Song History
Early versions of "Revenge" and "White Minority" with Reyes on vocals, along with an early version of the later Damaged track "Depression", were recorded and filmed for The Decline of Western Civilization. In the movie and on the soundtrack album, Reyes defiantly dedicates the former song to the LAPD. Already, Black Flag (and many other Los Angeles punk bands) were getting harassed by police; "Revenge" was undoubtedly inspired at least in part by the band's unprovoked encounters with them.
"White Minority", while commonly misinterpreted as borderline racist, is actually an attack on white supremacy and a mockery of racism. "You Bet We've Got Something Personal Against You!" initially started life as a Greg Ginn/Keith Morris composition, "I Don't Care", recorded during the original album sessions with Morris on vocals. When Morris quit the band, however, he took both "I Don't Care" and Nervous Breakdown's "Wasted" (the only other Morris/Ginn songwriting collaboration under the Black Flag moniker) with him and recorded them with his new band The Circle Jerks on their debut album Group Sex. Offended by what they saw as the missappropriation of two Black Flag songs, Dukowski wrote new lyrics to Ginn's music for "I Don't Care" and recorded what is essentially an attack on Morris and the Circle Jerks. "You Bet..." is also the only time Dukowski sings lead vocals on a Black Flag song.
Read more about this topic: Jealous Again
Famous quotes containing the words song and/or history:
“Tell her that goes
With song upon her lips
But sings not out the song, nor knows
The maker of it, some other mouth,
May be as fair as hers,”
—Ezra Pound (1885–1972)
“I am not a literary man.... I am a man of science, and I am interested in that branch of Anthropology which deals with the history of human speech.”
—J.A.H. (James Augustus Henry)