Customer Reviews

Big Ugly Mouth

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This disc and many of the spoken word discs by henry are the best thing I could ever have come across. I first listened to "Big Ugly Mouth" when I was a freshman in college. It made me think outside the box and realize that life is meant to be experienced and not plowed through with the rest of the sheep. I laughed, got depressed, thought of home and applied all of what Henry had to say. It is a humorous CD but one can't help but to think a little harder and live a little more.

I've said it before, I'll say it again... I'm a huge fan of Henry Rollins. My brother gave me "The Boxed Life" in '92, and since then, I've gone out of my way to find all of Rollins' live spoken word material. "Big Ugly Mouth" is the earliest recorded of these, and in my opinion, the worst.

Not to say that it's _bad_ at all! At this time, Henry was still polishing his style, working on timing and other apsects of his talking show. "Peach" is a hilarious track, as is "Hiya Handsome". B.U.M. gives us a sense of how good Rollins could be (and in fact became) with a few years of practice.

One thing that exemplifies Rollins' spoken word is the breadth of his experience as a hard-touring musician and old-school punk rocker. His life has been incredibly packed with things that just HAPPEN, and it shows in this as all of his other spoken word albums.

One final note: the sound quality on a lot of Rollins' early spoken word is horrendous, usually because the early shows were taped with a walkman. B.U.M. is no exception. Later albums have better sound quality.

Bottom line: not an essential recording unless you're a Rollins addict -- like me.

This spoken-word release is exactly what you'd expect from Rollins. Funny is some places ("Peach") comes to mind, and thoughtful in others. It will make you laugh at yourself and the foibles of Mr. Rollins, and may actually make you forget that Gap ad.

I've been a Rollins fan since his Black Flag days. His spoken word often has the same intensity as his music, and that's what makes him worth paying attention to. If you've never experienced the spoken word side of him, this is a great place to start.

First in the series, recorded on a walkman from shows in 1987-88.

Many people have said here that the sound quality is bad - not true. The quality of the sound is reasonable, it's the recording quality that's poor. The material on this CD was recorded on Rollins' own battered walkman which was placed on a table in the crowd, and that's exactly how it souds.

Basically, you can hear people in the crowd a bit louder than Henry in some places, and there are plenty of examples of either folks in the audience having conversations of their own, or background noise coming from a band apparently playing next door. Even so, you can hear everything that's said, though people with low-end stereo systems may find headphones a better way to listen to this CD. Also, some of the tracks are taken from a show where the microphone sounded so bad that Henry couldn't use it; this doesnt help things either but it's not a huge drama.

For the hardcore fans, there are some references here to stories that have featured in a few of his books (such as Get In The Van) but it doesnt detract from the performance - even if you've heard it before. Peach is an example of this and it's still a riot anyway. Hiya Handsome and Boy On Train are standouts and the closing track New York Story is Champagne Rollins in my opinion.

First-timers should probably go for a later release as the recording is pretty lousy and you can do better in terms of content and comedy (if that's what you're after) with other CDs, but for any devotees who are wondering if it's as bad as most people say; it's not fantastic but you CAN hear it.

One for the dedicated fans, this.

These are recordings of Henry Rollins after he left Black Flag.
Some of the tracks: "Peaches" is really funny and has no real message, while "Boy on the train" is thought provoking. But Rollins always keeps a positive message, especially the inspirational "Dehuninization". "Hiya handsome" gives more insight about into Rollins mentality towards macho-men, which ironicly most people see him as. Here he points out their obvious insecurities towards talking to women. "Short Story" is a hilarious short story he wrote in the middle of the night.
You won't want to stop listening to this either because it's so funny, so intruiging, or probably both.