In praise of - The Damned: The Black Album

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I just discovered it, and like it increasingly. The punky bits are still great, but the Barrett-like psych gems are especially fantastic - 'Silly Kids Games' to name one. So far I only had 'Damned Damned Damned' and 'Machine Gun Etiquette', but I would be in trouble if I should name the best one og the 3 albums...
Any thoughts there?

― zeus (zeus), Friday, 16 December 2005 08:15 (7 years ago) Permalink

Ask Stewart Osborne

― mark grout (mark grout), Friday, 16 December 2005 09:51 (7 years ago) Permalink

Great album. 'History of the World' is incredible, and it's a highlight of their live set.

― Soukesian, Friday, 16 December 2005 19:21 (7 years ago) Permalink

Get Strawberries...and Phantasmagoria! But Strawberries is like the Black Album pt 2. Some people like it better, but I spent my high school listening to the Black Album. The first 3 songs alone are a hell of an opener.

― Dan Selzer (Dan Selzer), Friday, 16 December 2005 19:32 (7 years ago) Permalink

"Stranger on the Town" from Strawberries is a serious whopper.

― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Friday, 16 December 2005 19:38 (7 years ago) Permalink

Gun Fury, Dozen Girls, Ignite...I think I'm coming around to Strawberries.

― Dan Selzer (Dan Selzer), Friday, 16 December 2005 19:44 (7 years ago) Permalink

Worth noting that "The Black Album" sees 2xCD reissue treatment this month from Ace / Chiswick, similar to the gloriously expanded version of "Machine Gun Etiquette" from about a year ago.

― Dee Xtrovert (dee dee), Friday, 16 December 2005 22:35 (7 years ago) Permalink

what are the extra tracks?

― kyle (akmonday), Friday, 16 December 2005 22:38 (7 years ago) Permalink

no sufjan, no credibility.

― M@tt He1geson (Matt Helgeson), Friday, 16 December 2005 22:43 (7 years ago) Permalink

"I would be in trouble if I should name the best one og the 3 albums...
Any thoughts there?"

As has already been suggested, I think you shoul buy Strawberies and see that dilemma grow to encompass 4 albums.

Incidentally, FWIW, revisting the material on Music For Pleasure with fresh ears (via the marvellous Play It At Your Sister comp.), after not having actually listened to Music For Pleasure itself for many years (definitely 10, probably 20....) has substantially rehabilitated that album too for me.

Many of the more obvious punkier bits that I would have (been) expected to like when it came out in 1977 are a bit lame and formulaic - but some of them are great; and some of the more experimental bits that I (predictably) didn't like in '77 are far better and actually work far better than I'd remembered.

OK, it's never going to rub shoulders with the exalted likes of DDD / MGE / Black Album / Strawberries - but it certainly belongs in the second Damned division along with Phantasmagoria and Grave Disorder, and not down with the lamentable Anything where I'd have ranked it previously.

― Stewart Osborne (Stewart Osborne), Thursday, 22 December 2005 11:46 (7 years ago) Permalink

Well, "Problem Child" is as muddy as hell, and leaden to boot!

"Don't Cry Wolf" is alright, and "One Way Love" is OK.

These being the contemporaneous singles, never did get the album.

― mark grout (mark grout), Thursday, 22 December 2005 11:58 (7 years ago) Permalink

The singles were probably obvious choices in '77 / '78 (being the ones that conformed most closely to the already rapidly-emerging 1-2-3-4-thrash punk stereotype) but far from being the standout tracks on the album, either then or (especially) now.

― Stewart Osborne (Stewart Osborne), Thursday, 22 December 2005 12:12 (7 years ago) Permalink

'The Black Album' is my favourite Damned album by some distance. 'Curtain call', in particular, is wonderful. I'd go along with the general consensus and say that you should get 'Strawberries' too.

― Niall, Thursday, 22 December 2005 16:20 (7 years ago) Permalink

At the time I wrote my AMG review, I thought The Black Album was a bit on the falling-off-of-things side, but it's improved in my mind since.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 22 December 2005 16:25 (7 years ago) Permalink

Thanks folks, I'm listening 'Strawberries' right now, and I like it at the first few listens. According to AMG Paul Gray wrote the best song here (or at least the one I like the most - 'Pleasure and Pain') - it's got Mike Barson-like keyboards in it, and very much like a Madness song from that era. But overall a good album too.

― zeus (zeus), Sunday, 25 December 2005 09:07 (7 years ago) Permalink

3 years pass...

I cannot stop playing Wait For The Blackout right now. I'm on a roll. I'm gonna run that song right down into the fucking ground.

― Gothy McGoth (Bimble), Sunday, 8 March 2009 23:20 (4 years ago) Permalink

In Dulce Decorum also kicks ass, but that's another story for another thread.

― Gothy McGoth (Bimble), Sunday, 8 March 2009 23:23 (4 years ago) Permalink

i'll never understand the hate for Anything
yeah, it's one of their worst but it's still a solid album
it destroys Not Of This Earth

― turtles all the way down (Face of Wolf), Sunday, 8 March 2009 23:50 (4 years ago) Permalink

and Wait For The Blackout is pretty godlike
one of their best

― turtles all the way down (Face of Wolf), Sunday, 8 March 2009 23:51 (4 years ago) Permalink

The Black Album is one of the best albums ever, and the tape I had with the Black Album on one side (minus Curtain Call) and Strawberries on the other side was one fucking great tape.

― dan selzer, Monday, 9 March 2009 04:26 (4 years ago) Permalink

machine gun, black, strawberries
Just a triple threat of amazingness
not a bad song among them

― turtles all the way down (Face of Wolf), Monday, 9 March 2009 06:14 (4 years ago) Permalink

11 months pass...

All the contemporary non-lp material is fantastic: "Disco Man", "Lovely Money", their cover of "Citadel". I imagine most of it was included in the expanded editions of MGE. BA & Strawberries.

― Gerald McBoing-Boing, Tuesday, 23 February 2010 00:34 (3 years ago) Permalink

Agreed. "Disguise" to me is a perfect piece of psych-pop.

― neil der fisch, Wednesday, 24 February 2010 22:54 (3 years ago) Permalink

1 year passes...

So they're touring this album and all, and I'm interviewing Captain Sensible at that. So if anyone has any burning questions...

― Ned Raggett, Tuesday, 11 October 2011 03:40 (1 year ago) Permalink

You cound say "Captain?"

― Mark G, Tuesday, 11 October 2011 08:21 (1 year ago) Permalink

is what's her name from sisters of mercy still in the damned?

― akm, Wednesday, 12 October 2011 20:20 (1 year ago) Permalink

(or rather, from the floodland album cover, I have no idea if she played anything at all in the band, doubt it)

― akm, Wednesday, 12 October 2011 20:20 (1 year ago) Permalink

According to this, no, but I think she's still married to Vanian:

http://www.officialdamned.com/

― Ned Raggett, Wednesday, 12 October 2011 20:21 (1 year ago) Permalink

Ask Captain:

- When he's going to make another solo album as they're generally excellent.
- Does his Mum call him Captain or is he still Ray to family members?
- Does he regret going for the gold ring when he was on Top Of The Pops in the 80s?
- What does he listen to these days?
- Does punk have a place in the 21st century or was it's value long since extinguished and co-opted?
- It's too gauche a question to ask, but I've always wondered how some of these aging punks get on financially.

― Gerald McBoing-Boing, Wednesday, 12 October 2011 23:33 (1 year ago) Permalink

I saw The Damned last night, great show. Captain Sensible is immortal. He seriously looks 30. He had his classic '77 era outfit of bleached hair, white plastic sunglasses and beret, then for The Black Album, changed into this hilarious outfit that's like a cross between Angus Young's short pants and a pirate school marm. The band sounded great, Vanian's vocals solid. I could have done without the full 17+ minute version of "Curtain Call," especially if it meant more Machine Gun Etiquette songs in the encore.

I looked for Ned's interview, can't find it anywhere...

― Fastnbulbous, Wednesday, 26 October 2011 19:45 (1 year ago) Permalink

Will be online tomorrow!

― Ned Raggett, Wednesday, 26 October 2011 19:47 (1 year ago) Permalink

What's the link? I only see a Feb 2010 piece on your blog that mentions the Capn

― Fastnbulbous, Thursday, 27 October 2011 19:00 (1 year ago) Permalink

Fastnbulbous - I was at same show as you, I think - at Metro - dang - I had no idea that they would be that good. More of a Damnedx3 fan myself - but the Black album played live warmed me over to it quite a bit. I sure wish I have as much energy when I'm as old as those guys - great rock show all around ...

― BlackIronPrison, Thursday, 27 October 2011 19:29 (1 year ago) Permalink

Annnnnnnd it's up:

http://www.ocweekly.com/2011-10-27/music/the-damned-captain-sensible-dave-vanian/

― Ned Raggett, Thursday, 27 October 2011 20:27 (1 year ago) Permalink

1 year passes...

"Curtain Call" is amazing, all 17 sometimes noodly minutes of it.

― Gerald McBoing-Boing, Tuesday, 30 October 2012 23:36 (6 months ago) Permalink

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