I was familiar with Rollins from my high school skater punk-guy days, but The Rollins Band was another animal altogether. Gone were the breakneck, manic, sarcastic songs like “Slip it In” and “Six Pack”, and in their place were long, eight minute pulverizing, angry dirges based firmly in the blues. To say it took some getting used to was an understatement.
Anyway, this album was essential to me during a bad breakup I had back in my early 20’s. I guess girls fancy a good love song and a cry during a breakup (stereotypically, of course), but The End of Silence contained the perfect mix of self-pity, searing anger, resentment, and resolve that made it an absolute essential part of my life for about six months of 1994.
And then, strangely enough, during a trip to New York City, I got the chance to meet Rollins. Well, “meet” is being generous. I was up there with a buddy visiting his girlfriend, and a few of us were walking around the city, when I notice I’m behind a squat, jacked-up dude that seemed strangely familiar. That’s when I also notice the unmistakable Black Flag insignia tattoo on the back of the guy’s neck.
Without even considering what I was doing, I blurt out, “Hey, Henry”.
He and the girl he’s with turn around and he looks me in the eye and raises an eyebrow – “Yeah?”
Then, panicking, I hold out my hand to shake and say, I swear, “I think you’re pretty cool”
He was nice enough to return my shake, tell me thanks, and not punch me in my face. So, there’s my exciting brush with superstardom.
About a year after that, some of my friends and I went to see Rollins at The Cotton Club in Atlanta (opening act was a noisy, unknown band called Tool). Now, that was a weird performance. I’m sure everyone has seen clips of Rollins in full-on, possessed performance mode. He’s usually naked but for a pair of black briefs, hunched over and screaming his lungs out into a mic. We expected all this, of course, but the strangeness happened in between songs.
This. Yikes
He would put the mic back on the stand, stand erect, start genuinely smiling, and crack jokes with the audience (probably this was about the time he really started considering spoken word as his major career move). There was lots of nervous laughter from the audience, and then, sometimes, just complete, uncomfortable silence. Rollins even noticed this at one point, and commented how everyone seemed scared to speak (to which I answered in my head like everyone else, “No fucking shit, dude”). Then his face would screw up, the band would kick in, and there he’d be, staking the stage again. It was a very strange show indeed.
The years (and his spoken word stuff, and his talk show) have of course shown us that Rollins has either chilled out a good bit or was really a big-hearted person underneath his muscle bound, Hulkish exterior. He’s a very intelligent dude, a good writer and poet, and very thoughtful on a wide variety of subjects. I think The Rollins Band helped him grow as a person, actually, providing him a therapeutic outlet for some of his issues.
“Obscene” is one of the longest songs on this album, clocking in at 8:40, though much of that is taken up by a chaotic, instrumental freak-out at the end. The song really begins with some drum and bass fireworks, with the bass player running some awesome scale work underneath the guitar noodling.
The band locks into a nice riff which drives the song, and Rollins starts the vocals at :33 with, guess what, a guttural scream. He’s confused and angry – go figure. My favorite part of the song is what passes for its chorus – check 1:04, when the band hits HARD on eighth notes with pauses in between – “Bam bam – bam bam – bam bam – bam” while Rollins, raving, yells – “I’ll love you and hate you both at the same time – Heal you and hurt you and laugh as you cry!” Very effective stuff. (He does again at 1:42, just in case you don’t know what I mean)
After the second chorus, we have a great bluesy jam, followed by the song grinding to a halt at 3:00. For the next minute and a half, Rollins quietly sings over a barely audible bass until he explodes again at 4:30 (and we get one more chorus at 5:02). From that point until the end of the song, it’s just the aforementioned instrumental freak out, fading away to nothing. It’s pretty cool to see live though.
Looking back now, it does seem a little bit juvenile to dig this, but I still do, though I can’t really relate to the man’s anger (and to be fair, he’d probably say the same, twenty years on). It’s not particularly skillfully written or performed, but really The Rollins Band is much better than the sum of its parts. Anything that serves as an catharsis or outlet for Rollins’ anger and aggression is probably good for the world in the end.
3 comments:
Henry's spoken word scares me. I completely understand your sentiment when you "met" him on the sidewalk and were thankful that he did not punch you in the face. If I ever saw him, I might piss myself before saying his name.
I've toyed around with Black Flag a bit here and there, never got heavy into them. I found Rollins with End of Silence. It takes a while to get used to, but the songs call to me from time to time. I get "what do you do . . . what do you do?" rolling around in my head and can't get it out until I listen to it.
He's recently (sorta recently) released several demos and session versions of his albums with some band . . . Mother Superior, I think, as the backing band (just on the session albums, not the demos). The End of Silence Demo sounds great, assuming you liked the original. Sounds grittier and more like a garage band, but a garage band that could kick your ass.
My cuts from Silence are Obscene, Low Self Opinion, and What Do You Do.
I know of what you speak (i.e. the What do YOU do? What do YOU do? What do Yoooooouuuuuu DO?). And how about that wierd "See the monkey" bit in the middle of that song (isn't it that one)?
And despite my carping about the simplistic lyrics, I really like the end of "Low Self-Opinion" - "If you could see the you / that I see when I see you / you'd see yourself so differently, believe me".
And my faves on this album are of course, "Low Self Opinion", "Tearing", and "You Didn't Need"
Rollins hit my radar in a record review for the BF "Who's Got the 10 1/2" live album in Thrasher magazine. I have that LP somewhere. Rollins took the American punk genre to a new level by injecting some genuine anger into what before had just been a snotty attitude backed by 3 chord rock. Rollins was more like his DC compatriots Minor Threat and Bad Brains than the West Coast scene he infiltrated. His style somewhat freed G.Ginn to also become more experimental which the later BF work demonstrates. In my mind it was the confluence of Rollins' attitude and the emerging speed metal of the early 80's that spawned hardcore which still assists me in lifting heavy furniture from time to time.
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