Customer Reviews

Live '84

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is, so far, the best readily available recording of Black Flag live. This needs to be said.

If you liked their earlier, punkier stuff, there's enough on this to keep you more or less happy. If, however, you accept that Black Flag transcended hardcore to become simply one of the best rock bands ever, then this recording scores over their later live album "Who's got the 10 1/12?" on three counts: firstly, they just sound louder on this one; secondly, this has better material; and thirdly, this was one of the best Flag lineups ever. Henry Rollins hadn't yet given up singing the songs, as opposed to shouting them; Greg Ginn was discovering what a creative guitarist he could be; Kira Roessler still liked being in the band, and Bill Stevenson was the best drummer Flag ever had. The sound recording is a bit muddy and thick, but then so was the band, so it sounds great that way. Live '84 is a primary document of a fantastic band playing some of its best songs as hard and as fast as possible, and that was the point of Black Flag.

Superb.

I love it! Nice to see some people here who think along the lines I do, bringing up for comparison "Ascension" from Coltrane's late period, and the guitarist Derek Bailey who collaborated with jazz avant-gardist Anthony Braxton. I was lucky enough to attend numerous Flag concerts, and '84 was the year they attained their technical, musical, and philosophical maturity. Sadly, it was the year the band peaked, as drivel like "Loose Nut" attests. But in their concerts and three 1984 releases, Black Flag forged a devastating meld of punk, metal, and free jazz, and articulated a rage against society, nature, consciousness, you name it. There is a paranoia in the closing three songs of "My War," for instance, that is not only interpersonal but metaphysical; if you don't believe me, listen to the words for yourself. Later I came to believe that what Werner Herzog undertook in his films, Black Flag tried to do in its music, to resist all the pressures and influences surrounding your life, to arrive at whatever genuine existence you have. Even if this project was flawed by circuitous reasoning from the start, there was a nobility in the effort.

This live album has the most of Greg Ginn, a supreme guitarist who got buzzes and pierces from his instrument like no one else I've heard. It has enough of Henry Rollins without too much, thank goodness, and the rhythm section of Kira Roessler and Bill Stevenson was the tightest the band ever had and played off Ginn the best. The album has a raw feel, and the songs simply feel less scripted than on their studio versions. It may be an unlikely candidate, but "Live '84" is probably Black Flag's shining moment of darkness. Glad to see it's on CD; it was first released on cassette only, and I've been hanging onto my tape, trying to preserve it for all these years!

When this stuff....My War, Slip It In, and Live '84....cam out, I was one of those "punk rockers" who thought that Black Flag (and hell, ANY band that really learned how to play) had "sold out". Greg Ginn is the type of musician that could not simply keep on playing minimalistic chords, over-and-over, like the classic Jealous Agaim e.p. He had chops, man, and when My War came out, I listened to the album (um, it was actually on vynil) and I thought side one was decent enough, what with all of the paranoid/insane screaming on the song "My War" and the emotional agony expressed on "Can't Decide"...but then it got real, real SLOW (and slow was a "sin" back in the early 80's M.D.C./Verbal Abuse speed/hardcore/punk time), and well, the songs were all over 1:25 minutes long. Man, this just sucked, or so I thought. So I grabbed ahold of my old Black Flag albums, along with D.R.I. (before they became a metal band), Wasted Youth, Verbal Abuse, M.D.C., Free Beer, etc.

But NOW I realize that the mid-80's era Black Flag was actually brilliant, and Live '84 showcases a band that was way ahead of it's time in a lot of ways. You have it all here; the punk rock of "Nervous Breakdown", the sexual twistedness of "Slip It In", the suffocating atmosphere of "Black Coffee"....man, this cd has it all.

The sound quality is good too.

If you want to experience a band that was highly misunderstood within the confines of the hardcore punk scene in the mid-80's, then by all means, buy this! This is a soundtrack to the emotional state of most of us at the time, and byt the way, for those of you who are young; it "rocks"

Thanks!

I'll admit it, I'm a jazz fan, but I'm always up for hearing self-expression when done with thought, no matter the genre. I was told to check out this album, and I did, and I'm damn glad I did. I can't believe that there are people out there complaining about the songs being too long or tedious. My word, people who think a song should be nothing but an introduction, words and an ending should just go listen to Britney Spears. Because, let's face it, there's really no difference between Blink 182 and Britney in the long run. But this truly blew my mind, and I'm a better person for having heard this album. Jeez, if these songs are too long, I'd love to see your face after hearing Ascension by John Coltrane, which in its own way, is punk music too...

Most people really hate the so-called heavy metal period of Black Flag, but this record, along with "My War," "Familly Man," and "The Process of Weeding Out," is more notable for its jazz aspects than its metal parodies. When I interviewed Ginn in '95 he mentioned that the electric distorted guitar should be played more like a saxophone than an acoustic guitar. Like Sonny Sharrock, who began as a frustrated asthmatic sax player, Ginn's solos are atonal and innovative. Only those who confine themselves to conservative bike messenger punk could possibly hear this as a metal record.

Live '84 was recorded on August 26, 1984 at the Stone in San Francisco on 8 track. The CD has 19 great Flag songs, the vast majority of them being from the Henry Rollins era. The album starts with the instrumental song The Process Of Weeding Out, clocking in at 8:37. There are many songs from some of their best albums, such as Slip It In, My Ghetto, Black Coffee, I Won't Stick Any Of You Unless And Until I Can Stick All Of You, Forever Time, Six Pack, My War, I Love You, Swinging Man, Three Nights, Nothing Left Inside, Wound Up, Rats Eyes, and The Bars.

This album plain rocks. Greg Ginn gets to show what he can do on the guitar with even more freedom because of the fact these songs were being performed live. This album is just straight nonstop hardcore punk. If you like the studio versions of these songs, you'll like these live tracks, no problem. They are performed very well.

Any Flag fan should have this live album in their collection. Highly recommended.

Brilliant. Brilliant brilliant brilliant.
For those who said it's not punk, it's too slow, to solo-ridden, too sludgy, I think you have a very narrow version of punk. It's like what a Supreme Court justice once said about pornography, "I don't know what it is, but I know it when I see it." I don't know what punk is, but this is what it sounds like.
This is some very intelligent dumb music, babies.

I know a lot of the punkers don't like Flag's post-Damaged material, maybe because it's not as political and doesn't have enough power chords and catchy chorus hooks, but this is an album more for music fans than punks.

Greg Ginn was and is an underestimated guitarist. His proficiency is much more evident here than on any of Black Flag's post-Damaged studio recordings, which seem contrived and have a deflated sound quality that fails to capture the band's intensity. This is, like people always say, Black Flag at their peak.

I love Black Flag and "Live 84'" is a great live album by them. It is filled with songs that have been classics from previouse albums. Just great stuff. Not much more to say about it but awesome!

By far, this is Black Flag's best. They never were much of a studio group, but once the songs found their way onto the stage, Ginn & Co. would mangle them into pure, raw musical terror. I survived two Black Flag shows, including one in '84, and this CD, especially the first six tracks, captures the amazing power that this group wielded. Hard to believe twenty years have passed since this recording, and it's even harder to believe that anyone could take "punk" or any other purportedly "hardcore" group seriously after listening to "Live '84."