From the Desk of Joe Carducci...
I guessed/predicted in Rock and the Pop Narcotic that regarding Black Flag there was never enough sales for the real publishing industry to ever write a check to get to the bottom of the band's story. Back in the late 1980s when I wrote R&TPN only Faber & Faber was even issuing original music titles, and indeed they were the only publisher to take a look at my manuscript. But the 80s/90s roll-out of Tower Books, Barnes & Noble, and Borders did spur a short golden age of the music section in book stores. That's over now. But Omnibus in the UK, which once had the only book on Black Sabbath in print, now issues the first comprehensive book about Black Flag, first in the UK, soon here. Spray Paint the Walls is very well reported and assembled by Brit music writer Stevie Chick, author of the better of the recent Sonic Youth books. Neither Greg Ginn nor Henry Rollins sat for interviews but their voices are included from earlier interviews, and more importantly Chuck Dukowski spoke to Chick - a first I believe. The story, laid out from the band's earliest practices in 1976 to its end ten years later, makes a far more dramatic book than the usual shelf-fillers with their stretch to make the empty stories of various chart-toppers sound exciting and crucial and against the odds. I read a rough draft; I'm sure most of the minor Anglocentric miscomprehensions of timelines, causalities and geography are still in it but the book is powerful because it does the story justice. And those miscomprehensions are shared by most American music writers as well so what the hell...
Excerpt: Black Flag Polliwog Park episode from Stevie Chick's book.
Joe's note, from the fairly new blog that he writes for called
The New Vulgate
I just got the book. I can't put it down. It's funny but as I was reading it, all the smells and sounds and images came pouring back. little things like watching Greg string that old Dan Armstron Guitar and how he would break his strings in. Like Gary wiping the sweat off of his brow during rehersals and trips to the liqure store with him to buy cheap ass american beer. Robo's snearing look of the drums as he spoke primarily through body language. Keith and Joe Nolte and all the guys. I must say that I'm still doubtfull about the brick upside Dez's head part of the story. That just does not ring true at all. but I could be wrong as the rest of the story seams sort of acurate and God knows i was drunk as a skunk at the time. Thanks to Sevie Chick for giving me an oportunity to add my 2 cents worth. Black Flag was awsome from begining to end, the good bad and the ugly were all there. No one can take that away from us.
ReplyDeleteRon Reyes