The Damned: Light at the End of the Tunnel
1987
MCA Records
Format I Own it on: Vinyl
Track Listing: Disc 1: 1. I Feel Alright 2. Anything 3. Lovely Money 4. Thanks For The Night (Rat Mix) 5. Plan 9 Channel 7 6. Grimly Fiendish 7. Stranger on the Town 8. Neat Neat Neat 9. Alone Again Or 10. Is It A Dream? 11. Smash It Up Parts I & II 12. Psychomania
Disc 2: 1. Ignite 2. Help 3. Rabid (Over You) (CD Mix) 4. I Just Can't Be Happy Today 5. Problem Child 6. Nasty 7. Disco Man 8. New Rose 9. Love Song 10. Feel the Pain 11. The History of the World (Part I) 12. In Dulce Decorum 13.Trojans 14. Eloise 15. The Shadow of Love
This compilation was my introduction to the Damned...I scored a double cassette version from one of those "12 Cd's or cassettes for a penny" ads you'd find in comic books & magazines back in the day...
"Hey, Ma! Look at me! I'm only 11 and I have bad credit!"
Holy cow, I (and almost everyone I know) took advantage of these things...You'd get the 12 or so in the mail, buy another one or two and then repeat the process ad infinitum. Looking through my Cd collection I still have at least a hundred that were procured in this manner...
You can always spot 'em by the barcodes...And this, ladies and gentlemen is what I do in my spare time...Comparing and contrasting bar codes...Live fast and leave a good lookin' corpse, I always say...
Anyway, I no longer have those cassettes, but a few years back I found a used vinyl copy of "The Light at the End of the Tunnel"...Looking back, the cassettes had a slightly different track listing..."Help" is in a different place in the running order and the 17-minute "Curtain Call" is omitted completely (due to the fact it'd probably eat up a whole side of vinyl!). Like I said, this is what kicked off my life-long Damned obsession, however, it might not be the best place for everybody to start...
First off, the non-chronological track listing can get pretty jarring for a band who reinvented their sound every album...You tend to get whiplash as you jump from booming, lush goth-tinged 1986 hard rock to stripped-down, tinny 1977 punk...I found it immediately fascinating, but I can see how it might drive some listeners crazy...I think the song selection is also interesting since it was compiled in 1987, before it became clear that the Damned were going to be best remembered as a punk band...So largely forgotten albums like "Anything" are given just as much weight as stone-cold punk classics like "Damned Damned Damned" and "Machine Gun Etiquette."
Sure, there are a few head-scratching decisions (No "Wait for the Blackout" but the corny 80's sax-soaked mood muzak "Trojans" is on here?!?!"), but there are so many great non-album singles included that I'm willing to cut it a lot of slack...Without this album I might not have ever heard "Lovely Money," "Nasty," Disco Man," "Eloise," or most importantly the final single-only release from the Sensible/Vanian/Scabies line-up, "Thanks For The Night"!
The random grab-bag of eras and styles is a dang blast for Damned fans who enjoy all of the band's albums, but I think I might be atypical in that sense... I guess, if you're an adventurous listener, jump right in and you'll be richly rewarded...Here's "History of the World (Part 1)"...
Sorry about that mix-up...Here's "History of the World (Part 1)"...by the Damned...(by the way, this song rules...Their best balance between their goth and punk styles)...Enjoy...
The Damned: Smash It Up: The Anthology 1976–1987
2002
Castle Records
Format I Own it on: Compact Disc
Track Listing: Disc 1: 1. New Rose 2. Help 3. Neat Neat Neat 4. See Her Tonite 5. Fan Club 6. I Fall 7. I Feel Alright 8. Feel the Pain 9. Stretcher Case 10. Problem Child 11. Don't Cry Wolf 12. Your Eyes 13. Creep (You Can't Fool Me) 14. Idiot Box 15. Love Song 16. Smash It Up (Part 1) 17. Smash It Up (Part2) 18. Machine Gun Etiquette 19. Melody Lee 20. Plan 9, Channel 7 21. I Just Can't Be Happy Today
Disc 2: 1. The History of the World (Part 1) 2. Wait for the Blackout 3. Drinking About My Baby 4. Silly Kids Games 5. Curtain Call 6. Lovely Money 7. Dozen Girls 8. Life Goes On 9. Under the Floor Again 10. Generals 11. Grimly Fiendish 12. Eloise 13. Anything 14. In Dulce Decorum
This, on the other hand, is a hands-down perfect Damned compilation...A brilliant place to start, if you're new to the group and a two hour set of favorites if you're already a fan...Chronologically sequenced with a track listing that pretty much matches my ideal Damned playlist (except I would have done everything humanly possible to include the pop head-rush "Is It a Dream.")
Similar to the "Light at the End of the Tunnel" collection, this covers the band's output from "Damned Damned Damned" through "Anything," but it gets the balance right...I think we can all agree more "Machine Gun Etiquette" and less "Anything" is a sound decision...And best of all they remembered to put on "Wait for the Blackout" this time! What a top-notch song...Easily one of their best...It's impossible not to love that electrifying opening riff...Or Dave's nocturnal crooning during the verses, or that anthemic chorus...Perfection, I'm telling you...Perfection...
Oh yea, I should have talked about "Lovely Money" a bit more...I've always loved this track...I can't tell you how many hours I spent as a teenager rewinding this song over and over...Something about the cheap Casio drum beat and lurching bass line never fails to draw me in...And who can forget Viv Stanshall's turn as the tour guide who provides a running soundtrack of tourist-trap atrocities? One of my favorite 80's singles...
If you're not going to buy the first seven albums then at least pick up this and "Machine Gun Etiquette" and those will probably get you by for awhile...
Here's "Wait for the Blackout" by the Damned...
The Damned: Looking at You
1998
Sudden Death Records
Format I Own it on: Vinyl
Track Listing: 1. Looking at You 2. Wait for the Blackout 3. Noise Noise Noise 4. Smash it Up (Part I) 5. Smash it Up (Part II) 6. Fooling Around 7. I Feel Alright
My good friend Russ bought me this as a birthday present! Russ is the man! My copy is waaaaay cooler than the one pictured above, because it appears to be signed...
I can't really make out exactly who signed most of it...The only one that's clear is "I...Captain Sensible say bugger the pope?" I believe the big signature on the left is Dave Vanian, based on other signatures of his I've found online...
As for the record itself, it's a 10-inch live EP that was recorded in Mulhouse, France in 1994...It took a lot of digging around, but I found out it was part two of a series of live recordings issued of the Mulhouse show in various formats...The first part was a two-song 7-inch called "Disco Man/Pretty Vacant," and the third one was the 12 inch record "Molten Lager" which is one of their more popular live albums...
And I can see why...Judging by the "Looking at You" EP, the sound is fantastic...Very clearly recorded and the band appears to having a hell of a good time...Just about every track finds Dave breaking down into laughter mid-song...The highlight being when Rat blows his iconic drum introduction to "New Rose."
Apparently these tracks were recorded during the encore for the show, so the mood by this point is very loose and relaxed...If you expect your live albums to sound like studio albums with a little applause tossed in, this might not be for you, but if you're into very live albums, look no further...Plenty of blown lyrics, dropped basslines, and great songs...
They don't have any of this on youtube, and I don't really feel like making one, so here's a different live version of the Damned playing their cover of MC5's "Looking at You" from roughly the same time period...Have a great Friday everyone!
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