I shudder to imagine where I'd be without Bad Brains. The ROIR tape and "Rock For Light" were responsible for lifting me out the (strictly) reggae-listening daze of my junior high years, and pretty much got me through the most painful parts of high school. I can't count the number of times I ran home in a hormonal rage in order to throw on one of these tapes and be instantly calmed by the more genuine rage of these four musicians. In the absence of that hormonal imbalance, I still reap a WHOLE LOT of joy from those songs (let's not even get into HR's religious and homophobic "issues"...). Most great stuff from the eighties has been covered by better blogs that are more focused on that era, but I've had this strange, presumably bootlegged, 7" for 14 years and felt the need to share it. The EP pictured above and below is basically the "Pay to Cum" EP but with a bonus track: a version of "Don't Bother Me" recorded during the same 1979 session of the original EP. This may or may not be the only place this version appears!? Another reason this EP seems unique is the insert which has some photos I haven't seen elsewhere (and the fact that the record has a little stapled booklet inside... kinda rare for such an old 45...). As you can see, the back cover states the record was released on Limp Brain Records in 1980, but seeing as how that's not a real record label (or is it?) I don't know if we should believe in the accuracy of the date (potential commenters: please share if you have info!). What is clear is that only 500 were made in this pressing, and I have no idea if anyone went on to press a bootleg of this bootleg. If you don't have these songs, then do yourself a favor and download them below, and check out the pics if you're interested.Download The Tracks
4 comments:
Mr. Batguano, I could not agree with you more here. I didn't do the reggae thing until after getting into and maybe as a result of these guys. Good job staying away from HR's personal views, which I didn't even know about until much later. MDC did the best commentary on the subject anyway by putting it into a song. I remember the hormonal rage you are talking about and at the time never thought about using some PMA there. Excellent post dude, thanx.
Thanks, Justin, for breaking the commentary silence! The origins of the "real" PMA is kinda silly (some goofy self-help book), but I'm down with the way HR presents it. I gotta track down that MDC song... I almost completely forgot about it 'till you reminded me!
I think it's a bootleg featuring the 2 songs from the "Pay to Cum" 7" (which I incidentally have a boot copy of also) on the A-side and "Don't Bother Me" on the B-side, which I believe is their contribution to the compilation The Best of Limp. I'm just not sure if it's the same version of "Don't Bother Me", though. In any case I've never seen that record. Cool post and thanks for the tracks in any case.
Hey Matt, thanks. I forgot about that comp... but I've never heard it before so I can't corroborate. According to another recent "reissue," this version of "Don't Bother Me" was recorded in the same session as the great "Pay to Cum" 7".
http://ya-cant-go-home.blogspot.com/2008/08/bad-brains-pay-to-cum-1979-1981-lp.html
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