BLACK FLAG

Nervous Breakdown
SST

Scum stats: first 2000 on black vinyl with black-and-white “brick” sleeve (some say there are only 500 of the brick sleeve, but I find that hard to believe)

I don’t know why Black Flag didn’t originally hit me when I was a teenager. Seems like that’s the more socially-accepted and likely time to get into them. I was woo-ed pretty early by the Germs and maybe that fascination left no room for any other Los Angeles punk. I only had the most perfunctory appreciation for X or Zolar X or the Screamers. All bands I’ve come to dig way more so as I’ve gotten older, while the Germs have waned (only slightly) in my eyes.

A few years ago the kids here at TMR were pretty hot on “Wasted” off this single and that got me excited. I’d never really heard it before. Mudhoney covered “Fix Me” as part of their live encore and that was a solid reminder. Little nuggets like this dropped into my orbit increasing my awareness and setting the scene. I’m pretty sure a copy of this single with the red sleeve ended up in my collection when I’d bought a hoard of singles from former Dirtbomb fuzz player Joe Greenwald, but even then, in my mid-twenties, it just didn’t click.

But my trip to Brussels earlier this year and a visit to the extraordinary shop 72 Records was the final push I needed.

Like most shops I dig, 72 Records has a stack of 150-count Bags Unlimited 7” boxes behind the counter, all meticulously labeled with the genre descriptors of their contents. This is, as I call it, the good shit. While I LOVE the feeling of finding a gem hidden in the roughs of the dollar bin, the older I get, the more likely I am willing to just pay the going rate for something that I truly desire. Such is the benefit of advanced age and getting paid the medium bucks.

The “punk” box at 72 was unlike anything I’d ever seen. Solid, beautiful, clean copies of numerous original 45s that were included in the earliest volumes of the godhead “Killed By Death” compilation series.

These aren’t the records that just end up in a store in this manner. Especially when all these records are US pressings and I was in Belgium. From what I could tell, this was the personal collection of the store owner, amassed over years, a guy I imagine is truly committed to really making the store have that extra something.

Amidst that pile was an original copy of this first Black Flag single. 500 euros. I didn’t have that dosh laying around, so pretty quickly flipped past it.
But on the flight home, I kept thinking back…”Did I blow it by not buying that single?”

Consulted with a few of the experts who said I didn’t necessarily blow it, but that it was a VERY fair price for said disc.

I took the flyer I was handed for 72 Records and thought I could just email them and buy it over the internet. But they don’t have a website, they don’t sell on Discogs, I can’t even find an email address for the place.

And then it seemed clear to me they didn’t WANT to operate in that world. They just want to be a record store that deals with folks who walk into their brick-and-mortar storefront. And I have the utmost respect for them and that approach. Kudos 72 Records.

Last week, with $500 fresh in my PayPal account from me unloading a spare I had of an original White Stripes Gold Dollar flyer, a copy of “Nervous Breakdown” showed up on Discogs that felt right. Threw a mildly lower price out to the seller with the “Make Offer” option and it was accepted almost immediately. I think out-of-pocket I only spent $200. That feels good.

As for the songs here…shit, a bigger salvo in the punk cannon may not exist. These songs are all up there with the Misfits “Bullet” single and the Germs “Lexicon Devil” and the Victims “No Thanks to the Human Turd”. Shit, I may have just accidentally written a list of my four favorite punk singles. Anyway, “Nervous Breakdown” is so perfectly realized. The guitar tone snarl, impossible without Williamson’s work on “Raw Power” but ultimately surpassing it, coupled with Keith Morris’s dented nihilistic lyrics. While it appears evident to anyone who gives the five minutes it takes to hear these four songs, it STILL feels like Black Flag has not gotten their due respect. So give it here.
PS. respect to the seller who managed to dig out the original plastic bag the single came in, coupled with near-complete SST sticker used to seal it. That’s the attention to detail from a seller that makes me smile.
PPS. this single has seemingly NEVER been out of print in the 38 years since it’s been issued. That must be some kind of record. You can still buy it new from the label, a version pressed in 2011

http://www.sstsuperstore.com/Vinyl/SST001-7.html