Damaged
Studio album by Black Flag
Released	December 1981
Recorded	Unicorn Studios, August 1981
Genre	Hardcore punk
Length	34:56
Label	SST
Producer(s)	Black Flag, Spot
Professional reviews
All Music Guide link
Black Flag chronology
Six Pack (EP) (1981)	Damaged (1981)	TV Party (EP) (1982)

This page is about the Black Flag album. For the heavy metal band, see Damaged (band). For other uses see damage.

Damaged was a 1981 hardcore punk album released by Black Flag on SST Records, their first full-length LP. Many critics at the time dismissed this album as "unmusical", though it is now considered both a classic of the era and the peak of Black Flag's career. In 2003, the album was ranked number 340 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time. Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... A studio album is a collection of previously unreleased, studio-recorded tracks by a recording artist. ... Black Flag was a hardcore punk band formed in 1976 in southern California, largely as the brainchild of Greg Ginn, the guitarist, primary songwriter and sole continuous member through multiple personnel changes. ... This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... Hardcore punk (usually referred to simply as hardcore/hXc) is a subgenre of punk rock which originated in the United States of America in the late 1970s. ... This does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... SST Records is a Lawndale, California based independent record label formed in 1978 in Long Beach, California by Black Flag founder/guitarist Greg Ginn. ... In the music industry, a record producer (or music producer) has many roles, among them controlling the recording sessions, coaching and guiding the musicians, organizing and scheduling production budget and resources, and supervising the recording, mixing and mastering processes. ... Black Flag was a hardcore punk band formed in 1976 in southern California, largely as the brainchild of Greg Ginn, the guitarist, primary songwriter and sole continuous member through multiple personnel changes. ... SPOT, (born Glen Lockett in 1951), was the house producer and engineer for the influential indie/punk record label SST Records. ... The All Music Guide (AMG) is a metadata database about music owned by All Media Guide. ... Image File history File links 5_stars. ... Black Flag was a hardcore punk band formed in 1976 in southern California, largely as the brainchild of Greg Ginn, the guitarist, primary songwriter and sole continuous member through multiple personnel changes. ... Six Pack is a 7 EP released by Black Flag in 1981 on SST Records. ... TV Party was a 7 EP released by Black Flag in July 1982 on SST Records. ... Damaged was a heavy metal band from Ballarat in Victoria, Australia that was formed in 1989 by drummer Matt Sanders (aka Skitz) and guitarist Chris Hill (aka Hilly). The line-up was completed by bass player Jason Parker (aka Mohawk) and vocalist James Ludbrook. ... Damage is i love sean michael herring physical harm that is caused to something, especially harm that impairs its function or appearance. ... Hardcore punk (usually referred to simply as hardcore/hXc) is a subgenre of punk rock which originated in the United States of America in the late 1970s. ... Black Flag was a hardcore punk band formed in 1976 in southern California, largely as the brainchild of Greg Ginn, the guitarist, primary songwriter and sole continuous member through multiple personnel changes. ... SST Records is a Lawndale, California based independent record label formed in 1978 in Long Beach, California by Black Flag founder/guitarist Greg Ginn. ... A gramophone record, (also phonograph record - often simply record) is an analog sound recording medium: a flat disc rotating at a constant angular velocity, with inscribed spiral grooves in which a stylus or needle rides. ... This article is about the magazine. ... Promotional Book Cover The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time is the cover story of a special issue of Rolling Stone magazine published in November 2003. ...

Album history

Black Flag had made at least two aborted attempts to record a full-length album since the release of their first EP Nervous Breakdown, with singers Keith Morris, Chavo Pederast and Dez Cadena; some of the Pederast sessions became the Jealous Again EP, while selections from two of many Cadena sessions became the Six Pack EP and the "Louie Louie"/"Damaged I" single; other session outtakes would later comprise the Everything Went Black double album^[1]. At the time of the recording, Cadena had moved to rhythm guitar (a position he had initially intended to take when Pederast was still in the band)^[1] and 20-year-old Washington, DC expatriate Henry Rollins had become the band's new lead singer weeks before the sessions occurred^[2]. Unlike Pederast, who had never sung in a studio before^[1], and Cadena, who hadn't even sung before joining the band^[1], Rollins already had one recording credit to his name with the short-lived DC hardcore punk band State of Alert, who recorded No Policy, an EP released earlier in the year^[3][4]. This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... Keith Morris was the co-founder of Black Flag along with guitarist Greg Ginn. ... Ron Reyes (dubiously immortalized as Chavo Pederast) was the second singer for California based punk rock group Black Flag. ... Dennis (Dez) Paul Cadena (born June 2, 1961) is an American singer and guitarist. ... Jealous Again was an EP released by Black Flag in 1980 on SST Records. ... Extended play (EP) is the name typically given to vinyl records or CDs which contain more than one single, but are too short to qualify as albums. ... Six Pack is a 7 EP released by Black Flag in 1981 on SST Records. ... Everything Went Black was an album released in 1983 by Black Flag. ... A double album is an audio album of sufficient length that two units of the medium in which it is sold (especially records and compact discs) are necessary to contain the entirety of it. ... Aerial photo (looking NW) of the Washington Monument and the White House in Washington, DC. Washington, D.C., officially the District of Columbia (also known as D.C.; Washington; the Nations Capital; the District; and, historically, the Federal City) is the capital city and administrative district of the United... Henry Rollins (born February 13, 1961 as Henry Lawrence Garfield[1]) is an American Grammy Award-winning alternative rock singer and songwriter, spoken word artist, book author (prose and poetry), radio and TV personality, occasional movie actor, comedian, and voice-over artist. ... State of Alert (or S.O.A.) was a hardcore punk group from Washington, D.C. fronted by Henry Garfield, who would later rise to fame as Henry Rollins. ... No Policy is the first and only release by State of Alert. ...

The band recorded their backing tracks without Rollins, who overdubbed vocals with band leaders Greg Ginn (guitar) and Chuck Dukowski (bass) coaching him afterward.^[2] 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. Gregory Regis Ginn (born June 8, 1954) is a guitarist, songwriter and singer. ... Chuck Dukowski is the stage name of Gary McDaniel, born February 1, 1954. ...

The studio they used, Unicorn Studios, was owned by the record company SST Records had made a distribution deal with, and the band was actually living in another part of the building prior to the sessions^[2].

Drummer ROBO was wearing bracelets on his left wrist that rattled when he played; the rattling, whenever he would hit his snare drum, especially when he hit downbeats on it, became part of the sound.^[2] ROBO (born Roberto Valverde in 1955[1]) is a Colombian drummer born in Cali. ...

The version of "Rise Above" on the album was actually recorded for a single release at an earlier session with Rollins; another version was recorded during the album sessions but the band decided to include the version intended for the single instead.^[2]

The closing track, "Damaged I", is technically Rollins' 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.^[2]

The album cover

The album cover, shot by punk photographer Ed Colver, features Rollins putting his fist through a mirror. The effect was made by cracking the mirror with a hammer, while the "blood" on Rollins' wrist is a mixture of red ink and coffee^[5]. A cup of coffee Workers sorting and pulping coffee beans in Guatemala Coffee is a widely consumed beverage prepared from the roasted seeds — commonly referred to as beans — of the coffee plant. ...

Business disputes with Unicorn

Aided by their distribution deal with Unicorn, which was associated with MCA Records, an initial pressing of 25,000 copies was made. Prior to the album being released, MCA Records president Al Bergamo listened to the album and claimed for some unknown reason that the record was "anti-parent", although he did not (or could not) cite a lyric that led him to make such a claim.^[6] As a result, MCA refused to distribute the already-pressed-and-packaged album which bore an MCA Distributing Corp. logo on the lower right corner of the back cover; Black Flag members had to visit the pressing plant and apply a label over the MCA Distributing Corp. logo which read, "As a parent... I found it an anti-parent record"^[7][3][2] -- thus essentially throwing Bergamo's words back in his face. The Music Corporation of America, commonly known as MCA, is a United States based corporation in the music business. ...

Longtime SST employee Joe Carducci has reported that the "anti parent" statement was a red herring. In fact, according to Carducci, Unicorn Records was so poorly managed and so deeply in debt that MCA would lose money in distributing Damaged, regardless of its content, and was eager to sever its relationship with Unicorn by any possible pretext.^[8] Look up red herring in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...

SST ended up distributing Damaged on its own; as a result, Unicorn filed suit against Black Flag and SST, claiming breach of contract. Black Flag were suddenly enjoined from recording any more records under their own name^[3], although SST were able to continue with its own release schedule, releasing The Minutemen's The Punch Line and the debuts of Meat Puppets and Saccharine Trust^[5]. However, Unicorn would release a single of an updated "T.V. Party" before the legal trouble started, a recording (just as ironically) commissioned by MCA for the soundtrack to the movie Repo Man^[9]. The Minutemen were a punk rock band from San Pedro, California comprising singer/guitarist D. Boon, singer/bassist Mike Watt and drummer George Hurley. ... The Punch Line is the first full-length album and third record release by influential punk/alternative trio The Minutemen, and the fourth-ever release from SST Records. ... The Meat Puppets are an American rock band formed in January 1980, in Paradise Valley, Arizona. ... This page may meet Wikipedias criteria for speedy deletion. ... The four alien bodies. Repo Man is a 1984 cult film directed by Alex Cox, produced by Michael Nesmith, and starring Emilio Estevez and Harry Dean Stanton. ...

The legal dispute between Black Flag and Unicorn tied the band up for almost two years, during which time they released Everything Went Black, a double album of pre-Rollins outtakes, under the names of the individual musicians and vocalists on the record^[10]. Unicorn ended up filing even more legal briefs, claiming that Black Flag had violated a court injunction against releasing new records. Ginn and Dukowski ended up doing several days in Los Angeles County Jail for contempt of court, but the case fizzled out soon afterward when Unicorn went out of business, thus freeing Black Flag of any further obligation to the label.^[3][2][5] Everything Went Black was an album released in 1983 by Black Flag. ...

Known outtakes and alternate versions

In addition to the known unissued version of "Rise Above" recorded during the album sessions and the alternate take of "Damaged I", a version of Black Flag's arrangement of "Louie Louie" was also recorded. According to Rollins in Get In The Van, this version featured the band going into "a strange jam at the end until the tape ran out;" It was never mixed down in any form^[2]. As of July 2006, it was unknown if the master tapes to these outtakes were still in existence. Henry Rollins later stated on his radio show's blog that alternate versions of "What I See" and "at least one other song that I can't remember" also came out of the Damaged sessions, and that other outtakes from Black Flag's other albums also exist.^[11] Louie Louie is an American rock n roll song written by Richard Berry in 1955. ...

A version of "Depression" was recorded to be the B-side of the shelved "Rise Above" single.^[2]

Release variations

• A 1982 European release issued by Roadrunner Records' RoadRacer imprint substitutes the later single version of "T.V. Party" for the album version on side one, and adds the Dez Cadena-led single version of "Louie Louie" to the end of side two^[12].
• The initial CD reissue of Damaged, for some unknown reason, appeneded the Jealous Again EP. All subsequent versions contain the original album only^[13][10].

Roadrunner Records is a major record label that concentrates on metal bands. ...

Influence

• The descending chromatic guitar riff that opens "Rise Above" has been sampled (frequently over James Brown's "Funky Drummer" breakbeat) by Public Enemy (for the song "Buck Whylin'", credited to Terminator X), X-Clan (for "Holy Rum Swig" on Xodus), and the Beastie Boys (for "What You Give Is What You Get" on the Shadrach 12" single).
• Rise Against covered "Rise Above" for the soundtrack to Lords of Dogtown, and also portrayed Black Flag in the movie.
• Pennywise covered "Gimme, Gimme, Gimme" for the Australian tour CD of Vans Warped Tour.
• Saint Vitus covered "Thirsty and Miserable" on their 1987 album Born Too Late.

James Joseph Brown (May 3, 1933 – December 25, 2006), commonly referred to as The Godfather of Soul and The Hardest Working Man in Show Business, was an American entertainer recognized as one of the most influential figures in 20th century popular music. ... The funky drummer break is one of the most used sampled drum loops in hip-hop and drum and bass music, together with the Amen break, which is more related to drum-and-bass. ... Public Enemy, also known as PE, is a seminal hip hop group from Long Island, New York, known for their politically charged lyrics, criticism of the media, and active interest in the concerns of the African American community. ... Terminator X (DJ): The DJ of the rap group Public Enemy. ... X-Clan is an alternative hip hop group from New York City, composed of Grand Verbalizer Funk Lesson, Lumumba Professor X, Grand Architect, The Rhythm Provider and MC Isis. ... The Beastie Boys are a group from the New York City boroughs of Brooklyn and Manhattan. ... The word Shadrach can refer to several things: A Hebrew boy in The Bible, also known as Hananiah, who, with his brothers Meshach and Abednego, defied Nebuchadnezzar. ... Rise Against is a political punkrock band from Chicago, Illinois, USA, consisting of four members, Tim McIlrath (vocals, guitar), Joe Principe (bass guitar), Brandon Barnes (drums), and Zach Blair (guitar). ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... For the Stephen King creature, see It (monster). ... Warped Tour Logo Warped Tour is a touring music and extreme sports festival. ... Saint Vitus is known as one of the first doom metal bands, starting out as early as in the late 70s. ... Born Too Late is the third album by the American doom metal/stoner metal band Saint Vitus, which was released in 1987. ...

Track listing

Side A

1. "Rise Above" (Ginn) – 2:26
2. "Spray Paint (The Walls)" (Dukowski/Ginn) – 0:33
3. "Six Pack" (Ginn) – 2:20
4. "What I See" (Dukowski) – 1:55
5. "T.V. Party" (Ginn) – 3:31
6. "Thirsty and Miserable" (Cadena/Medea/ROBO) – 2:05
7. "Police Story" (Ginn) – 1:32
8. "Gimmie Gimmie Gimmie" (Ginn) – 1:47

Side B TV Party was a 7 EP released by Black Flag in July 1982 on SST Records. ...

1. "Depression" (Ginn) – 2:28
2. "Room 13" (Ginn/Medea) – 2:04
3. "Damaged II" (Ginn) – 3:23
4. "No More" (Dukowski) – 2:25
5. "Padded Cell" (Dukowski/Ginn) – 1:47
6. "Life of Pain" (Ginn) – 2:50
7. "Damaged I" (Ginn/Rollins) – 3:50

Personnel

• Henry Rollins - lead vocals
• Greg Ginn - lead guitar, backing vocals
• Dez Cadena - rhythm guitar, backing vocals
• Charles Dukowski - bass, backing vocals
• ROBO - drums, backing vocals
• Mugger - backing vocals
• Spot - producer, engineer
• Francis Buckley - mixer
• Ed Colver - artwork

Henry Rollins (born February 13, 1961 as Henry Lawrence Garfield[1]) is an American Grammy Award-winning alternative rock singer and songwriter, spoken word artist, book author (prose and poetry), radio and TV personality, occasional movie actor, comedian, and voice-over artist. ... Gregory Regis Ginn (born June 8, 1954) is a guitarist, songwriter and singer. ... Dennis (Dez) Paul Cadena (born June 2, 1961) is an American singer and guitarist. ... Chuck Dukowski is the stage name of Gary McDaniel, born February 1, 1954. ... ROBO (born Roberto Valverde in 1955[1]) is a Colombian drummer born in Cali. ... SPOT, (born Glen Lockett in 1951), was the house producer and engineer for the influential indie/punk record label SST Records. ...

References and footnotes