Fanatic!: Songs Lists and Notes from the Harmony In My Head Radio Show

By Henry Rollins

In 2004, when legendary Los Angeles radio station Indie 103.1 asked Henry Rollins to host a show, he jumped at the chance. He chose the name Harmony in My Head,” based on his favorite Buzzcocks tune. As lead man for Black Flag, Rollins was present at the raw beginnings of punk and knew many of its stars. But Rollins’ taste encompassed more than punk, and the show became a cult favorite featuring artists as disparate as the Stooges, Miriam Makeba, the Simpletones, Slim Galliard, and the Weirdos. An inspired Rollins began compiling extensive annotations for each song he played, a mix of history, anecdote, and Rollins’s trademark trenchant opinions. His show can still be heard online in streaming audio, and his notes live on in this irresistible collection.

• Language: English
• Publisher: 2.13.61
• Release date: May 1, 2009
• ISBN: 9781880985908

Henry Rollins

Originally from Washington DC, Henry Rollins fronted the Los Angeles-based punk band Black Flag and is well-known for his hard-hitting writing, music, and acting.

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002

BROADCAST #01

AIR DATE: 05-17-04

The Buzzcocks - Harmony In My Head: Since Harmony In My Head is the name of the show, we might as well start things off right and play the song the show is named after. This has always been my favorite Buzzcocks song. It’s a hard to come up with your favorite Buzzcocks songs, right?! It’s like someone asking your favorite song of all time. There’s so many great Buzzcocks songs, it’s hard to pick a favorite, but this is the one for me. This single has Something’s Gone Wrong Again on the b-side and was released 07-13-79. Two different picture sleeves in blue and red. Apparently the red one is harder on to find but I see both around fairly often. Steve Diggle, the band’s guitar player, penned and sang this one. The first three Buzzcocks albums, along with the singles compilation Singles Going Steady, is as good as music gets.

The Weirdos - Life Of Crime: One of the first singles I got after I started buying singles and being a record store haunting boy. The Weirdos are one of the many great bands from the LA punk scene of the late 70’s early 80’s. There are no bad Weirdos songs but this one is outstanding. What a riff. What a lyric. Perfect. I remember buying this single mail order from Dangerhouse Records along with the Deadbeats Kill Hippies single. This one is unimpeachable.

The Simpletones - California: Another great So Cal band. This single was a Poshboy Records release. Thankfully, this single and all the other Simpletones stuff has been released on CD as I Have A Date and it’s worth checking out. The Orange County bands had it going on. Simpletones, Adolescents, TSOL, all great.

The Stooges - TV Eye: From the Stooges 2nd album, Fun House. To me, this is the greatest rock album ever. It’s pure sex, aggression and genius unrelenting. After I joined Black Flag, someone in the band told me there were a few records I had better get under my belt. The Stooges and the MC5 were amongst them. I had never heard much Stooges stuff at that point. We had tapes of the records in the van, so I listened and instantly became a fan. Of all the records the Flag guys turned me onto that summer of 1981, Fun House was the best. To this day, Fun House is still my favorite and Iggy Pop is the Undisputed Heavyweight King of Rock and Roll.

Johnny Thunders - Chinese Rocks: In making the play list for this first broadcast, I wanted songs that were bulletproof and Chinese Rocks fits the bill. This is from the L.A.M.F. album. There are a couple of different mixes/versions of this album. You sometimes see the L.A.M.F Revisited album (I have it for reference purposes) but the one you want is L.A.M.F. The Lost ’77 Mixes. Not a bad song on the record but this is the mix that has the guts. As you probably know, Thunders was one of the guitar men for the mighty New York Dolls. The first Dolls album is a must-have as is L.A.M.F.

The Stains - Sick And Crazy: From The Stains, the band’s only album and one of the early releases on SST. When Black Flag first came to DC to play and we all met them, they told us that the most intense band in LA was the Stains, an all Mexican band from East LA. Finally, after getting to LA to be in the band, I got to hear the Stains album and it blew me away. If you ever see this record around, check it out as soon as you can. For some reason, SST has chosen to leave it out of print. It’s too bad. They were some heavy guys. I’ll never forget seeing them play at the Cuckoo’s Nest in Huntington Beach CA in 1981. The singer, Jughead, threw a couple of unopened cans of beer at the heads of the audience really hard. This was just in during the first few songs. The show was complete chaos. The band had some of their very scary friends with them and it was a riot-about-to-happen situation. They thought it was funny. There’s not a bad song on the record. It’s pure danger all the way.

The Ruts - In A Rut: This is the A side of the first Ruts single, H-Eyes is the b-side. The Ruts didn’t get a chance to make a great deal of music because the singer, Malcom Owen, overdosed and died in 1980. There are no bad Ruts songs. There just aren’t. There are? Name one! I am a Ruts fan full time. Their amazing album The Crack and a posthumously released LP Grin And Bear It -a compilation of singles, unreleased studio tracks and live cuts, have both been released on a single CD. It’s in print and you should really check it out. www.punk77.co.uk is a good website to get info on the band and a lot of other punk bands. You might want to bookmark this site.

Tenor Saw - Ring The Alarm: If you stay with the show, you will see that some of my favorite tracks of all time were suggested to me by Ian MacKaye. I was at Dischord House one day and Ian played me a tape of Tenor Saw being interviewed on the radio and at one point, the interviewer played a live version of Ring The Alarm. It blew me away. It was one of the coolest songs I had ever heard. I eventually caught up with the studio version on a 12" and that’s the one we hear tonight. Born in Kingston in 1966, he died in Houston TX in 1988, hit by a car so says a bio I read on the internet. He barely got a chance to get it going but if you listen to what little he did, it’s easy to tell that it would have had an amazing ride. www.bigupradio.com/artistDetail.jsp?aid=266

Q and NotU - X Polynation: Q and Not U! What a band! On Dischord. This is one of their singles. Their albums are great too. I listen to No Kill No Beep Beep and Certain Damage all the time. Also a great live band. Want more info on the band? Here’s a start: www.dischord.com and www.qandnotu.org.

The Mark Of Cain - Contender: This is from the Ill At Ease album, the third album from this Adelaide Australia band. In 1992 they opened for the Rollins Band and they were great. They gave me their first album, Battlesick and after I got off tour I found myself playing it all the time. I kept in touch with them and years later, they asked me to come out to Adelaide and produce Ill At Ease. What a band, what an album. Ill At Ease never came out in America but you can find it on import and is it worth the price. Massive riffs throughout. I released Battlesick on my label at one point. Great album, no one checked it out. Very frustrating. There’s a lot of records that are either unavailable except on import or out of print that I would like to release but the bottom line is that I would sell a few hundred and be left sitting on the rest forever. It’s too bad. Still, TMOC are worth checking out if you like the strong stuff.

Squatweiler - Hot For Teacher: I remember touring with Squatweiler when they were doing this song and it was quite the show stopper. It’s a cool song anyway but when front gal Stacey hits that classic Roth vocal, it’s all you need. The only way I know to get this song is on a Spinart Records compilation. As far as I know, the song was never released on any of the band’s fine albums. After this song had passed out of the live set, I remember them covering the Minutemen’s great song Party With Me Punker as well as a Boston song, what was it, Smokin"?! Anyway, Squatweiler, check ‘em out. New Motherstamper is a great album and the really hard to find first one, Full Bladder is really great too. All their records rock.

Chuck D, Henry Rollins + - Rise Above: From the CD Rise Above: Twenty-Four Black Flag Songs To Benefit The West Memphis Three. This is the lead track on the album. Mother Superior on the instruments, myself on lead vocal, intro by the one and only Chuck D, backing vocals done by members of Slipknot, Rancid, Queens of the Stone Age and Black Flag. For more info on the West Memphis Three, check out www.WM3.org.

Agent Orange - Blood Stains: I can’t say I know too much about the band but I have seen them play over the years and thought they were really cool. I remember seeing them at the Whiskey one night in 1981 or perhaps the year after and they were really great, they did cool surf instrumentals. The early stuff is on one CD and worth checking out. Tonight we heard the original version of the song. It’s the first track on the Living In Darkness CD on Poshboy.

The UK Subs - Same Thing: What can I say, I am a UK Subs fanatic. This is one of their best songs off my favorite of all their singles (although sometimes I might favor the Keep on Runnin’ single but tonight it’s Same Thing from the She’s Not There EP released November of 1979.) Full track listing of this 7" EP: She’s Not There/Victim/Kicks/Same Thing. The single was originally released on green vinyl and then later on black. The band’s bass player Paul Slack does the vocal on the Zombies’ 1964 hit She’s Not There.

Miriam Makeba - Pata Pata: I have been listening to this record since I was six, thanks to my mother’s outstanding taste in music. There was always music on at her place, good stuff, too. Miriam Makeba’s Pata Pata album was always around. I have all her Reprise releases. Makeba was married to Stokely Carmichael, one of the heaviest of the Black Panthers, which is really saying something. Makeba still tours as far as I know. Pata Pata is in print on CD and really worth checking out. Carmichael, who later renamed himself Kwame Ture, died in 1998. If you ever get a chance, there’s a black and white film of him speaking at a Panther rally that’s absolutely electrifying. I saw it one night with Ian and his mother Ginger at Sidwell Friends School in DC. We walked out of there blown away and then Ginger calmly recounted a story about how she watched him speak once and Ian and I were blown away further. I can still remember one of the things he said in the speech: Black man, you need a gun to survive America! www.interchange.org/KwameTure

Negative Trend - How Ya Feelin’: Besides Black Flag’s Nervous Breakdown EP and Minor Threat’s 1st EP, Negative Trend’s 4-track EP is the mightiest 7" from the American hardcore music scene. There’s not a thing wrong with it. Not the easiest record to find. I hope to someday take care of that problem. How Ya Feelin’ is the fastest song on the EP but the best song on the record to me is Black And Red and I have to think we’ll be getting to that one!

Reverend A. W. Nix - Black Diamond Express To Hell Pt. 1: If you have a desperate need for exhaustive, painstakingly complete and chronologically gathered songs by a particular blues artist from the first half of the last century, you might want to check out Document Records. What a label! For instance, Rounder records released a very fine collection of Leadbelly’s Library of Congress recordings and then Document comes in behind Rounder and releases a multi CD set of all the tracks that Rounder left off! If you want to hear pretty near everything Barbeque Bob, Blind Lemon Jefferson, Josh White and people like that ever did—Document is the label for you. Document has about a CD and half worth of sermons by Rev. Nix. This is my favorite one. He’s on fire! I got this years ago at a great record store in London called Ray’s Jazz. In the old store, (they’ve since moved), there was this downstairs section for Blues, World and other stuff that wasn’t Jazz and the guys who worked down there were conversant in pretty much the entire Document catalog (which had its own shelf). Every time I was in London I would go there and usually one of the guys would remember me and turn me onto the Document stuff that had come out since my last visit. That’s how I got turned onto the good Rev. Nix.

The Clash - Janie Jones: Man, do I miss these guys. I miss those times and I miss Joe Strummer. I hung out with him on a few occasions and he was so cool, just like I thought he would be. No bullshit and feet on the ground. Janie Jones is a classic track off the first album. I know you know this! But perhaps someone reading this has not had the good fortune to pick up on the Clash. As many will tell you: run, do not walk. I was so happy when I saw them the first time and they played this song. The show was in February of 1979 in Washington, DC. As many of you do, I still play the Clash records and they still do the job.

Dee Dee King - Mashed Potato Time: There was a time when Dee Dee Ramone fancied himself a rapper. He did the Funky Man 12" on Rock Hotel Records and then the classic (as far as this show is concerned) Standing In The Spotlight album on Sire. Released briefly on LP and CD, it’s really something. Blondie’s Debby Harry does vocals throughout the record. Don’t worry, there’s no way we’re NOT coming back to this album.

The Angelic Upstarts - Teenage Warning: From the album of the same name, finally back in print on CD from the good folks at Captain Oi. I remember when this album came out, I played it all the time and I still play this track. I couldn’t get to the next record they released but this first album, The Murder Of Liddle Towers and the Last Night Another Soldier singles are still in my collection. I always thought the b-side of Last Night, The Man Who Came In From The Beano was really cool. www.captainoi.com

Slim Gaillard - Yip Rock Heresy: The amazing Mr. Gaillard. I will never know how long it would have taken me to run into the music of Slim if Mick Geyer (a man who taught me more about music, literature, art and film than I can explain) hadn’t made me a tape with this song and another Slim tune, Atomic Cocktail, on it. After I heard it, I went after everything Slim Gaillard. There’s a great Best Of on Verve that hits the spot pretty well. The Japanese version has a track the US one doesn’t—The Hip Cowboy. The CD is called Laughing In Rhythm: The Best Of The Verve Years and is worth checking out as is any of the stuff he did with Slam Stewart. They were billed as Slim and Slam and they would give it up in the vout-o-reeny style until the avocado flew out of the soup and hit the ceiling. After many years of Slim worship, I have found that there’s no Slim that should be missed. I hope you check him out, he’s really one of the great music finds that you’re going to make. Here’s two sites for info on the man: www.pocreations.com/slimbio1.html and www.mikezwerin.com/news/fullstory.php/aid/58/SLIM_GAILLARD:_WITH_A_FLOY-FLOY.html

003

BROADCAST #02

AIR DATE: 06-07-04

The Cramps - Human Fly: The A side of the Human Fly / Domino single on Vengeance. I have never seen a Cramps show I didn’t like. This was the first Cramps single I ever bought. I got it for two bucks and still have it. They used to come down from NYC and play small places in DC. I remember seeing them once and Lux Interior, the band’s singer, punched out part of the ceiling and was all over the place and completely amazing. I think I bought the 2nd Cramps single, The Way I Walk / Surfin’ Bird, from one of their crew at the door on my way out. Those first two singles are magic. They have both been included on the Psychedelic Desert CD, the 2nd Cramps album. Kid Congo’s on that one (a great guitar player, check out his work with the Gun Club and the Bad Seeds). There was a Cramps 12" called Gravest Hits that had the Human Fly and Way I Walk singles and a brilliant rendition of Thomas Baker Knight’s Lonesome Town. Very fine cover photograph on that 12" by Stephanie Chernikowski. She made me a print of it many years and I had it framed. We’ll be playing more Cramps on this show so I’ll have to tell some good Cramps stories. They were one of the bands I grew up listening to. Good Cramps info can be found here: www.irscorner.com/c/cramps.html

The Shapes - Wot’s For Lunch Mum?: I first heard this song on the Labels Unlimited album around 1980. I learned about a lot of good bands from that record. I always had Wot’s For Lunch Mum? on mix tapes. Recently, Ian played me an alternate version that he got on a CD that someone made for him. Hearing a different version of the song blew me away and I started looking around for more info on The Shapes. I had to look no further than John Esplen’s great label Overground. He’s got a great label and one of the best punk record stores on the net. John put out a CD of all The Shapes songs that includes that alt. version of Wot’s For Lunch Mum? It’s called Songs For Sensible People. www.overgroundrecords.co.uk

The Puppies - I’ll Kick Your Ass: What’s not to like about the Puppies CD? This is probably my favorite song on their CD but all the songs are good. Don’t call me Nostradamus quite yet but I think we’ll be hearing more tracks off this record as the shows go on. It’s too rockin’ a CD to leave alone for too long!

Generation X - No No No: This song begs the question: What the hell is wrong with Chrysalis records?! They released remastered versions of the first two Generation X albums and a 3-CD anthology and none of them contain this absolutely must hear b-side of the 1978 Ready Steady Go single. It’s not like the song isn’t awesome. Then why? Is it perhaps because someone who has no knowledge of the band was given the task of putting together product for the marketplace and didn’t do their homework and ripped off the fans and did the band and the music a disservice? Have you ever had the experience of talking to an A&R person at a record label or a station manager at a radio station and finding they are more disconnected from music than Orrin Hatch? I HAVE. So anyway, No No No, great song, right? I always associate this song with hanging out in Mike Hampton’s room and listening to singles. We were in SOA together and after that band broke up, he went on to make some great records. He was in Faith, One Last Wish, The Snakes, The Brief Weeds, Embrace, Manifesto, Clear—the man is top shelf! Anyway, we used to listen to a lot of good music in that room, it was one of the best hang out and listen to records get downs ever. The first two Generation X albums and all the singles around them are great. They do a really cool version of Shakin’ All Over. We’ll get to that one as well as Ugly Rash, another great b-side NEVER RELEASED ON CD BY CHRYSALIS AND NOW OUT OF PRINT.

Empire - Electric Guitar: Generation X broke up and two of the members, Bob Derwood Andrews and Mark Laff formed Empire. A few shows, one album and as legend has it, some mean reviews and that was it. The hard to find album Expensive Sound was an instant classic amongst the people I grew up with. This was one of the first LPs I put onto CDR when I got a CDR burner. Finally the album was released on CD with some extra tracks a couple of years ago but it’s damned hard to find. Worth it if you do. Check Gemm.com.

Roy Orbison - Life Fades Away: From the Less Than Zero soundtrack. There are some great songs on this CD: Slayer doing In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida, Aerosmith doing Rockin’ Pneumonia & The Boogie Woogie Flu but the stand out track is Roy Orbison doing a Glenn Danzig composition called Life Fades Away. I remember getting a letter from Glenn telling me that he was going to work with Orbison. I was very curious as to how that would come out. I am a big Roy O fan and I have to say, this is my favorite Roy track. Amazing lyric, incredible delivery. I have played this song to many people over the years and they’re always blown away by the weight of this song. Rumor has it that there’s a demo of Glenn doing it. Cough up!

The Misfits - Static Age: From the Static Age CD. A must have CD. I remember in the summer of 1982, we were on tour and spent some time hanging out with the Misfits in Lodi, NJ. Glenn gave me a tape, which I still have that he called The Static Age Sessions. I recognized some songs from it but the rest I had never heard before. Everyone I played it for was blown away. It made me wonder why they hadn’t released this in its entirety about two minutes after they recorded it. There’s not a bad second on this record. Finally, it’s out in all its well-mastered glory. You see that Misfits logo on every third person’s back these days and it’s not for nothing. One of the most lasting batch of songs any band ever recorded.

Dee Dee Ramone - Hop Around: From Dee Dee’s Hop Around CD. The vocal is by Dee Dee’s wife Barbara. It’s a great track with the classic Ramones feel and the Salt Peanuts organ overdubs. As most of you know, Dee Dee was the band’s main songwriter so if his solo work has a Ramones-ness to it, there’s a good reason. I have all his solo stuff and I think it holds up really well. He was one crazy bastard.

SkAuR - Jump Up Funboy: I was at some venue and met a member of SkAuR. He told me he was in a gay German death metal band and would I like a copy of his CDR. Yah! Upon first listen, I was a SkAuR fan for life. At one point I was recruited to write lyrics for the band and submitted Give Me Ass, Berlin Love Boy, which apparently went down well with the lads. The lyrics are below. If you want to find out more about the Mensch of SkAuR, you’re going to need this:

www.artists.iuma.com/IUMA/Bands/SkAuR

Give Me Ass, Berlin Love Boy

I’ve been driving all night on the autobahn

I want a trick boy who will get it on

Black leather chaps, tight around my legs

Oh, techno ecstasy boy don’t make me beg

Give me ass Berlin love boy

Give me ass all night long

Ass ficken is good, yah?

Oh Ja, Ja wolle!

Give me ass when I come to town

Give me ass like when the wall came down

Give me ass like the Deutsch Bank

I will blitzkrieg your ass like a panzer tank

Give me ass Berlin love boy

Give me ass all night long

Ass ficken is good, yah?

Oh Ja, Ja wolle!

Ozzy Osbourne - Take Me Out To The Ballgame: I heard about this and went to the internet, typed in Ozzy baseball and downloaded the song (the first music I ever downloaded) and what a download it is! Poor Ozzy. Sharon makes him do all kinds of stuff he shouldn’t do. I don’t think he got many words right but as always, he gave it his best and put on a great show. Ozzy and Sharon are two of the most generous people I have ever met, they have always been so great to me. It’s always great to hang out with Ozzy.

Black Eyes - Pack Of Wolves: From the first Black Eyes album on Dischord. As far as I

Reviews for Fanatic!

[Dustin McBride · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Won't even try to pretend that I can even remotely get into a lot of the music that Mr. Rollins plays on his show, but that's part of why I love it. It's very grounding to know that so much more exists outside of your little bubble.

Mr. Rollins is incredibly well spoken and knows his stuff. He manages to be informative and entertaining, while also really giving you a sense of just how passionate he is about music and life in general.