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Rating: 1979, Ladies and Gentlemen...How do? This is how the Damned reopen the scene.
In the UK, the first to release a punk single (New Rose), the first to release a punk album (Damned Damned Damned), first to break up and also first to return. After the controversial Music for Pleasure of 1977, the Damned exploded. The punk ferment swept through virtually every band. The group lost the creative support of Brian James and every single member ended up populating improbable line-ups. All of this happened in less than a year, because the Damned, already towards the end of 1978, returned under a fake name (Doomed) with their old friend Lemmy on bass. A few incendiary dates and some demo tracks with Lemmy rekindled the spark between Vanian, Sensible, and Scabies. Meanwhile, the bass duties would soon go to Algy Ward (ex-Saints), a real street bully brought on board for two simple reasons: he would learn all the songs from the first albums in no time, but most importantly, he was always the one buying drinks. This switch would be fundamental since Captain Sensible would move to guitar, his primary instrument, put aside in the initial line-up only for Brian James' sake.
The album takes shape through two simple guidelines: Anarchy and Chaos. Machine Gun Etiquette is in fact a patchwork of songs reworked and opportunistically lifted from various interim experiences, with new compositional input no longer under the unique aegis of Brian James. Captain Sensible also introduced, thanks to his time with the King, the organ, which from this point would become a trademark for the new phase of the Damned.
The new classics
The tracklist of the first edition opens with Love Song, a perfect bass intro, clearly influenced by Lemmy and masterfully replayed by Ward. The song is a punk love letter to a train station, another passion of Sensible’s. Compared with all punk output in 1979, this track put the Damned back on the map and became their first single to enter the UK singles Top 50, reaching number twenty and thus guaranteeing TV appearances on Top of The Pops. Not bad for a band considered all but dead.
The heavier sound compared to the past is confirmed with the second track, Machine Gun Etiquette, a clear response to the rumors and speculation, especially in the specialist press, about their definitive disappearance.
I remember what you said (second time around)
Don't you wish that we were dead (second time around)
No more getting pushed around (second time around)
Not that we've gone underground (second time around)
Now its time for you to see (second time around)
What the Love Song did for me (second time around)
Really famous stinking rich (second time around)
Straight up there without a hitch (second time around)
I remember what you said (second time around)
Don't you wish that we were dead (second time around)
No more getting pushed around (second time around)
Back to haunt you with our sound (second time around)
Machine Gun Etiquette (the album), however, is a real container of tracks that would become new classics. I just can't be happy today, with its unique Stranglers-like organ and psych-pop style, is built on an earlier version from the King and is clearly Sensible-influenced. This song also opens a new chapter for Vanian. His voice seems to have matured, and the crooner instincts from the first two albums now find free rein in melodic structures no longer bound to punk clichés. In this, the Damned confirm themselves as masters—a frontband of the movement without becoming its stereotype.
Melody Lee is the third track. A long classical piano intro, a rocket-like start, and lyrics inspired by the stories of Bunty comics. For years, this was a band anthem, shouted with: "Who was Melody Lee?" The recycling continues with the track Anti-Pope. Written years before by Captain Sensible’s brother and, again, already a King track. Relentless rhythm with Scabies as the true “Moon del Punk”, textbook low-end from Algy Ward, and a psychedelic Sensible. Side A ends with These hands, a Barrett-style track centered on Vanian’s increasingly vampiric persona. A hysterical laugh in the background is stopped by the scream: "STOP LAUGHING!"
The legend
Side B starts as seriously as can be: Plan 9 Channel 7. There’s little to joke about here—a gothic incursion co-written by Dave Vanian and his wife (Laurie Vanian, dark Queen of punk). This track would also serve as the foundation for the first video clip from the album. The lyrics reference Plan 9 from the Outer Space by Ed Wood, a clear sign of Dave Vanian’s passion for 50s B-movies. Taking themselves seriously has never been the Damned’s thing, and the next track flips the mood completely. Noise Noise Noise is a hymn to messing around, to noise, to not taking things too seriously.
We say noise is for heroes (heroes)
Leave the music for zeros (zeros)
Noise Noise Noise is for heroes (heroes)
Two tracks before the legend. First, a searing cover of Looking at You by the MC5, with yet another superb instrumental performance by Ward/Scabies/Sensible, proving that punk—and the Damned—have never been just three chords. Sensible follows Scabies and, after having celebrated the "Moon del Punk", rightly earns the title "Hendrix del Punk". Pure chaos in the live versions. Next comes Liar, which at first listen might seem like filler, but actually hides a stellar bassline. A track that, if found in another band’s discography, would be a standout track. That’s because to close out, the Damned put together a legendary two-part mini-suite.
Smash it Up (Pt 1&2) is a masterpiece, opened by a long Sensible guitar intro—dedicated to the late great friend Marc Bolan—and then making way for:
We've been crying now for much too long
And now we're gonna dance to a different song
I'm gonna scream and shout til my dying breath
I'm gonna smash it up til there's nothing left
Oh oh smash it up, smash it up, smash it up Oh oh smash it up, smash it up, smash it up
People call me villain oh its such a shame
Maybe its my clothes must be to blame
I don't even care if I look a mess
Don't want to be a sucker like all the rest
This song will forever be their high point, the star of the album’s second music video, and covered in later years by several bands (Offspring for the Batman Forever soundtrack). Smash it Up is the closing anthem of punk and rails against formalism, hippie culture, major musical events. So anarchic it was boycotted by BBC1, and yet still managed to reach number 35 in the UK singles chart.
In November 1979, that blessed year for music, the first wave of punk closes for good.
Everything that comes after will never be the same again.
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
01 Love Song (02:22)
(lyrics Scabies, music Captain)
I'll be the ticket if you're my collector
I've got the fare if you're my inspector
I'll be the luggage, if you'll be the porter
I'll be the parcel if you'll be my sorter
(chorus)
Just for you here's a love song
Just for you here's a love song
And it makes me glad to say
It's been a lovely day
And it's okay
I'll be the mail, you'll be the guard
I'll be the ink on your season ticket card
I'll be the rubbish, you'll be the bin
I'll be the paint on the sign if you'll be the tin
(chorus)
(chorus)
Its Okay
Its Okay
03 I Just Can't Be Happy Today (03:42)
I Just Can't Be Happy Today
I Just Can't Be Happy Today
A lot of you know
theres not a smile
thers no feeling bad
without feeling fine
thers a price on your head
nobody sighed when justice is read
I Just Can't Be Happy Today
I Just Can't Be Happy Today
They're closing the schools
They're burning the books
The church is in ruins
The priests hang on hooks
The radios been banned
The army's in power
The devil commands
Illegal to dance
Forbidden to cry
You do what you're toldYou never ask why
Ignore all those fools
They don't understand
We make our own rules
I Just Can't Be Happy Today
I Just Can't Be Happy Today
I Just Can't Be Happy
Just Can't Be Happy
Just Can't Be Happy Today
I Just Can't Be Happy
Just Can't Be Happy
Just Can't Be Happy Today
04 Melody Lee (02:07)
Melody Lee, a broken mind and a broken dream
I bust the speed to change your heart
Your life was cruel they called it art
Melody Lee, you need a mirror to set you free
It won't be kinda cheap tomorrow
If you hide any sorrow
Melody Lee, you gotta find your secret enemy
You're on the road with nowhere to go
If you die someone to know
Forget your heart, you need not stay
A second longer than today
05 Anti-Pope (03:20)
I'm going down to church tonight
Take me back to when I was eight
But I don't mean to pray
I'm gonna nick the collection plate
(chorus)
I'v got nothing against church
Or any people that go there and show that
They're ignorant, I don't understand
A congregation at weekends can change their behaviour
So many people are weak in their lives
And seek guidance from the pedlars of hope
As you know I used to go there myself
Until the day I became antipope
We're gonna have some fun tonight
Let's spread the news around the town
That the vicar's a transvestite
With a fetish for ropes and gowns
(chorus)
Religion doesn't mean a thing
Its just another way of being right wing
I think sex films are okay
I don't dig that all the way
(chorus)
06 These Hands (02:02)
These are the hands of a demented circus clown
outside I'm laughing but inside I'm really wearing a frown
I see you laughing at me
but baby in my dreams
it's quite a different scene
Chasing you through the night with my hands around your neck
funny how everything seems in technicolour, yet
I find I'm laughing at you
and you are turning blue
Ha ha ha ha ha
Ha ha ha ha ha
Ho ho ho
07 Plan 9 Channel 7 (05:08)
She plays her mouth into a smile
And offers that he stay a while
Two hearts that beat as one
And eyes that hardly ever saw the sun
Hollywood babbles on
She lays a wreath of lilies on his grave
His flame gone along with the love he never gave
Not to be seduced by those red lips
Two dimensional comic clips
Hollywood babbles on
on and on and on and on and...
Channel 7, with shades of grey
Too close but two worlds away
Plan 9, hello may
Too close but two worlds away
They say
Step into the night
She plays her mouth into a smile
And offers that he stay a while
Two hearts that beat as one
And eyes that hardly ever saw the sun
Hollywood babbles on
She lays a wreath of lilies on his grave
His flame gone along with the love he never gave
Not to be seduced by those red lips
Two dimensional comic clips
Hollywood babbles on
on and on and on and on and...
Channel 7, with shades of grey
Too close but two worlds away
Plan 9, hello may
Too close but two worlds away
They say
08 Noise, Noise, Noise (03:10)
At 7am on a brand new day
I'm gonna start it in the perfect way
Put the greatest record on
I kick the dog, I kick the cat
Insult my mum insult my dad
Sing out loud and sing along
(chorus)
We say noise is for heroes (heroes)
Leave the music for zeroes (zeroes)
Noise Noise Noise is for heroes (heroes)
Oh yeah
I'm down the pub and the time is one
Hit the jukebox for my favourite song
Gonna turn it up too loud
Have a couple of games of pool
Argue with a drunken fool
Have a beer with the usual crowd
(chorus)
Its noise that makes the world go round
I can't survive without that sound
The sound torments me
Its 8 o'clock down the church hall
I've enough amplifiers 6 feet tall
Gonna turn them up full blast
The vicar waves his arms and looks absurd
The noise drowns out his godly words
And he can't get out too fast
(chorus)
Noise Noise Noise (x7)
09 Looking at You (05:06)
When it happened, Something Snapped inside me
Made me wanna hide
All on my own, all on my own
I stood up on the stand my eyes shut tight
Didn't wanna see anybody
Feeling alright, having a good time heh
Doing alright, doing alright
Doing alright, doing alright
I saw into the dancing crowd
Felt like screaming out loud
I saw you standing there
Saw your long, your long hair yeah
Opened up my eyes baby
You made me realise what I wanna do now
I wanna do now babe, looking at you
Looking at you babe, looking at you
Looking at you, looking at you baby
You baby (x6)
Yeah yeah
(repeat verse 2) (with 9 extra "you baby" s)
10 Liar (02:44)
Theres not a word of truth in anything that I say
I don't really want to listen till they go away
I haven't finished and I never cry
If you ask me why, I just lie
(chorus)
I'm a liar, liar, I never tell the truth (x2)
I tell you how to feel and why it is
And when and or if you don't want to give
I love spending hours watching television
I saw a dance, lights, room and a fall and your bright red politician
(chorus)
I smoked your last cigarette I say that someone else did
I send your mum to the vet and find out your sisters brilliant
You ask me why, I just lie
I'm a liar, liar
I'm gonna be the biggest liar in the world
I'll be so good you'll believe every word
I could even make you believe Adolf Hitler
Send him to Azurre for the winter
(chorus)
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Other reviews
By Falloppio
No one expected one of the most appreciated Punk albums on the planet.
Despite its softer appearance, the ’77 Punk energy is there. At the same time, there is an indescribable bit of darkness present.
