I Wanted A Language of My Own: The Fugazi 13 Songs Poll

Margin Walker

stuck between Waiting Room and And The Same

oh and the one where guy announces the eyecrust harvest has begun

cd vote for "Provisional" but the Repeater rework is better so that feels like a cheat. denying "Waiting Room" is just wilfully perverse but on the other hand if i sit and played this record 13 days in a row i wd probly come up with 13 answers

okay "Suggestion"

maybe

Give Me The Cure, but so almost Glue Man.

Everything on here is great, obviously, but to deny Waiting Room seems like challops to me. So I voted that.

The answer is totally Waiting Room c'mon

"give me the cure"

I didn't know "waiting room" was considered the big song on this collection until one of the ilm polls.

"Glue Man" is so amazing, but I am probably gonna go with "Suggestion"

"Promises" is the sleeper here. So that.

If MacKaye hadn't mispronounced "interpretation" I would've voted for "Suggestion."

But yeah, fuckin' "Waiting Room."

bad mouth_____

There's so much classic Guy on this record that it's hard for me to vote for an Ian song.

I love Fugazi. They have so many great, SPECTACULAR!, deep cuts. But this is Waiting Room. c'mon!

Impossible

i played it twice today and i don't think "Waiting Room" is a standout as such, good as it is. Ian mispronouncing "interpretation" is one of the many excellent reasons to vote for "Suggestion"

Suggestion was very much the highpoint of their live set round about the time these records came out iirc

Burning for me

The star of this album isn't really Ian or Guy, it's Joe.

Provisional.

joe/brendan are the stars of fugazi imo

i feel like the growth from record to record is a result of their interaction becoming more and more intricate

totally. they had this way of progressively getting tighter and looser together.

anyway no idea what i'd pick from this. "glue man" maybe but that's bc of what "glue man" is live

I chose Burning, but I love every track.

It's poseur, you poseur.

listening to this... "glue man" i guess. i can appreciate how much fugazi started out fully formed and that this stuff is of a piece with the later full-lengths, but it's funny to me that there are so many people for whom this is THE fugazi record, i can take it or leave it.

"glue man" maybe but that's bc of what "glue man" is live

yep, I think that's why I might have to vote for it - saw them end with it on the Repeater tour and can summon up the memory, crystal clear, 20+ years later.

How does Ian mispronounce 'interpretation,' exactly? I have no memory of this.

"interpetation." He omits the second r.

Oh, c'mon with this now. Waiting room, duh.

I think Waiting Room is a perfectly respectable pick, but if you think it's a total "duh" vote then you haven't, like, lived in the record, man

Currently torn between "Waiting Room" and "Promises." Eventually gonna vote for "Waiting Room."

"Give Me the Cure" is a personal fave, but I could make a case for any of those first seven tunes, man that first ep might be one of the best ep/mini albums ever

i don't know what i'll vote to but it wont be Waiting Room for sure.

too much of an icon to vote to.

I've never understood how "Waiting Room" came to be the essential Fugazi track in so many people's minds. I love it, but I don't see it standing head-and-shoulders above 40 or 50 other great Fugazi songs.

I voted "Give Me the Cure", largely for nostalgic reasons: it was the first Fugazi song that really blew me away, back when I downloaded it off Kazaa on a dial-up connection sometime in 2002 or '3. I loved the fake-out on the first "gimme the shot!" when you expect it (or I expected it) to really kick in. Instead it builds to that moment gradually, going one notch higher on the second verse, then finally exploding at the end. SO great.

yeah
i'll vote for Give Me The Cure too

Yeah, it's Waiting Room. Not only is it a terrific song, but it's worth remembering this is what all the Minor Threat fans heard the first time they played the record... the shape of punk to come.

There are other songs in Fugazi's discography that are better than Waiting Room, and there are 12 other excellent songs here too. I could almost vote Suggestion or Margin Walker or Promises, but it just feels unnatural to go against Waiting Room.

but Kazaa is dangerous! it's full of VIRUSES!
xxpost

I certainly get why Waiting Room is a huge anthem, and it's an awesome song, but I agree it's not the quintessential Fugazi track for me, it's more like the hit jam written by a normally non-hit-oriented band.

The Chili Peppers cover was the last nail in the song's coffin

Yeah, it's Waiting Room. Not only is it a terrific song, but it's worth remembering this is what all the Minor Threat fans heard the first time they played the record... the shape of punk to come.

This is exactly right. For those of us who are over 40, this was literally a cassette we were handed by a friend in a bedroom or a car or the smoking section outside our high school. "Dude, you've gotta hear this—it's the guy from Minor Threat's new band and it's fucking awesome." And "Waiting Room" was the first song. Plus, that bass line. Come on.

that explains why you should vote for it

the answer is not Waiting Room.

I don't wanna hear it. Know you're full of shit.

Yeah, I wonder if there's a dividing line between people starting at the beginning and people working their way backward. I mean, if the first Fugazi album I'd heard was Red Medicine, Waiting Room might seem a little basic. But if you had spent time with Minor Threat prior to 1988 and then heard Waiting Room, that's a moment preserved in amber.

yeah i can see that. I mean really it's a pretty incredible debut overall and WR is as sick an opener as there ever was.

it's hard for me to remember. I got into them around the Killtaker time period, and I may or may not have heard 13 Songs before I actually heard that record, b/c it was all through a friend. I do remember exactly the feeling of Fugazi guitars mixing with teenaged hormones though.

please stop using "yeah" at the beginning of a sentence

Yeah, okay.

i heard "Waiting Room" a lot when it came out, didn't know it was Fugazi for ages, partly i don't think i connected it in my head with Repeater which was the first album of theirs i bought

yeah thanks

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u9WCOpahJB8

this thread is giving me residual fears of being a poser

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4P4KcNmaR0Y

My musical friends, the answer is clear: Margin Walker 4EVA!!!!!!!

If the transition from Suggestion to Glue Man was an option, I'd vote for that in a heartbeat. As it stands...this is pretty tough. Margin Walker doesn't do anything for me, which is weird, because it used to be my favorite track.

I'm surprised that the most-played Fugazi tracks on Spotify are almost entirely from this album, but I guess I shouldn't be?

the answer is waiting room, hoser

I don't think they ever released anything as perfect as the first, self-titled EP. Heard it at the 331 Club all the way through a year or two ago and it's just nonstop creative beauty, this slab of punk art that's also cathartic. Second EP's too neat and tidy for me on replay over the years, the production muffled--glad they came back with Repeater.

My ranking:

Waiting Room
Burning
Bad Mouth
Suggestion
Bulldog Front
Give Me The Cure
Glue Man

So everyone likes the first EP more than Margin Walker? The latter was the first Fugazi recording I ever owned; I played it a hell of a lot and know it really well. (Red Medicine was probably already out but I'd read about them, was intrigued, and this seemed like the cheapest thing to buy at the time.) I don't think I've heard all of the s/t. Is it challops if I'm considering "Provisional"?

"Promises" obv v strong too.

Oh, I notice that someone else said "Provisional" too. I feel less challopsy.

THAT'S THE PRICE YOU PAY
FOR HOPING EVERY SLIP'S NOT A SLIDE

I LOVED "Promises" live. "Go where you think you wanna go..."

Just listened to the whole thing and the Margin Walker EP still connects with me more. Associations and familiarity might have a lot to do with it but I also think it's both hookier and more interesting sonically. Really like the bass on "Burning Too".

I def came to this band as a Minor Threat (and Embrace) fan, but for whatever reason Margin Walker was the first one that hit me hard. Maybe because nothing on it is as filler-y as "Bulldog Front"? That's the one weak link here for me. Also it is even more political and direct that the 1st EP, which I dug at the time.

and c'mon, lots of us heard these first on vinyl.

(or cassette)

I think with Margin Walker, Guy's lyrical thing - intense personal/political poetry - arrived seemingly so fully-formed and artful. Ian was still evolving from the bluntly literal stuff that made so many people detest his shtick (e.g. "I don't like parties / they avoid the truth" from that Embrace record, which was just three years earlier). So the early Fugazi songs by Ian are more of an evolutionary step away from Minor Threat, whereas Guy is just doing his thing that he's been doing since Rites of Spring, but doing it really well. I kind of consider "Do You Like Me" a sequel to "Margin Walker," which is almost Travis Bickle-ish or something:

You make yourself so beautiful,
You make yourself so, so beautiful
And now i feel like i'm going,
I'm going to set myself on fire.
I'm going to set myself up at a window,
This margin walker wants a clear view,
This margin walker wants a clear shot,
And now i'm shooting it right on you.
Untraceable, untranslatable,
I can't explain all i ever wanted to do
Trajectory passing right through me
Threads my needle sends it right through you.
You make yourself so visible,
You make yourself so, so visible,
And now i feel like i'm in the tread of
Some bastard jealousy.
Up here, above the avenue, up here, where
The things you do,
They lend me a problem with the language,
Split my seams and then they drop in a fuse.

For those of us who are over 40, this was literally a cassette we were handed by a friend in a bedroom or a car or the smoking section outside our high school. "Dude, you've gotta hear this—it's the guy from Minor Threat's new band and it's fucking awesome." And "Waiting Room" was the first song. Plus, that bass line. Come on.

― 誤訳侮辱, Tuesday, 27 August 2013 21:45 (Yesterday) Permalink

Hahaha, so OTM

Also "Margin Walker" is a totally awesome song

There's no fucking way I could pick a single song from this. This comp is a pass down generation to generation gateway on par with, dunno, the first Violent Femmes record. Albeit in a different musical direction.

I do love on "Margin Walker" how he never starts singing tones.

I'm a poseur. I voted for "Waiting Room."

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

wow, surprising #2

I thought I voted for "Lockdown"... I guess not!

Great song:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WZqPbyEuWpk

I think I forgot to vote. I was a little surprised by how much I liked "Lockdown" when I relistened.

All three of those zero-point songs are great, actually!

Some classic anthemic choruses.