The Damned

10-8-08 The Damned

Today I am going to write a little bit about The Damned. I have successfully completed getting as many of their albums on CD as necessary, in preferred versions (when possible). I am concerned with the following releases:

CD DAMNED DAMNED DAMNED (1st) IMPERIAL JPN TECI-24405

1977 14 TRKS (2 x bonus tracks) ('07 issue) kami sleeve

CD MUSIC FOR PLEASURE SANCTUARY UK CMFCD 506

1977 14 TRKS 3 x bonus tracks ('02 issue)

CD MACHINE GUN ETIQUETTE IMPERIAL JPN TECI-20065

1979 12 TRKS ('01 issue) kami sleeve

CDx2 BLACK ALBUM, THE IMPERIAL JPN TECI-28475/6

1980 18 TRKS ('08 issue) kami sleeve

CD STRAWBERRIES CASTLE US CAS 36191.2

1982 21 TRKS (9 x bonus tracks) ('05 issue)

CD GIVE DADDY THE KNIFE CINDY BIG BEAT UK CDWIKM 21

1984 12 TRKS

CD PHANTASMAGORIA MCA US MCAD 22139

1985 9 TRKS

CD ANYTHING MCA UK DMCG 6015

1986 9 TRKS

I heard the debut album when it was a new release. Depsite having an automatic dis-like to “punk rock”, I could hear songs like “Fan Club” and “Feel The Pain” easily. I was working in a hippie record store at the time. The 2^nd album amused and confused – produced by Nick Mason (of Pink Floyd) and featuring Lol Coxhill as a guest player? What?

I really came on board with “Machine Gun Etiquette”, a brilliant work in any genre, for 1979. That album just bristles with great songs, doesn’t it? Like also around the time I got to see them play live, at the Whisky A-Go-Go. By this time, I was automatically buying anything I could find by The Damned. The last Damned album I needed as a re-master was “The Black Album” – it took a while, but the Japanese finally did a version in a little paper album cover, with exactly the track listing of the original UK 2LP set. I dug “Strawberries” a lot, when it came along – again amused at their working with an unusual ‘punk’ guest: Vivian Stanshall.

There are no bonus tracks for their punk / psychedelia pastiche effort “Give Daddy The Knife, Cindy” (allegedly by Naz Nomad & The Nightmares) – and the CD does not replicate the colored vinyl of the original vinyl. It is a fun artifact.

I am not as fond of their two MCA albums. I like some of th singles a lot – but that’s better served with the collection CD “MCA Singles A’s & B’s”.

But stick with these eight albums for what I consider to be the core message to be found in the work of The Damned. I’ve heard a few of the newer releases, but I always return to these eight, particularly the first four.