Thirsty and Miserable;: A Critical Analysis of the Music of Black Flag

by Tim Murr

Horror author and journalist Tim Murr fell in love with Black Flag's music in high school and continues to find inspiration in their music today. THIRSTY AND MISERABLE; A CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF THE MUSIC OF BLACK FLAG reviews the band's entire discography from Nervous Breakdown to What The..? with some side roads into demos, art, and concert videos in between. THIRSTY AND MISERABLE is equal parts critique and love letter to a band that was a trailblazer in hardcore punk-that opened up the out of the way places across America for other bands to follow and defined and then redefined what hardcore was and what it could be.

Genres: Music

96 pages, Kindle Edition

Published February 17, 2020

About the author

Writer, artist, blogger, featured contributor to Popshifter.com, Biffbampop.com, and Diabolique. I created, write, and maintain the horror culture blog, Stranger With Friction. My work has appeared in Thug Lit and Shotgun Honey.Books include MOTEL ON FIRE, NEON SABBATH, THE GRAY MAN, CITY LONG SUFFERING, LOSE THIS SKIN, HOUNDS OF DOOM, CONSPIRACY OF BIRDS. Editor on TO BE ONE WITH YOU; AN ANTHOLOGY OF PARASITIC HORROR and the upcoming KIDS OF THE BLACK HOLE; A PUNKSPLOITATION ANTHOLOGY #AvantNoir #Horror #Crime #Weird #horrorpunk #punk lit

All my work can be found on my Amazon Author's page at
https://www.amazon.com/Tim-Murr/e/B01...

Reviews

[Paul · Rating 5 out of 5]

A point by point analysis of the band's career. I view Flag from a different perspective but that's the joy of music. The important thing in writing about music is to express your opinion coherently and to do the research, which Tim absolutely does. I should know on this one since I was a reviewer at Spark Plug Magazine, so it used to be my gig. Well done book.

[Russ · Rating 2 out of 5]

Really more of a collection of blog posts than an actual book, it's short and really just the author writing short reviews about Black Flag's records. Calling it a "critical analysis" is pushing it. But its only 2 bucks on Kindle or 6 for a printed copy.

While the writing isn't too professional, I did like that he focused the most on Flag's releases from 1984-1985 (a total of 8 LPs!) and calls himself a fan of "The Last Four Years". The records past "My War" don't get much coverage in "Spray Paint The Walls", a much better book on BF (an essential read, along with "Get In The Van" and the band's chapter in "Our Band Could Be Your Life")

Considering the author has a chapter about the "What The..." album (and likes it!), I'm surprised he doesn't mention more about Greg's discography between the breakup and reunion of BF, especially since there's a paragraph where he mentions liking his solo albums and the El Bad project. He totally overlooks Good For You's records which is strange since those are a pretty logical follow-up to "In My Head" (more-so than "What The...")

Overall, not terrible, but definitely only for Flag obsessives who have already read the other books mentioned. One thing new I did learn was that Motorhead offered them an opening slot on their tour, but the band turned down the offer.

Kinda makes me wanna take a stab at writing more about Flag, but not sure I have enough new insight to share either.

[Mark Oconnor · Rating 2 out of 5]

Pedestrian at best, boring and inaccurate at worst. The author clearly did next to zero "research" and the analysis is nonexistent. This is a series of one or two page so called "chapters" which appear to be hastily written with little to no editing (this thing has a shit ton of typos) after flipping through the album insert and glancing at the back covers of the albums. There is literally nothing in here I have not read/heard before, and a lot is straight up wrong, incorrect. Bill and Kira did NOT quit the band, and neither did Chuck. All three were forced or vibed out.

He also obviously didn't even listen to some albums such as "On Broadway" as he claims the song "Martyrs" ("No Martyrs", actually) is the EXACT SAME SONG as "Yes, I Know". Same music, same lyrics, same everything. Yet the author states this is a kickass NEW track that everyone should check out who is reading this! He even talks pretty extensively about how much he loves the infamous 1982 Demos with Chuck Biscuits on drums. That song is literally track two of this unreleased session. Wtf?

He is also fucking obsessed with every single version of "My War" that is not the title track on the album. Live, recorded, literally ANY singer other than Henry is superior in his mind. Why, only God knows. I personally find the album version the most spine chilling with Henry's insane and intense screaming and feel that it blows any other version I have heard, even the live '84 version, out of the water.

I guess the author read Get in the Van, but did not interview anyone even remotely involved with the band or SST, and makes a bunch of opinionated, rather ignorant commentary. To sum it all up, this guy is scratching his head wondering why fans of "The First Four Years" era early Black Flag are not gushing all over the 1985 "Loose Nut", an album that is toothless, over produced, slick and full of boring mid-tempo songs. Yet he can't for the life of him understand why other BF fans give this one a miss and it hasn't gotten it's due. That pretty much says it all.

CAVEAT: Yes, I know plenty of Black Flag fans love Loose Nut, both the song and the album. What I'm saying is the fans who love EVERY singer but Henry, who HATE Henry like Spot and blame him for ruining Black Flag are not going to be Loose Nut fans. I find it to be the least interesting album they ever produced, honestly. Why 2 out of 5 instead of 1? It was a short read.

[C.J. · Rating 4 out of 5]

A Fair Assessment of the BF discography

I was aspecting a little more musical analysis of Black Flag’s music, and a few details could have been fact checked and corrected (Rollins’ Rise Above album has 24 songs, not 21 as mistakenly stated by the author), but the general analysis of the band’s discography (including a more than far assessment of What The…) is very good.

[Zak Knight · Rating 5 out of 5]

A personal view into Black Flags music.

Murr wrote this book as a long time fan of Black Flag. It is neither a take down or a hype piece, it's a love letter to a partner that is both inspiring and disappointing.

As a fan of Black Flag I appreciated the personal take on the music from another fan. Reading time well spent. Definitely recommend. Thanks Tim.