Customer Reviews

Do It

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

 

 

NOTE: This is the new remaster of this album. As of this edit (5/1/11), this is still in print - for $5 on the 21361 website.
I've been a fan of Henry's for a long time. However, it took me until recently to dig into the early Rollins Band output. Now, while this is named after one of the three outtakes from the Lifetime sessions, the stuff that is essential on here are the live tracks. Every track on here destroys. Most of the live material is tracks from "Lifetime", though there are also a few from "Hot Animal Machine". In all cases, the live versions are superior to the studio tracks. Henry goes for the vocals more intensely, there's a few years of road time on the songs, and also Theo Van Rock's stunning work at the soundboard. He really was a fifth member of the band. I haven't heard the later live albums "Turned On" and "Live In Australia" yet. To me, this is a supreme example of what the Rollins Band was capable of in the pre-"End of Silence" days. If you have this, you almost don't need "Lifetime" or "Hot Animal Machine" - though if you were to do that, you wouldn't have the song "Drive-by Shooting", and that would be a shame...

As I write this, I'm sort of reminded about how I feel about Black Flag's work. I view "Damaged" and "Who's Got the 10 1/2" as the best Black Flag records - and really the only ones you need to get a feeling for who Black Flag is and what they were about. That's how I feel about Do It. This, to me, is Rollins Band. This is what its all about in my mind. High energy, raw, unpolished, and intense. Buy it.

Early, raw, and mostly live. More akin to late-Rollins-punk than the harder metal signature that epitomized his style through the 1990s.

The first three songs on "Do It" were recorded by Ian Mackaye during the "Life Time" Sessions, which is why they later got added to the reissue of that album (and you should look for copies of the original "Life Time" CD which feature more great bonus live stuff). But the rest of "Do It" consists of one amazing live performance after another, recorded in Europe in 1987. Theo Van Rock made sure the sounds got preserved in all their fury. This CD, which seems to be out of print, is worth seeking out for fans of Henry Rollins when he could really SCREAM.