Well, I don’t know about yours, but my original vinyl is
scratched to absolute buggery. Regularly ripped from its sleeve as soundtrack
to countless post-pub carouses, its fourth side (recorded before fan club
members at Shepperton) crackles and spits with the intensity of a full English
breakfast, particularly as it lurches from Love Song to Second Time Around.
Unsurprisingly, the album cover still bears witness to various sticky reminders
of McEwans or Tennents Lager and Merrydown cider spillage.
Ripped from the 2005 double CD to unflattering MP3 @ 320kbps
If your copy remains factory fresh then you’ve clearly
not been listening to it properly, and if you’ve not got one? Well, you’re more
to be pitied than scolded. For while The Black Album carries neither the
historical import of their thrice-eponymous debut, nor the career-defining hits
of Machine Gun Etiquette (in their studio incarnation), it still stands as The
Damned’s psychedelic goth-punk magnum opus. Sounding for all the world like the
best album the late-60s Who never made (with ex-Hot Rods bassist Paul Gray
channelling his inner Entwistle), Wait For The Blackout, 13th Floor Vendetta
and the side-long Curtain Call are well worth the hefty price of admission
alone. Anyway, you’ve read enough already just go and buy the bastard.
The Damned; The Black Album
CD.1
1. Wait
For The Blackout
2. Lively
Arts
3. Silly
Kid’s Games
4. Drinking
About My Baby
5. Twisted
Nerve
6. Hit
Or Miss
7. Dr.
Jekyll And Mr. Hyde
8. Sick
Of This And That
9. The
History Of The World (Part 1)
10. 13th
Floor Vendetta
11. Therapy
12. Curtain
Call
CD.2
1. Love
Song (Live)
2. Second
Time Around (Live)
3. Smash
It Up (Parts 1 & 2) (Live)
4. New
Rose (Live)
5. I
Just Can’t Be Happy Today (Live)
6. Plan
9 Channel 7 (Live)
7. White
Rabbit
8. Rabid
(Over You)
9. Seagulls
10. History
Of The World (Part 1) (Single Version)
11. I
Believe The Impossible
12. Sugar
& Spite
13. There
Ain’t No Sanity Clause
14. Looking
At You (Live)
15. White
Rabbit (Extended Version)
All of the previous Damned posts re-upped and available, here
Never been a great fan... But great stuff, thanks for the Enlightenment.
ReplyDeleteThe Black Album was a huge step forward for many fans of the band and it became a standard bearer for the post-punk bands that were taking similar steps. An album of its time
DeleteThis is prog-punk and my favourite Damned by far. First time I took acid this played on loop for about 7 hours—I had a cassette deck that auto-played both sides—I think the cassette was destroyed by the end. Curtain Call is a musical feast.
ReplyDeletePeel Sessions missing from your re-ups? Would be great to hear if you have the time and inclination! Thanks for all the other Damned stuff.
ReplyDeleteThere are two early Peel sessions re-posted already John...spotting the link might be a challange, but I'm sure it can be done. Otherwise I don't have any further Damned at the BBC sessions in my collection (at the moment...)
DeleteAh 0K - thank you. Will have a rummage ...
Delete