shuffle du jour

(ode to tha shuffle ... an ongoing series of real-time bloggings to songs/albums that randomly come up on my zune)

black flag, live 1984 (sst records)

i spent the better part of 3 years going to see every black flag show i could. not gonna get all nostalgic-- these were the rollins years, not without merit, but overall towards the end, a slow sickly decline. i'm not going to regale with tales of dez vs whatever (johnston v. mcdonald?), it was what it was, punk rock coming to my locality. i bought all of the records, including latter day ones (ok, not minuteflag or family man, but i did get process of weeding out-- was i rich at 20 or something?).

typical highlight, watching some 38 lb dude challenge and get shit kicked out of him by hank. predictable as the gabba gabba hey dude coming out for "pinhead", and equally as enjoyable.

they seemed to exist in another dimension. no regard for other bands except the (generally) awful ones they brought with them. coming in when I did, i didn't get the minutemen or meat puppets, i got twisted roots and tom troccoli's dog. swear to god, as good as SST was for a brief moment, they had more bad bands than all the majors combined. henry was the creepy constant throughout. hanging in the fringes of the crowd pre-show, staring holes through people. i found him very entertaining from a distance, hell, i even watch his ifc show from time to time, but he's one of those dudes i have no desire to ever converse with. roger clemens comes to mind. they both seem like major dickheads.

what is a remarkable listening back is what a tight rock band they were. i suppose i knew this at the time, the playing is no less ferocious but way more precise and workmanlike than i'd realized. hell, i didn't even realize there were backup vocals.

live 84 was originally release on cassette only. i wore out my copy. great year for cassette only release. mat's 'shit hits the fans' also came out then. i came upon this cd version about 4 years ago in a salvation army bin. it had been safely tucked away in my studio until tuesday night. oh fuck, "my war" just came on ... !!!!!!!!!!

% listened to before either skipping/turning off/deciding to never listen to music again: 68

revisionist rating (out of 10): !!!!!!!

rating after original purchase (ed note, possibly as made up as revisionist): !!!!!!!!!!!