The start of a Compilation Compost…
Not too long after I first began purchasing my own music, I stumbled across Rat Music For Rat People, a compilation album of U.S.* punk rock royalty playing live* in San Francisco, California between the years 1981-82*. The title excited newly minted, teenaged me. I had recently read James Herbert’s 1974 novel The Rats. My imagination ran hot at the possibility: Would there be songs about giant rats and their unwilling food sources?
Not as such.
But the band listing was almost as fascinating as the title: Black Flag, Dead Kennedys, Bad Brains, Circle Jerks… haha! A band named Flipper? Neat! D.O.A., Crucifix, TSOL, The Avengers*, and The Dils*.
It was a risky purchase for this not so privileged thirteen year old of the inner suburbs. Money was tight. Influences even tighter. I had heard of four of the ten bands, but had only actually listened to two of them at that particular point. And it was a live album*. Even then I knew that live albums were never to be trusted.
Unless it was Johnny Cash. You could always trust Johnny Cash.
In the end, I swung the deal on the merits of the Dead Kennedys name. That was sure to irk my father, the hippie vampire.
It ended up a wise purchase – and a sucker buy at the same time. The next four or five compilation purchases I would make were, for one reason or another, flat-out amazing…
But that is neither Here, nor There.
For Mel.
Side One:
1. D.O.A. – America the Beautiful / Fucked Up Ronnie
2. Flipper – Life
3. Circle Jerks – Live Fast, Die Young
4. Bad Brains – How Low Can a Punk Get? / You
5. Crucifix – Steel Case Enclosure
Side Two:
6. Dead Kennedys – Forward to Death / I Am the Owl
7. Black Flag – Scream
8. T.S.O.L. – Weathered Statues / Sounds of Laughter
9. The Avengers – Cheap Tragedies
10. The Dils – Blow Up
Tracks 1 & 2 recorded live at the Elite Club, San Francisco, Oct 31, 1981. © Go! Records, © Insect Music
Track 3 recorded live at the Elite Club, San Francisco, May 24, 1982. © Irving Almo
Track 4 recorded live at the Elite Club, San Francisco, March 20, 1982. © Bad Brains/Go! Records
Track 5 recorded at Secret Studios, San Francisco, Aug 3, 1982. © Go! Records
Track 6 recorded live at the Elite Club, San Francisco, March 20, 1982. © Decay Music
Track 7 recorded live at the On Broadway, San Francisco, July 24, 1982. © SST
Track 8 recorded live at the Elite Club, San Francisco, March 20, 1982. © Decay Music
Track 9 recorded at Peter Miller Studios, San Francisco, May 10, 1979. © Go! Records
Track 10 recorded in San Francisco, 1977. © Go! Records