Black Flag: Damaged [SST]

Why you'll love it

Damaged is one of the most influential punk records ever made, ranked by Rolling Stone among the 500 greatest albums and by Pitchfork among the best of the 1980s.

This edition

• Original 1981 artwork and running order
• Includes "Rise Above" and "TV Party"

About the album

Black Flag had tried and failed to make a full album with three different singers. Then a 20-year-old ice cream shop manager from Washington called Henry Rollins jumped on stage, and Damaged finally happened.

From the opening shout of "Rise Above" it's furious, funny and frightening. "Six Pack" and "TV Party" are hilarious suburban satire, "Police Story" and "Spray Paint the Walls" seethe, and Greg Ginn's atonal, twisting guitar on side two, from "Depression" to "Damaged I," drags hardcore somewhere darker and stranger.

It came out on the band's own SST label in 1981, and nearly every punk, metal and alternative band of the next decade took notes.

Also at Kops: more Black Flag on vinyl · browse Punk

Tracklist

Listen

On SST (cat# SST 007), a reissue of the 1981 album.