Phoenix House Press

Y'know, I've come to the conclusion that Henry Rollins is cool again. I mean when I was younger, I used to think Henry Rollins was 'THE MAN'. Like in Black Flag and stuff, we're going back some serious years now, like ten years or so, I was like 'Man that Henry Rollins guy is COOL'. He was this big, buff, angry, tattooed-up cunt with the sickest vocals I had ever heard, and I just thought that was cool. That live album 'Who's Got the Ten and a Half' just ruled my teenage world. Such lines as 'I wanna kill, I wanna kill a motherfucking pig. Kill, yes kill, destroy, annihilate' improvised on My War, just fucking flipped my pancakes. Then I started getting some later Black Flag stuff like a tape of Family Man, which was like half spoken word and half instrumental, and I was like 'Whoah this is different'. I listened to it, it didn’t charge me like Damaged or something did, but it more or less confirmed my suspicions that the band and the singer were a little insane. Lines like 'I wanna crucify you with nails from your well-stocked garage' still made their mark on me in their own way though. I could still identify with a lot of the stuff. Then Black Flag broke up and I was all bummed for about, the 15 seconds of my attention span or something. Then I got some spoken word stuff, and I was stoked to hear it, I was like 'Fuckin' A! That crazy cunt from Black Flag doing spoken word!' I got some triple album thing, and about half of it rocked my world, either by comedy, or just the power of his expression. Then I started getting a few records, and I was pretty much into it. It was different to Black Flag, and it took some getting used to, but I was into it. So much so, that I used to set my tape recorder up so that I could listen to that Pink Fairies cover of 'Do It' every day first thing in the morning, so I could drag my sorry arse out of bed and face the shitful day. Something about hearing that amazing long scream at the beginning of the song used to affect me in the morning more than any cup of coffee could.

When 'Rollins' first came to Australia, I couldn't believe it. Actually I was expecting Henry Rollins and some kind of studio band, to come out and play Black Flag songs peppered with a few of his 'originals'. I was pissed off when they didn’t play ANY Black Flag songs. I was like 'Fuck you man, everyone here fucking loves Black Flag and we never got to see 'em so you fucking play Black Flag for us, 'cos it's the closest thing we'll ever get to seeing it, and if you weren't in Black Flag, then fuck all of the people in this room would be here to see you.' So I screamed myself stupid yelling out songs like 'My War' and 'TV Party' and stuff and being a smartass and yelling out "play some "SOA" thinking I was so cool cos hardly any people in the room would have known Henry 'Garfields' first band. And then he said something to the effect of 'Black Flag is over, this is not Black Flag and we won't be playing any Black Flag songs'. So I stopped, and even though I was pissed off, I was still fucking amazed at the show he put on, just like fully losing himself in the music and stuff. It was a pretty awesome sight and the band was still cool anyway.

Then the next time the Rollins Band came over I saw them at the ANU bar in Canberra and there he was doing stretches in front of the stage to the side. And these guys were like paying him out going 'Who the fuck is that guy? What the fuck is he doing? Who does he think he is' not even realising that that is who they had paid to see and then Rollins just shot them this look that froze them to the ground before they moved themselves shyly away. It was cool. Later on he was walking around and I noticed that he had a copy of 'Thus Spoke Zarathustra' by Nietzche, and at that time that was my favourite book and I thought 'Cool I'm going to talk to that guy'. So I called out to him the next time he walked past, and he stopped and went 'What' and was all serious and frowning and shit. And I said some gay shit like 'Hey I've got all yer reckids' and he grunted, 'and uh I think they're really cool,' and he grunted 'and uh…', and I whipped out an Artline texta and said '…Can you sign my baseball cap?'. He took it and wrote ROLLINS in capital letters on it, and grunted again and gave it back. And I just said 'Yeah thanks' and walked off. The show was pretty good still. Actually to be honest, I had hurt my ankle the day before practising stage diving on to my bed at home. I was big into stage diving at that stage. By then the word 'sellout' had been creeping in to my vocabulary and was often uttered in the same breath as Rollins.

Then I got a few books and like a little of the stuff he wrote was good and powerful and stuff, but a lot of it was baaaad, like beat poetry or something. Too much of it was bad self indulgent wanking. And that 'I Think I Know You' from the 'Let There Be Rock' thing with the Hard-Ons, I mean that was just total dogshit.

Anyway then the albums started to get a crappier and then the next time I saw the band it was like over 20 bucks to get in, so I ended up sneaking in and I witnessed a really lame rock and roll show, full of bad posedowns and lame crowd banter like 'Don't you hate it when your parents tell you what to do. Fuck your mum and dad!' which was followed by ecstatic applause from the crowd surfing teenies. It was lame, and then I saw that lameo film clip where he dresses up and paints himself all red and stuff, to some lame song. And I was like man you suck, you were in Black Flag, and now you just suck. Then I got the album 'Weight', luckily for free, and I was just like 'WHAT IS THIS SHIT, THIS IS JUST SO FAR REMOVED FROM PUNK OR HARDCORE OR WHATEVER'. And I was like 'Fuck you Henry Rollins you are a sellout and blah blah blah'. Like I wasn't devastated or anything but I was disappointed at the decline of someone who I used to think was so cool.

And then these bit parts in these nothing movies and stuff, and I was like 'Man if that doesn’t just top it all off. Acting, what a knob'. And putting out Nick Cave books and shit like that, I mean how to rub me up the wrong way or what.

Then 'the Book'. Get In The Van, first part of the book was an awesome Black Flag tour diary, second part was Rollins' self indulgent little angst-ridden personal diary.

But then I started thinking about it, and I thought, the guys music may be shit, his acting may be shit, hell even half his writing and spoken word may be shit. But for a guy that used to manage a chainstore ice cream shop and then sang in a punk rock band to have the ability to do whatever he wants is fucking insane. I mean how can I go to work day in and day out, busting my arse just so I can buy records, and bag out a guy that is an author of over ten books, a spoken word performer, has been in a few movies, including three major Hollywood flicks, does his own successful publishing company, 2.13.61, with video releases and a new CD division, co-owner with Rick Rubin of a CD reissue label called Infinite Zero, and also has a deal with London Records to release new bands under his Human Pitbull label. I mean fuck, his taste for the most part, is pretty up his arse, but just how cool would it be to publish stuff that you like and make a living from it. I mean he loses money on some of his books that he publishes, because he likes them and tries to make up for it on other, mainly his own, projects.

*Urgh* this is SUPPOSED to be a BOOK review…

Anyways, by the time that I decided that ole' Hank Garfield was cool again, this biography of him by a guy called James Parker came out. Even though these days it is cool to not like Rollins for all his 'selloutness', even the most hardened Anti-Rollins crusader would get into this book. Parker interviews a lot of people from the early DC years about Rollins, and in turn there is a lot of good information on the early DC scene before and during the Minor Threat/Black Flag/Bad Brains era. Hell actually there is a shitload of stuff about Greg Ginn and the SST label as well. This book really complements Get In The Van well, as it gives a more detached and clinical view of Black Flag's intense touring schedule as opposed to Rollins' emotionally close retelling through diary entries. I think anyone who is interested in punk and hardcore, especially seminal hardcore would get a lot out of this book as Parker's research and description of the punk scene at the time is just as much the star of the book as Rollins is. The book can probably be divided into thirds, the first third being young Rollins and pre Black Flag DC, the second third being Black Flag and the last third being the Rollins Band/Spoken Word stuff.

Regarding Henry Rollins itself, the book enlightened me in a few areas. Like how Black Flag metamorphosed from a great short sharp and punchy hardcore punk band into some kind of freeform guitar noodling and performance art/poetry rave affair. It was ACID. The band, including and especially Henry Rollins took SHITLOADS OF LSD. It explains so much to me, especially how Rollins lyrics go from SOA's 'fight fight fight' lyrics to some bizarre homicidal beat poet over the space of a few years. I never read about THAT in Get In The Van. Also it explains how Garfield turned himself into a total arsehole to cope with so much touring in Black Flag and how that persona stayed with him for a long time. Explains why he was such a RUDE PRICK to me early on in the Rollins Band as well.

So anyways I liked this book. It is written really well and it is totally UNauthorised which is cool, so you know that James Parker didn't have to try and make it some glossy, shallow, hero-worship kind of affair. And it's not. It's really just a straightforward and informative story of a guy, love him or hate him, who does bands. There's a couple of photo's in the middle, but nothing really spectacular…so uh… get it if you want… read it if you want… I did and it's a good read…. Sooooo there.