 25
on its list of the
Top 100 Albums
of the 1980s.
The band recorded
their backing tracks
without Rollins,
who overdubbed vocals
with band members
Greg Ginn
(guitar)
and
Chuck Dukowski
(bass)
coaching him afterward
.The most complicated
vocal tracks ended up
being Dukowski's
"What I See",
which was supposed
to have an
improvised speech
in the song's bridge
but ended up
having one written out
by Dukowski
when Rollins
could not come up
with anything that he
was satisfied with,
and
"T.V. Party",
which featured
backing vocals
from the entire band.
The album was recorded at
Unicorn Studios,
on Santa Monica Blvd
in West Hollywood.
The band was living
and rehearsing
in another part
of the building
that housed
Unicorn Studios
prior to the sessions.
Drummer
Robo
was wearing bracelets
on his left wrist
that rattled
when he played;
the rattling,
whenever he hit his
snare drum,
especially when he hit
downbeats on it,
became part
of the sound.
The version of
"Rise Above"
on the album
was recorded at
an earlier session
with Rollins
and was intended
purely for a
single release.
Another version
was recorded
during the
album sessions
but the band
abandoned it
and decided to
include the
single version
instead.
The closing track,
"Damaged I",
is technically
Rollins's first writing credit
with the band.
In his book
Get in the Van,
Rollins reports that
he used to
improvise the lyrics
every night
when the song was
performed live.
Two takes of the vocal
were done,
and the
first was used
is the second
studio album
by
American band
Black Flag
It was the first
of three
full-length albums
the band released
in 1984.
The album
polarized fans
due to the LP's
B-side,
on which the band
slowed down to
a heavy,
Black Sabbath-esque
trudge after
establishing expectations
as a
faster hardcore
punk band
on its first album,
Damaged
(1981).
After a period of
legal troubles
which prohibited
the band from using
its own name
on recordings,
Black Flag
returned to the studio
with a new approach
to its music
that incorporated a
greater variety of styles,
resulting in a
sound orthodox
punks found difficult
to accept.
The line-up
had shrunk from
five members to three:
vocalist
Henry Rollins,
drummer
Bill Stevenson,
and co-founding
guitarist
Greg Ginn.
Ginn doubled on
bass guitar
under the name
"Dale Nixon"
for the recording
as bassist
Chuck Dukowski
left the band
shortly before recording;
the album includes
two tracks
Dukowski wrote.
The A-side
of the LP
is composed of
six generally
high-paced,
thrashy
hardcore tracks,
featuring
guitar solos
unusual in punk music.
On the B-side
are three
heavy tracks
that each
breach six-minutes
with ponderously
slow tempos and dark,
unrelenting lyrics
of self-hatred.
The band members
had grown their hair long
when they toured
the album in 1984,
which along with the
change in sound
further alienated their
hardcore skinhead fanbase.
Despite mixed reception
at the time
of the album's release,
My War
has come to gain
a reputation as
one of
Black Flag's
seminal releases
and had a
major influence
on the
development of
post-hardcore,
sludge metal,
grunge,
and
math rock.
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