Black Flag - Everything Went Black (1982)

Black Flag, one of those bands I always had seriously mixed emotions about, but also a band that my own guitar playing was compared to more than once. That last fact always irked me, as they were definitely never an influence, but somehow I came across sounding like Ginn. 

I should probably restate all of that. I was never a fan of Black Flag, until I found The First Four Years, which is all of the pre-Henry Rollins material. With that I got to hear the Keith Morris material, and that stuff I was a big fan of for sure. The band had a different approach at that point, a little more straight-forward and a little less of the noise style that guitarist Ginn would eventually create. 

The song "Nervous Breakdown" (which is not on this release I am currently listening to) became one of the only cover songs I would attempt with a band. We had the verses down pretty good, but the chorus bit was a mess. I wonder if doing that one song would eventually influence more of my playing? 

I haven't made an effort to listen to Flag in years. My cassette deck hasn't been set-up for a few years. I am planning to get a new deck sooner than later, but it has to match the rest of my gear, and be a toerable price. So, listening to this and hearing these songs again after many years, Morris is still my favorite of the Flag vocalists. Chavo (Ron Reyes) and Dez point the direction to Rollins. Is it safe (or foolish) to say that when Rollins joined the band Ginn told him to do what Chavo and Dez were doing?

I have always liked Flag, I think my issue was I always felt they were overrated, and Rollins always bugged me. It didn't help that I went to see Dag Nasty when they opened for The Rollins Band at the Cubby Bear in Chicago one night. This was the first round of the Rollins Band. At this time they were a slow, prodding, horrible experiment gone horribly wrong. I remember the entire audience deciding to sit down, with some actually lying down on the floor. My memory one song was more or less one chord, slowly played, for about 20 minutes, all while Henry stood on stage yelling about something. 

I remember being excited to see Rollins. He had kind of been out for a little time, I think. I know it was the first proper chance I had of seeing the legend that was Henry Rollins. It was a pretty massive letdown and kind of helped to ruin all of my thoughts of Rollins, and turned him into a joke for me. So much so that when he came back with a revamped Rollins Band, to massive critical praise, I still just rolled my eyes and laughed at the guy. 

"Louie, Louie" just came on . . . crap . . . I just realized it was the Flag version that made me learn how to play the song and start doing it with a band . . . maybe I was a bigger fan than I thought I was .

My Greg Ginn comparisons would eventually fade once I stopped trying to create the ultimate punk band, something I never even got close to doing.

"Damaged II" is still such a killer song. That one I seriously love a whole bunch. It's that part when it kicks in, that bit is so great and helps cover up the "start-stop" main verses. 

So, yeah, Flag is still cool. Still overrated, in my opinion, but cool stuff. Keith Morris era is still my favorite, and I still will take the Circle Jerks over Flag. 

Off! VS Black Flag? That's a tough call. I think I have a little problem with Off! in that Morris is kind of doing a post-Morris Flag. They have more in common with Chavo/Dez/Rollins sounding Flag than they do Morris era Flag. Yes?

Thanks to Colleen for the tunes!