So back in October I did a quick little “Music Milestone” for the debut single by The Damned with “New Rose”; it’s an amazing tune and one that had held up over the years. You can review that summary on THIS LINK in case you haven’t seen it yet. I decided to do this because I was all amped up about seeing the band in concert for the very first time. Yeah it happens and you cannot always see everyone. I was just glad that I got the chance – AND I went to both shows so was feeling double special about the experience. All of that leads us to today where the bands official debut album “Damned, Damned, Damned” has reached its own 40th Anniversary. In 1977 I was far too young to be listening to this sort of stuff and I would get into some of what the band was doing during my high school years. The interesting thing about my own exposure was that I would first hear a song called “Jet Boy, Jet Girl” which was a cover by another artist and then slowly make my way into “Machine Gun Etiquette” and then onto this particular debut release. So, I cannot really speak about its overall impact on me other than sharing what I liked about it so here goes nothing.
By the time that I was listening to The Damned, I was already somewhat into the Punk Rock stuff and had a few Ramones albums along with The Sex Pistols debut and while the boys from Queens were my favorites in the genre, The Damned were a close second. I think that they did it for me by having quite a bit of a darker, more Metalized edge to their sound. Dave Vanian’s voice was unique and Captain Sensible played a mean guitar. Thanks to the locked in rhythm section of Rat Scabies and Brian James the band were probably the best musicians that the Punk Rock scene offered up. Let’s go over the track list and then I will share the songs that I am still spinning today.
Track Listing:
1. Neat Neat Neat
2. Fan Club
3. I Fall
4. Born To Kill
5. Stab Yor Back
6. Feel The Pain
7. New Rose
8. Fish
9. See Her Tonite
10. 1 of the 2
11. So Messed Up
12. I Feel Alright
With my being a fan of this stuff since the middle eighties instead of the late seventies the tenure is not as deep but I do love the opening track “Neat Neat Neat” along with “Fan Club” as it was an interesting track. I don’t think I need to speak about how much I love “New Rose” but it is my favorite of them all. The favored tracks ends for me with “See Her Tonite”. Some honorable mention should go to “Stab Your Back” since it finds Scabies doing the equivalent of what will become “blast beats” during the brief tune. The whole album speeds by you when you listen and its only just past a half hour in length so if it’s something that you have not yet investigated, don’t worry about it taking until its anniversary as long as you give it a chance.
If you were ever a fan of this debut please chime in with some comments about it as I would love to hear what you thought about it. OK, now back to the regular stuff at hand.
Official Website: http://www.thedamned.com
Official Album Wiki: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Damned_Damned_Damned