Allright, I know that there are two other reviews of this album, but they both suck. I'm going to go track-by-track here, believe it or not, and if you don't like it, well that's just too bad.

A bit of history first [you should know this stuff already]. Black Flag is considered by many to be the first "hardcore punk" band of all time. Whether they were the first or not is regardless; they were certainly the HARDEST. The group played from '78-'86, during which they varied their sound from straight-forward punk rock to some really cool, jazzy instrumentals and more "advanced", complex music. The only member of this band that stayed with them for these years was underlooked guitarist Greg Ginn, who wrote nearly every song for the band [including every song on this album].

Black Flag went through singers and drummers like it was going out of style. Until they nailed down Henry Garfield [former singer of SOA, commonly known as Henry Rollins] in 1981, the band never had a true "singer". This album is pretty much all the unreleased, pre-Rollins material. If you're looking for more "professional" and cleaner versions of these songs (I don't know why you'd want that, but you never know) then go buy "The First Four Years" instead. Allright, now onto the music.

(Johnny "Bob" Goldstein Era) -- Keith Morris, from the Circle Jerks. They got rid of Keith because he was a moronic, drunk heroin addict, which didn't work too well with Ginn and his insane practice schedules. He went on to form the Circle Jerks after his brief tenure with Black Flag. Most of these tracks come from the sessions that brought us the "Nervous Breakdown" 7".

1] Gimmie Gimmie Gimmie -- The slowest of the 3 versions of this song on the album. Morris' vocals work very well with Ginn's guitar line... pretty much like any other version of this song that's out there.

2] I Don't Care -- Black Flag version of what would later become a Circle Jerks song [listen to "You Bet I've Got Something Personal Against You" from First Four Years: it's about Keith stealing this song.]... this is a great hardcore song, good evidence of what Flag sounded like back in the early days. Raw, quick, and rude.

3] White Minority -- Keith does this song much better than Chavo does on the Jealous Again 12". His biting, cynical vocals really add to this song.

4] No Values -- pretty much like the Jealous Again version, only with Keith on vocals of course. Once again, he does a great interpretation of the vocals.

5] Revenge -- this is MUCH better than the Jealous Again track. Another fast, quick song about shooting people. This track through track 9 was recorded "live" in the studio in 1979, probably intended to be on an album that later on became Jealous Again.

6] Depression -- Typical of pretty much every take of this song, complete with Ginn's insane guitar fills and those biting, angry vocals. One of my favorite tracks.

7] Clocked In -- One of the few early Flag songs that never did much for me.. I think you can tell that Greg Ginn was trying to be creative; you know, break out of the 4-chord punk rock that everybody was playing back then.. anyway, Clocked In was not the right way to go. He really wasn't able to express himself musically in a way that sounded good until "My War".

8] Police Story -- One of the 3 police story takes on this album. Not as vulgar as the others, for some reason. Just another classic punk song.

9] Wasted -- Much faster than the version on Nervous Breakdown.

(Jealous Again Era - Chavo) -- I think most of this stuff is the real Jealous Again sessions.. I don't own the J.A. 12", though, so I can't tell for sure. Anyway, Chavo's not everybody's favorite Flag singer, but he sounds really good on these tracks.

10] Gimmie Gimmie Gimmie -- intense. I like this version better than Rollins' on "Damaged". This is what Flag was all about back then. This is totally raw and wild.

11] Depression -- Another version of "Depression"... I think that Chavo's vocals come off as legitimately harder than Keith's.

12] Police Story -- This song, again. Vulgar, rude, etc. "Police Story" is classic Black Flag.

13] Clocked In -- I said earlier that this song doesn't really do it for me... well, when Chavo sings it, I REALLY don't like it. I dunno... this is a pretty boring song. Good thing it didn't end up on "Damaged".

14] My Rules -- Not to be rerecorded until the T.V. Party 7" came out in '85. A great, hard song... I'm surprised that they put "Clocked In" on a comp back in the old days instead of this song... this is a much harder tune. Chavo's vocals for it suck, but the rest of the song is great.

(Jealous Again Era - Dez) -- Dez Cadena's vocals. He's the guy who ended up recording most of the compilation tracks, plus "Six Pack" and "Louie Louie" 7-inches. Some of this is him singing over Jealous Again instrumental tracks, some of it is stuff that was supposed to go on a "Police Story" album that never came out, and some of it is live at various locations. I believe that "Damaged I" is featured on the Target Video Presents Black Flag VHS.. I don't own that video, but according to the liner notes, it was recorded for that.

15] Jealous Again -- A strange piano intro [not sure where that came from] followed by Dez singing over the same instrumental track that was on the Jealous Again 7" [which had Chavo singing]. Dez is just awesome. He really puts Chavo to shame with this version.

16] Police Story -- Dez' version of hardcore punk. He just gets up to the mike and screams his head off. This is probably my favorite version of Police Story. The guitar is right on, the vocals are intense... everything seems to go right on this track.

17] Damaged I -- The only fast version of "Damaged I" that I've ever heard. I have no idea what Dez is saying. I think this is also the only version of this song not to have a double-tracked guitar. As stated before, this was recorded "live".

18] Louie Louie -- I like this better than the "Louie Louie" 7" version. Ginn's solo is absolutely insane. I mean, it's just incredible. It's only a shade of things to come, too. Once again, I have no clue what Dez is saying, although I *could* guess.

19] No More -- "No More" must have been an incredible live track for these guys back in the day. I mean, imagine going to a Black Flag show, feeling all tense, jumping up and down ready to get into incredibly bloody fights, and hearing the opening of this song. That single note, slowly accelerating for about a minute, must have been nuts. It's no wonder why these guys had such violence at their shows back in the day. Although it has nothing to do with this release, I'm anxious to hear Rancid's version on the West Memphis 3 tribute album. Anyway, back to this track: The bass is playing a different note than the guitar plays on "Damaged" for some reason. Anyway, Dez' vocals really add to this version of it, and Ginn's as crazy as always. Great track.

20] Room 13 -- Not the best song on Damaged, nor on this album. This song changed a lot before being rerecorded for the B-side of "Damaged". The riff is typical of the stuff that Ginn did after Flag broke up in '86: it's pretty much atonal, sounds insane, played really heavy. Not much else to say about this song, though.

21] Depression -- Yet another version of Depression. What a guitar track. It's just incredible. Sometimes I think that the alternate versions of these tracks are presented more for Ginn's differing guitar interpretations rather than the vocalist's differing styles. I have no clue who's doing the backup vocals... it's probably Dukowski.

22] Damaged II -- the LONG version of "Damaged II". I prefer the "Damaged" version to this one.. it's great and all, but just lasts forever. Dez doesn't come up with new things to say the way that Rollins does. And, as I've said a few times before, Ginn sounds absolutely awesome. I have no idea how this guy's been overlooked for so many years. He's clearly an incredible guitarist. Who else could play this song the way that he can?

23] Padded Cell -- Another junk track from "Damaged". I'm not a big fan of this tune. It gets annoying after a while, and Dez sucks on it. The chorus is much different from the "Damaged" version. Big whoop.

24] Gimmie Gimmie Gimmie -- starts fast, slows down for each verse for some reason. I like Chavo's version better.

25] Crass Commercialism -- if this were the only track on this album, it would still be worth the 15 bucks. This track actually gets funnier with age... one could imagine that any one of these old Black Flag radio commercials would have gotten pretty old back in the day.. but hearing them all back to back is great. You can hear just how strange their sense of humor was back in the day. I think it's too bad that punk bands don't have radio ads like these anymore. These are absolutely great. Some of them are totally crazy, like the country version of "no values" and the "Ant Music Sucks" commercial [see the website with the Black Flag memories for more on that show].

Overall, this is an incredible album. I hope that I didn't come down too hard on some of the singers... anyway, go buy this album and hear it for yourself. It's great. I usually put the CD player on Random and entertain myself with a full assortment of Flag tunes. Highly recommended.

There are people who will claim that this is one of the greatest punk albums of all time.. I can see where they're coming from: I think this is a better album than "Damaged" and a heck of a lot better than most of the pop-based punk that you get nowadays. However, I have a hard time even calling this the best Black Flag album. Personally, I prefer "The Process of Weeding Out", "Loose Nut", and "In My Head" to this album. Black Flag's punk stuff is great, but even it can get old after a while. Luckily, they've got material that's more musically challenging than these songs.

As for Greg Ginn, I'd recommend getting some of his solo albums, particularly "Getting Even", if you're into later Black Flag. All I can say is that he's one of the greatest guitarists that I've ever heard (which includes Rhoads, Hendrix, Iommi, Van Halen, etc., so don't come out and say that I've never heard anybody or that I'm a moron for liking this guy). I love his sound because it's so unorthodox and so different from stuff that anybody else has played before or since... I believe that he was a pretty big bebop/acid jazz fan, which would help explain those nutty, fast, atonal solos. There certainly will never be another guitarist anything like Ginn.

Recommended: Yes

Great Music to Play While: Hanging With Friends