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Bad Brains CDs:
I
Against I (1986) /
Quickness (1989) /
Banned
in DC: Bad Brains Greatest Riffs (2003)
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Bad Brains: Greatest Band in Punk Rock
By Vince Rogers
American Hardcore Punk Rock
music is indisputably the original creation of White
suburban teenagers from California. Simply stated, this
music doesn't borrow or steal from any other culture.
Those kids created that music to express their
dissatisfaction with the cultural contradictions and
outright lies that were manifested by and expressed
throughout the exclusionist rhetoric and hateful
philosophies of Reagan era Americana.
While their parents were
advocating an inequitable system of trickle down
economics and defending the bail out of malfeasant
savings and loans, many of their children were
advocating anarchy and rejecting materialism. These kids
had everything we wanted, or at least everything we were
told we needed, so it was hard to understand why they
were so angry.
When I was a teenager, there
was really no comparable way to express the angst that
Black kids felt at being the children of the Say It Loud
I’m Black and I’m Proud "New Soul Rebels" of the 1960s
and 70s, who were now being taught by their elders to
reject their own culture in order to get by in the
“real” world. We were being forced to wear Polo shirts,
Duck Head khakis and LL Bean penny loafers and being
taught that the keys to success were learning to speak
proper English and mastering the rules of polite society
better than kids being schooled at Choate and Exeter.
We were encouraged to act like
“fake” White people by seeking to mimic and replicate
the behavior and institutions of “White” society better
than White Americans had. In the early 1980s when our
White contemporaries were rejecting materialism and all
of the ideals of the military industrial complex, we
were attending tuxedo-clad Ebony soirees and
church sanctioned "Tom Thumb" weddings, in order to be
accepted by society for who "We" were.
Even though we were being
taught that we were as good as and we could do anything
that anybody else could, the underlying message was that
"their" culture was better that ours. Although most
people went along with this ultimately failed
experiment, some young Black people rebelled against
this pastiche of assimilationist behavior. Before
conscious Hip-Hop and the Afrocentric movement would
ultimately give a voice to the angst and anger of Black
American youths, many young African-Americans became
"Punks," also.
Young Black kids did not go
down to the basement and start Punk bands in large
numbers. The lure of the thrashing guitar was not as
strong as the booming call of the drum for most of
us. However, R&B and Disco didn’t provide much of a
platform for expressing the ideals of resistance and
rebellion that many of us felt within. The agenda in
“Hardcore Nation” would continue to be set mostly by
bands of young White kids and populated by their peers.
However there was an active
minority of Black Punks. As with the American musical
forms that Black people had created, it just so happens
that the band that is considered the best, most talented
and most influential band of the American Hardcore Punk
Rock Music scene that started in California by
skateboarding kids, is a band that originated in the
"Chocolate City" of Washington, D.C. and featured
an entirely Black lineup of accomplished musicians. The
group was called Bad Brains.
The Bad Brains were formed in
1979, out of the remnants of a Jazz-fusion band named
Mind Power. Their roots in Jazz provided them with
skills that enabled them to explore territory that their
peers {who typically were not skilled musicians) could
not venture into. Despite the fact that they chose to
play a style of music that was “alien” to their cultural
roots, the Brains wore “dreadlocks” and they were
practicing Rastafarians. The band itself was all Punk
though and regarded by their peers as the band you never
wanted to follow behind in a concert lineup.
The BB's influenced three
young fans who would ultimately become the Hip-Hop group
the Beastie Boys so much, that they refused to accept
any name their manager gave them that didn't have the
initials BB. The Bad Brains were regarded by their
peers, fans, and critics alike as the best
instrumentalists in a genre that wasn't known for its
musicianship and the best songwriters of a genre not
known for tight songwriting. They also had the best
stage show and one of the largest followings and longest
careers in Punk Rock music history.
I was in high school during
this time and except for the emergence of Prince and Run
DMC, Black popular music didn’t provide Black youths
with many outlets for expressing resistance or
rebellion. Along with a few of my friends, I would
occasionally explore the Punk Rock scene. Many of the
nationally known bands and a few local acts would
perform at now defunct clubs with names like the 688,
the Bistro, and the Metroplex. The crowd would be full
of Southern "Skinheads" and I was usually only one of
about three Black kids in attendance and we all came to
the show together.
When I would tell my friends I
was going to see Black Flag, the Dead Kennedys, or Fear
in concert instead of going to Six Flags or the mall
this weekend, few of them would understand. Most of my
contemporaries shunned this scene because it was
considered "White Boy Music." I embraced it because
somehow I could tell that the ideas of rebellion and
resistance, which had always been a staple component of
young Black peoples musical diet, was now sorely missing
from our own school cafeteria menu.
I was drawn to the music of
the Bad Brains, even though I had no idea that they were
Black at the time and I never saw them perform in
person. They simply were expressing ideas that I felt
were important, the music was well done and they somehow
seemed culturally relevant to me personally. It sounded
like “Rebel Music” to my ears.
During this short season in
which we observe and honor the accomplishments of Black
people, I believe that the group Bad Brains expresses
the ideals of Black History Month and Black progress as
well as any other notable figures from history, if not
better. Bad Brains entered an exclusively White field
and shattered all barriers, using their talents,
creativity and perseverance as their weapons.
In this era in which many
people complain that some people regard the best rapper
as a White kid named Eminem, it may be worth remembering
that most White people consider the greatest band in
Punk Rock to be the Bad Brains. Earning respect for our
achievements and preserving our culture is our challenge
and not the responsibility of anybody else. The Bad
Brains clearly represent the idea that Black people can
excel in any human endeavor without compromise, while
still embracing our distinct culture and upholding our
proud heritage without shame. This is a Black history
lesson that many of us have forgotten and one that
others have never clearly understood.
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Reviews
I
Against I (1986)
After the first of
their countless breakups, the Bad Brains reconvened in
1986 to record this, their undeniable masterwork. Fusing
dub reggae and funk rhythms into the mix, and slowing
the tempo down enough to appeal to hardcore's emergent
metal crossover audience, the Bad Brains created one of
the most powerful collections the '80s produced in any
genre. On "I Against I" and "House of Suffering," the
quartet suffuses traditional Jamaican spiritualism with
modern urban concerns, while the soaring "Sacred Love"
is guaranteed to send shivers down the spine of anyone
with any soul whatsoever. An essential release.—David
Sprague
Quickness (1989)
This album is
essentially a companion piece to what some claim is
their masterwork, the "I Against I" album. One doesn't
need to purchase "I Against I" to appreciate this album,
but it would be recommended, as the album effectively
functions as a sequel.—Oliver Sheppard
Banned in DC: Bad Brains Greatest Riffs (2003)
This collection spans the best of
the career of these DC/NYC reggae/hardcore musicians.
Later stuff is OK....but Bad Brains aren't the same
without HR's "throat."
If you have never heard the band
before this makes a good primer, to get you into them
(and they are counted as influences by lots of bands:
Beastie Boys to Living Colour & No Doubt (the last two
have covered Bad Brains songs both live and in the
studio). So if you like what you hear on this
disc....make the purchases to get yourself the rest of
their library (especially the early stuff)!—Chris
Stankis
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* Vince Rogers
was raised in Atlanta's Bowen Homes housing projects and
went on to attend Morehouse College as an academic
scholar. Although he is a widely published writer of
essays, poetry, short fiction, and scholarly papers, he
is most proud of being Editor of his high school
newspaper, the Frederick Douglass North Star.
His works were
among the Official Inaugural Selections of "I've Known
Rivers" The Museum of the African Diaspora Story
Project: Reproduction of the New Breed Leaders & Black
Mecca for the Sold Brother. He was the TimBookTu
Featured Writer for December of 2006. His scholarly
paper The Evolution of Shawntae Harris was
presented at the Hip Hop's Defiant Divas Conference at
Vanderbilt University.
His monthly fiction
column Pulp Fiction appears in
Pulp Magazine and his film Reviews are featured
in the
Southern Screen Report.
He contributes to
Clean Sheets Magazine; TimBookTu; Taj
Mahal Review: An International Journal; Chicken
Bones: A Journal; Thereby Hangs a Tale;
Catalyst Magazine; Southern Screen Report;
Pulp Magazine; Nghosi Books Anthology: Longing
Lust and Love ; 3 Lights Gallery (UK) The
Launch Exhibition; Black Arts Quarterly
(Stanford University).
You can read selected works at his
Blogs:
vincevision.blogspot.com,
waxvainglorious.blogspot.com and visit his Website:
www.vincevision.com. /
vincevision@yahoo.com or
vince@vincevision.com
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posted 5 February 2007 |
