Circle Jerks: Golden Shower of Hits

Circle Jerks: Golden Shower of Hits

1983
Allegiance Records

Format I Own it on: Compact Disc

Track Listing: 1. In Your Eyes  2. Parade of the Horribles  3.Under the Gun  4. When the Shit Hits the Fan  5. Bad Words  6. Red Blanket Room  7. High Price on Our Heads  8. Coup d'État  9. Product of My Environment  10. Rats of Reality  11. Junk Mail  12. Golden Shower of Hits (Jerks on 45)



Like all kids that fell in love with punk rock, the "Repo Man" sountrack was an important record to me...I think I had to buy two cassettes of it, since I wore out my first one...



Listening to it now it seems a bit skimpy (I could easily listen to a ten-record set of this type of shit),  but in those pre-internet days when information on L.A. punk was difficult to come by, it was an essential document that helped me navigate my way through the 80's California punk scene...And I particularly loved the Circle Jerks tracks! "Coup d'État" was just the most lightning-quick hardcore I'd ever laid ears on and the lounge version of  "When the Shit Hits the Fan" was so much fun...

..but I like the hard-rocking version from "Golden Shower of Hits" even more...This has always struck me as the most Circle-Jerky Circle Jerks album...It catches them right before their shift to the slower, heavier "Wonderful" and "VI," but it's the rare transitional album that finds the perfect middle-ground between two eras...Listen to "High Price on Our Heads," it retains their signature brashness but with a more muscular sound...and it just so happens to be one of their best songs...On the other end of the spectrum "I can See It In You Eyes" sounds like it jumped straight out of "Group Sex" to spit more beer in your face...

But the real highlight here, is the "Golden Shower of Hits (Jerks on 45)" medley...It's a brilliant send-up of those hoary old "Stars on 45" releases that stitched together a bunch of random songs into a tacky 12" single that often resembled some too-horrible-for-words, disco-dancing Frankenstein's Monster... 

If you don't know what I'm talking about, the video I posted below will give you the proper context...Although you might not be able to forget what you've just heard...A bunch of 5 second snippets of Beatles songs with a relentless disco beat pounding away underneath, ("Sugar Sugar" by the Archies is also tossed in for good measure)...So corny...Come to think of it, this is still the type of thing I hear whenever I accidentally find myself in a club or bar that has a  DJ...

Anyway, the Circle Jerks made the most of this concept and strung together a particularly rank and simpering selection of late 60's- mid 70's Am gold and emerge with a masterpiece of incidental storytelling...Essentially, a couple falls in love, get some afternoon delight, have a baby and get a D-I-V-O-R-C-E...

Hearing Keith Morris joyously shout "SHE'S HAVING MY BABY!!!" is an era defining moment...I think this song is to blame for the ever-popular punk trope of the "funny cover of an awful song" that you find on Me First & the Gimme Gimmes' records...But the Jerks take it sooo much further here than anyone has dared since...



So let's check it out...Here's "Golden Shower of Hits (Jerks on 45)" by the Circle Jerks...Enjoy...