<iframe sandbox="allow-popups allow-scripts allow-modals allow-forms allow-same-origin" style="width:120px;height:240px;" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" src="//ws-eu.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?ServiceVersion=20070822&OneJS=1&Operation=GetAdHtml&MarketPlace=GB&source=ss&ref=as_ss_li_til&ad_type=product_link&tracking_id=mabasreofcdbl-21&language=en_GB&marketplace=amazon®ion=GB&placement=B01NASV0S7&asins=B01NASV0S7&linkId=c5fa06dbbb9e93cb59270a1ba84cf60e&show_border=true&link_opens_in_new_window=true"></iframe>
Rating ****
"...Just For You...Here's A Love Song..."
Cream or not creamy – that
is the case your honour.
Although light on the
bonuses, I have to say that I love the look
of this 40th Anniversary Reissue CD for The Damned and their
explosive February 1977 British debut album on Stiff Records. 30 attached pages
of suitably grungy retro photos, gig posters, impact, legacy etc. Sucker for
packaging, I know...
First in The Art Of The Album Hardback Book
Series BMG has been schlepping on us punters for a while now (there are 10
titles in 2020), other unlikely recipients of the same book-type makeover include
The Small Faces, Frankie Goes To Hollywood, Propaganda, Uriah Heep, Slade, The
Kinks, Erasure and even Suicide.
A downside as I say is the
complete lack of Audio and Visual extras and the feeling that you’re
essentially being asked to fork out again for packaging that should have been
there decades ago. Still, let's deal with what we do have...
UK released 17 February 2017
- "Damned Damned Damned" by THE DAMNED on BMG BMGAA011CD (Barcode
4050538235036) is a straightforward CD Remaster of the 11-track Debut LP and is
part of BMG's 'The Art Of The Album'
Series of CD Reissues sporting Hardback Book Sleeves Artwork.
It has no bonus
tracks and plays out as follows (31:01 minutes):
1. Neat Neat Neat [Side 1]
2. Fan Club
3. I Fall
4. Born To Kill
5. Stab Yor Back
6. Feel The Pain
7. New Rose [Side 2]
8. Fish
9. See Her Tonite
10. 1 of The 2
11. So Messed Up
12. I Feel Alright
Tracks 1 to 12 are their debut
studio album "Damned Damned Damned" - released 18 November 1977 in
the UK only on Stiff Records SEEZ 1. Produced by NICK LOWE - the LP peaked at
No. 34 on the UK album charts.
THE DAMNED were:
DAVE VANIAN [David Lett] –
Vocals
BRIAN JAMES - Guitar
CAPTAIN SENSIBLE [Raymond
Burns] – Bass and Vocals
RAT SCABIES [Christopher
Millar] – Drums and Vocals
Attached to the inside of
the BMG Hardback Book Sleeve is a 30-page black and white booklet with comments
on all of the songs from the band, period photos, those posters for the LP and
pre-album singles in 1976, the T.Rex Tour where they were supporting, Marquee
adverts, NME front covers, Nick Lowe’s recording tricks, discussion on the
deliberately misleading rear sleeve in order to guarantee a 5000-LP sell out as
a collector's item, and more.
JOHN INGHAM does the new
liner notes that even include a timeline from their formation in 1976 through
to the New Rose single (first Punk 45 review in Sounds), the infamous Anarchy
In The UK Tour with The Pistols, first Punk band to tour the USA in April of
that year, all the way through to the release of their second album in November
1977 – "Music For Pleasure". Ingham breaks his story into sections –
The Times, Players, Craft, Impact and Legacy – impressively thorough. Oddly
there is no mastering credit, but the Remaster is huge – kicking and snarling
like it did when it hit our turntables.
This half-hour of
guitar-driven hedonism changed everything. The debut album masterpiece "Marquee
Moon" by Tom Verlaine's American Band Television also hit both the US and UK vinyl shelves in February
1977 (on Sire), but was more Rock meets angular New Wave than Punk Rock. Both The
Stranglers and The Clash debuts would land two months after The Damned in April 1977 - "IV
- Rattus Norvegicus" on United Artists and "The Clash" on CBS
Records. And of course, that other big daddy of attitude and pogo-riffage, the Sex
Pistols in October 1977 on Virgin with "Never Mind The Bollocks Here's The
Sex Pistols". But for many, England's The Damned
nailed Punk Rock first (their debut 45 "New Rose" hit the shops in October 1976) and if anyone wanted to know what was contained within,
you had only to look at the snotty and irreverent artwork on the Stiff Records LP to know.
"Neat
Neat Neat" is a stunning opener too for any debut album, which makes "Singalong
Scabies" – the Non-LP February 1977 B-side to their second 45-single on
Stiff BUY 10 - all the more irksome by its absence. That other huge tune on The
Damned's debut - "New Rose" – also had a Non-LP B-side in "Help" that
screams out to be present (October 1976 UK 45-single on Stiff Records BUY 6). I had also forgotten in truth just how kick-ass "Feel
The Pain", "See Her Tonite" and "So Messed Up" are.I Feel Alright indeed...
Is "Damned Damned Damned" as good as Bollocks or
The Clash or dare I say it (grovelling on my knees as I do) Marquee Moon –
probably not in my books - nicked by all three of those starters mentioned that I think have stood up better. But re-listening to "Damned Damned Damned" in spring 2022 and I'm reminded
of how visceral it all was (and frankly still is).
Of course, there is a better
variant somewhere down the musical line and yet another anniversary, but for the Post Covid-19 moment, this
is a jab in yer soft tissues worth having...and do as The Captain would...lick that cream off your decals baby...
