In Cold Blood <\/em>did, the Bad Brains’ story would be the perfect source material.<\/p>\nQuite simply, H.R (Paul Hudson), the band’s founder, is a mad genius that only America could produce; he’s a magnetic, self-destructive, unfocused \/ ultrafocused, brilliant, schizo, frustrating, talented icon whose powers have resulted in a career\/non-career that has no parallels. Before he was 20 he studied medicine in college, flunked out, abused drugs, fathered a child and worked simple jobs. His dismal hopes for a better life left Hudson ripe for suggestion, and when he stumbled upon some dusty self-help manuals he decided to reconfigure his life based on the principles of PMA (Positive Mental Attitude). He used this positivity to realize a dream: he wanted to make music! Hudson lived in Maryland, but our story shifts to nearby Washington, DC.<\/p>\n
DC is a predominantly African American town, but the punk scene was, not surprisingly, very white. Two neighbors from the Black side of the tracks, Sid McCray and Darryl Jenifer, were open to white music and an interest in Metal led them to ’77 punk. Jenifer’s interests drifted to progressive Jazz Fusion music, however, and he soon joined Paul Hudson’s new band, Mindpower (a PMA name) with Paul’s brother Earl Hudson on drums and friend Gary Miller (the future Dr. Know) on guitar. Mindpower was a short lived, unsuccessful musical experiment, but Paul stayed positive, and when McCray urged them to give punk a chance they changed gears and renamed the band Bad Brains. HR (Hudson’s punk persona) liked the name because it combined the Black English slang “Bad” with the idea of mind power, not knowing that Daryl took it from a Ramones song.<\/p>\n
The key axis-moment in DC punk history is the Cramps show at Hall of Nations in 1979. Though it’s hard to believe the ultra-serious straight edge and emo scenes would be born from a band as joyous and goofy as the Cramps, the fact is, like the famed Ramones show that inspired every important British punker, this concert was attended by future members of Minor Threat, Rights of Spring and many other significant DC bands. And it was at that show that Bad Brains handed out flyer’s for their debut show in the Hudson basement. The five member band (Sid was briefly a second vocalist) played furious punk with lyrics that combined PMA optimism with outrage. They developed a unique sound, combining jazz influences, Jenifer’s and Dr. Know’s invigorating playing, HR’s unusual reedy voice, and, in lieu of the stiff metronomic beat that hardcore would be known for, the meaty rhythms of drummer Earl Hudson that swung like a rusty axe.<\/p>\n
By the end of the year they recorded their demo (7 tracks done in an hour), started incorporating Reggae (Mindpower had gone on a band field trip to a Bob Marley concert before Bad Brains formed), tried to relocate to New York and London (both failures, they never got past customs in Europe) and recorded what would be their first single.<\/p>\n
As the ’80s dawned HR struggled with drugs and spirituality and become more invested in Rastafarianism. From any distance HR, a drug addled college dropout basing his life around absurd self-help books, doesn’t seem like someone you’d follow, but his charisma and magnetism made him a true leader and soon the band members spoke in Jamaican accents.<\/p>\n
Over the next couple of years several managers who recognized Bad Brains’ powers tried to get them on the road to super-stardom but it wasn’t to be. Though their shows were amazing (HR’s signature back-flips were something unseen on the tiny punk stages he roamed) and though they managed to record some amazing songs, HR’s unpredictability always shut doors of opportunity as fast as they opened.<\/p>\n
The only reason they were able to negotiate the release of their legendary self-titled cassette album for ROIR (1982) is that ROIR’s Neil Cooper (who died last year) personally knew Rastafarian prophet Haile Sellassie. The cassette (diehards insist it only sounds right on cassette) would sell over 100,000 copies and became one of the most influential hardcore releases of all time. It led the band to coast to coast touring, and it was in San Francisco and Texas that Bad Brains would feel their first backlash from the punk world. The religious doctrines HR was adhering to were intolerant of homosexuals. This led to conflicts as bands they played with were either gay friendly or gay, culminating in some ugly incidents with the Big Boys that became the talk of the punk grapevine.<\/p>\n
HR’s Rasta ways also had him trying to guide the band to an all Reggae repertoire, which caused quite a bit of oddness, with either punk fans not getting as much punk as they expected or, on occasion, Bad Brains drawing a Black Reggae crowd that was confused by the local, white punk opening acts. After the troubled tour more chaos followed, leading to them losing their practice space, master tapes for upcoming records and equipment.<\/p>\n
They were given a new lease on life by punk fan Rick Ocasek (the Cars) who helped them record the band’s first full length Rock For Light (PVC, 1983). Due to the regular Bad Brains chaos the record had an odd history or being released on a few labels over the years, but the album is perhaps the most cohesive document of their Rasta\/punk balance. This led to interest from major labels but HR wanted none of it. He really wanted to change the band’s name and stop playing rock altogether, and he (of course) thought major corporations were Babylon \/ Satan \/ apocalypse bringers.<\/p>\n
After sabotaging their chances at success the band was essentially broken up, and HR supported himself financially by selling pot (leading to an arrest and jail sentence). He still played occasionally with his brother, but was not on warm terms with Jenifer or Know. However, in 1985 they somehow made peace\u00a0and re-formed, wrote new material, toured and made a new album. After the drama and odd release history of their previous recordings, now they were working with an almost real label on an almost real record, I Against I<\/em> (SST, 1986).<\/p>\nIt featured diverse musical excursions, and solid writing and singing by a fully engaged HR. The well-received album led to the possibility of signing with Island (Bob Marley’s label!) but again HR refused and he and his brother left the band to concentrate on their other project. Between 1984 and 1990 HR performed with and released recordings with his “solo” band H.R.<\/strong> (also known as Human Rights). The best of these, Human Rights <\/em>(SST, 1987) is an odd fusion of Reggae, Funk, pop and Rock that showcases the unusual magic of HR’s voice. The band performed with a rotating lineup that often included his brother Earl and DAVE BYERS. I saw them perform once with a chorus of sweet singing women complimenting HR’s reedy, off center vocal stylings in a sublime, fantastic way, making it evident what was special about his unique talents. However, at the same show the band performed without keyboardist Billy Fields (later of the Atlanta-based Black rock band Follow For Now and the rap group Arrested Development) who HR had taken the fall for a drug bust at the previous show. Unfortunately, that kind of disorder was more what the band would be about than the musical coherence. Human Rights was able to exist with drastically changing lineups until the end of the 80s, but eventually no one would work with him.<\/p>\nAfter a European tour with Human Rights ended with HR stranded overseas he eventually made it back to the states and he and his brother briefly rejoined Bad Brains who had been performing with another singer. Quickness <\/em>(Caroline, 1989), featured HR as a lyricist (anti-gay stuff included), but had little Reggae, and with the inclusion of the Punk-Metal crossover sound that many hardcore bands were into, it feels like HR is merely a hired hand. The European tour that followed had HR physically attacking a band-mate and jumping off a moving tour bus. When they returned to the states the band broke up.<\/p>\nBad Brains reformed with singer Chuck Mosely (Faith No More) and continued to play. Things were worse for HR whose Reggae band was falling apart. He had sold the rights to the name and the music of Bad Brains to his ex-band-mates for needed cash, and without even that minute income coming in he spent a few years drifting between homelessness, his parents’ house, incarceration, and short stints on friends couches for the brief period between his arrival and the time he alienated them.<\/p>\n
The above text stolen from the following site<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"?12XU \/ Don’t Need It \/ Supertouch Shitfit \/ Big Takeover \/ Riot Squad \/ I \/ ??? \/ F.V.K. \/ We Will Not \/ At The Movies Bad Brains practice session 1978 Yeah, super stuff from the awesome Bad Brains.\u00a0This particular tape of mine\u00a0has the two demos from 1979 on the other side, which […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-670","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-links-downloads"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/killyourpetpuppy.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/670","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/killyourpetpuppy.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/killyourpetpuppy.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/killyourpetpuppy.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/killyourpetpuppy.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=670"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/killyourpetpuppy.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/670\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/killyourpetpuppy.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=670"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/killyourpetpuppy.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=670"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/killyourpetpuppy.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=670"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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