BROADCAST #41
AIR DATE: 10-09-07

Fanatics, happy October again. Tonight we are going to do something we have never done before: one broadcast / one album. I really wanted to play all the studio tracks from The Damned’s 4th album, released in 1980, The Black Album. It was a 2LP set with a live side, which I am leaving out to concentrate more on the actual studio work of the band for this album. I am sure there is more information about TBA around but I can’t seem to find it. Here’s a few facts: The album was released in October of 1980 on Chiswick. The line-up had changed since the band’s previous album, Machine Gun Etiquette with bass player Algy Ward being replaced by Paul Grey of Eddie And The Hot Rods but the core of the band, Dave Vanian on vocals, Rat Scabies on drums and Captain Sensible on guitar was still intact. The album was different than MGE in a lot of ways, leaving behind the louder rock sound and attack for more elaborate arrangements, instrumentation and an increased level of ambition, shown in a song, Curtain Call, that takes up a whole side of the album and logs in at over 17 minutes. The band worked with Hans Zimmer on one track, The History Of The World (Part 1) but past that, produced the album themselves. In the summer of 1980, the band recorded tracks at Rockfield in Wales. Some of the tracks used for singles and such, like Rabid (Over You) and White Rabbit, were recorded months earlier at Wessex Studios, the studio where MGE had been recorded several months earlier.

I don’t think the concept was to record a double album. I am not trying to say I know The Damned but they were a very chaotic band and I bet they did not have a real concept of what they were going to do when they got to Rockfield besides try to get some songs recorded. If you look at it, it’s really not much of a double album in that sides three and four are a live side and a single song, which could have been released on a 12” single. The live side isn’t all that much conceptually. So, basically, what you have is an album with an extra 12” of cool stuff. This is why I didn’t bother to include any of the live tracks. Why this was released as a double album, I don’t know. Perhaps to have a poke at The Beatles? This is about all the information I have. I would like nothing more than to have too much information on the making of this album because it’s so great and I am so curious. I wonder how much the members of the band remember about making a record that is now 27 years old. I am sorry if you don’t find the above informative enough. Perhaps someday, I will get to interview some of the members and see what I can find out. If I had my way, I would interrogate every member for full disclosure, such is my curiosity about every aspect of this album.

So, since I cannot provide much actual information on the album, I will have to rely on my easily induced, self-indulgent blather to fill up some space here.

I remember when The Black Album came out. I was 19 and living in Virginia at the time. I was working at Häagen-Dazs. I didn’t get every copy of the weekly British music newspapers so I was not up on release dates. When a new album by a band I liked came out, it often took me awhile to find out about it. I don’t remember exactly when I got my hands on a copy of TBA but I remember listening to part of it in Ian’s room and liking it immediately. The album was very different than MGE, which I had played so many times but that didn’t throw me at all. I liked the album the first time I heard it although I must say, I didn’t pay that much attention to the live side and really concentrated on the studio stuff.

You Fanatics understand the power of connecting with a band or an album for whatever reason. In the case of an album, you might play it again after years of not hearing it and whatever it was that moved you about it is now gone and you might not remember what it was about the album that knocked you out in the first place. Sometimes though, the album takes you back to a certain time and place and that can be very powerful.

For me, The Black Album was one of those right time/right place albums. The moodiness of the album was perfect for me in those days, being the moody, scowling sap I was. It was and still is, one of my favorite after dark/late night listens of all time. I never listen to this album in the day time, that’s one of my rules. The Black Album is best enjoyed at night. When I am off the road, I listen to it at least one to two weekend nights a month. I don’t know about you Fanatics, but I am a seasonal listener. Some albums work better at certain times of the year for me. I know I have worn you out on detailing some of them to you so I will spare you now. I find the topic fascinating though, what music works when, what the music triggers in your mind and why, etc. Being moved to distraction when you hear a certain song or album is one of the best parts about being a music Fanatic. You go through so many changes in your life but that song or album sits there unchanged and when you hear it again, it becomes a powerful reference point. It’s as close to a time machine as I can get. There a several albums and songs that do this to me. The Black Album is one of the big ones.

This album was released during the last autumn before I joined Black Flag. When I listen to this album, I think of those times. Autumn of 1980 was the last fall season of my teen years and the last one as a DC area resident. By the following summer, I had joined Black Flag and moved to California. My life was very different from then on. There’s a book I did many years ago called Get In The Van that has a picture beginning of the book of myself and a lot of other people standing together outside of a Teen Idles show on 10-31-80. In the photograph, you will see members of many DC bands, Teen Idles, future members of Minor Threat, The Slickee Boys and many others. Those were good times. It was a small scene and you would go to a show and know almost everyone there. Scenes like this never last, they become bigger and as changes inevitably occur, something is lost. Times like the one depicted in the picture are to me like the time between inhaling and exhaling, like that small fraction of time before the air you’re breathing out extinguishes the candles on your birthday cake. During that fall, the ice cream store I was working at had a lot of quiet evenings and on many nights, I would stare out the door into the darkness as people and cars rushed by, wondering what I would do with my life. I remember the walks back to my apartment were heavy with the thoughts of a young man; the introspective intensity and furrowed brow heaviness that often accompanies youth. I went to a lot of shows in those days, and was in a small band later in the year. We lived for the music. Music was more than something we listened to. For many of us, it was almost our entire lives. I didn’t know what I was going to do with my life, not at all. I didn’t know how much longer I could stick it out at the ice cream store and I didn’t know what I was going to do next. I did know that I was going to be listening to a lot of music. I knew that the band I was wasn’t going to go anywhere past a few shows but that was fine. It was a blast being in a band and feeling a part of something, that was good enough for me.

The next several months were some of the best times in my life. Shows were great, the local music scene was thriving. Dischord Records came into existence and there was an excitement at the shows. We knew we were part of something very special. Winter gave way to spring and then into summer. Black Flag came to the east coast for the 2nd time in a few months. They held auditions for singer. I went for it, got the slot and left town in July of 1981. The autumn of the previous year right up to that point were very memorable and I still think of those times with great fondness. I always try to be in DC at least a couple of days every October. This year, the schedule worked out very well and I was afforded three days here. The Black Album was one of those heavy rotation records for me then and now. I try to listen to a lot of different music, you know how we Fanatics are. That being said, there are a few records that really nail it down for you to the point to where you don’t really know if the record is even any good, all you know is that it means a lot to you. I think many of you really understand what I mean. Well, for me, The Black Album is one of those. I do hope I have not prattled on too long and gotten too emo on you. I hope you enjoyed the show tonight.

Now, next week will be the show that was silenced when the Indie 103 computer keeled over about 30 minutes into. There was no way I was not let that one go unplayed so I hope you enjoy it and please forgive me if some of the references sound a bit dated as the show was meant to be broadcast in July. It’s a good batch of songs and I think you Fanatics will approve.

Below is a list of the songs we heard tonight. If you want to write in to the show, the best address is Henryontheradio@aol.com. Also, for the next several weeks, the broadcast notes will be posted on Tuesday mornings so you can download them or check them out as the show airs.

For you Fanatics who can’t live without hearing this show again or if the original broadcast time is too hard on your sleep cycle here’s the re-broadcast schedule: USA: Fridays: 0200 – 0400 hrs. PST / UK: Fridays: 1000 hrs. – 1200 hrs. / Continental Europe: Fridays 1100 hrs. – 1300 hrs./ Australia: Fridays 2100 hrs. – 2300 hrs.

The Damned - The Black Album
Wait For The Blackout
Lively Arts
Silly Kid's Games
Drinking About My Baby
Twisted Nerve
Hit Or Miss
Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde
Sick Of This And That
The History Of The World (Part 1)
13th Floor Vendetta
Therapy
Curtain Call

B-sides
Rabid (Over You)
Seagull
Sugar And Spite
I Believe The Impossible

Outtakes
Dr. Jeckyl and Mr. Hyde (Capt. vocal??)
Curtain Call (alt. voc., etc.)
Therapy - Captain on vocals - slightly diff. Lyrics

Radio Session
History Of The World (Radio One Sessions CD)

Album pressng information: I have tried to include all the information I could find on different pressings of The Black Album and the related singles and 12” releases. I have no idea if this is complete but it’s the best I could find. This list does not cover re-pressings of the album in any territory and comes from my own collection so there is a good chance there are some things missing. I have never heard of any test pressings or acetates of any of these in collections or anywhere else.

Black Album
Black Album - Chiswick (UK)
Black Album - IRS (USA) single LP version
Black Album – Chiswick (Italy)
Black Album – Chiswick (Spain)
Black Album – Chiswick (Australia)
Black Album – Chiswick (Greece)
Black Album – Chiswick (France)
Black Album – Chiswick (Germany)
Black Album – Chiswick (Japan) (w/Obi)
Black Album – Sounds Marketing (Japan)
Black Album – Sampler test press with proof cover