Personal Punk Rock History

[Snoogans4Jay]

OMG Joe you need to TELL those stories............and you are so right about EMI and CBS (just listen to Johnny's words on EMI).........Black Flag remains one of my favorite "punk" bands (with Henry).......Damaged is a TREMENDOUS record.......

I too had first heard this music was nothing but noise and the fans were NUTS but that is what I was always hearing about the music I thought spoke to me the most. Those people seem to always be wrong....

[Tao~]

Hey Joe!!! Glad to have you around!!! Your story was EXCELLENT......Can't wait to hear more....... ;D
Once again....Welcome and have a nice time!!!!!

[elisabeth]

Welcome to the board, great to see new members!
Loved your story and I have to agree with Snoogans4Jay and Tao, can't wait to hear more!

[raven]

Awesome story, dude. =B I wish I was born early enough to see all that. D; There's nothing special nowadays to go check out. It's sad.

[Tao~]

Such great memories!!! That is totally cool....I was in high school then and I know I would have given anything in the world to be able to see the kinds of things you did!!! I did good to see such bands as Molly Hatchet and a few others...but I was NEVER allowed to leave my hometown.....my parents were just too strict!!!..... Thanks...Joe....for sharing that.....it was way cool!! And BTW...I LOVE Henry!!!!!

[Snoogans4Jay]

I would have loved to have seen Black Flag with Henry , and I have a video of the band when he had long hair.... That was, in my opinion, by far the best version of the band. I love to see bands in small clubs like that, just more personal. With big arenas you are often doing better to just listen to your CDs and watch your DVDs.....can't see anything and the sound is distorted.

The story about Henry's reaction to the opening band going naked is CLASSIC I would have expected no less...

[Tao~]

Wow Joe!!! You have such great memories!!! And I just wanted you to know that it really is cool of you to share them with us!!!! What I would not GIVEN to have been paying more attention back then.....

[Snoogans4Jay]

DAMN Joe you seriously need to write a book or film a documentary..........you write very well and we can live it through your eyes..............I wish I could have been there

[Snoogans4Jay]

Well alls I know is I will buy the book/video dammit, this is GOOD stuff

[Snoogans4Jay]

joe said:

Cool. Maybe I'll start a thread for the taking of preorders on the book I might write in 8 years.

Put me down for one.........why eight years though? It looks like some research has already started

[Tao~]

That's really cool...Joe!!!! I second the vote of you writing a book!!!

[elisabeth]

Punk rock courses and Patti Smith concerts : O
I was born in the wrong country!
I'm not a huge fan of her music, but I appreciate her writing! Can't wait to hear about your experience!

[Snoogans4Jay]

He posted a review........under the general music section I think....very in depth and good

[Snoogans4Jay]

Oct 30, 2009 21:48:03 GMT -5 Joe said:

Wow...where does the time go? Hard to believe I haven't posted around these here parts in over a year. Don't take it personally, it's just that lately my musical tastes have drifted into blues, jazz, & swing. I try to get into a bit of everything.

But lately I got nostalgic for the old days of punk & the Electric Banana & for whatever reason, have been reading up on Black Flag on the interweb, esp. trying to find info on the 2 times I saw 'em perform. Turns out I was a little cloudy on the dates---I saw Black Flag on 7/4/81 (not '80) & 10/15/84 (not 10/22).

I found out a couple of interesting things about the 7/4/81 show in particular that I didn't know at the time. It was Dez Cadena's final show as Black Flag's vocalist. I had no idea in the world that I was witnessing history on that night.

I recalled the slam dancing that went on during that show. At the time, we had a pretty active punk scene here in Pittsburgh, but nobody knew anything about slamming. One of Black Flag's roadies charged onto the dance floor to show us easterners how to do it. I wasn't even on the dance floor, just near it at the bar, but this guy had gone out of his way to slam into me (I was merely grazed). I've recently learned that this previously-unidentified slam dancer was none other than Henry Rollins himself, working as a roadie so he could learn the songs & eventually take over as vocalist.

Anyways...just this week I located a bootleg copy of this 7/4/81 concert on line. I'm shocked to have found this--there were maybe 200 people there & it wasn't an environment conducive to making an audio tape of the show, but it was done. Given the historical significance of the show (NTM the fact that I can vouch for it as being a good one) I thought some of you might be interested:
forestroxx.blogspot.com/2009/07/black-flag-live-at-electric-banana.html

Sound quality is pretty good. The concert is just like I remember it.

Enjoy!

Great to see you here again Joe I am also amazed you found that concert, just goes to show that with today's technology it is possible to find almost anything