Episode 211: 1983

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On last week’s episode, we dug deep into the year 1983 - a killer year for hardcore. In my humble opinion, it might be neck and neck with 1986 for the best year of hardcore. Just having a Minor Threat record come out (plus a tour) puts it in contention.

Don’t believe me? Check the playlist.

I saw Stalag 13 play the Casbah in San Diego a few weeks ago. They were great and got a good response, but when they covered Filler, the roof blew off.

Check one in the win column since Minor Threat is still bar punk cannon. It got me thinking, though - what other early 80’s hardcore classics could pop a crowd in 2023?

And what’s the biggest pre-90’s punk or hardcore song? Other than Waiting Room, of course. If Sunami played Young Til I Die to a room of 800 kids, would they care? Does it even matter?

I’d argue it does, and hardcore doesn’t exist without two things: youth & roots. Finding the balance is the hard part. But NEwayz, this post is about ‘83 - so this time we’re talking ALL ROOTS, BABY!

Is Crucifix Annihilation the greatest hardcore song ever? It’s in contention. Seriously. You probably have a favorite hardcore song, but let’s look at this one:

First - goddamn, what a mission statement with the speech. Then the guitar does a quick lil riff and you know the vibe just off the tone alone. When the drums kick, you’re in for it. I’ve always thought of Crucifix as being in the Discharge lane, but after Clevo brought up that he thinks that album is the West Coast Victim in Pain, I can see that too. The vocal delivery is really similar, although the Crucifix LP is more of a straight blazer where Victim in Pain is really the blueprint of songs being built around the breakdown. Speaking of breakdowns, Annihilation has one of the best ones in the history of mankind.

Back to Out of Step briefly - does this record contain the first skipper in the Minor Threat catalog? Don’t act like you don’t know what I’m talking about. I’m talking about the unnecessary and inferior version of Out of Step. Listen, this is no set of rules, but almost every single time a band re-records a song, it’s not as good. Unless you’re 7 Seconds doing We’re Gonna Fight.

If you think Side A of Appetite for Destruction is the best piece of rock ‘n roll ever, I’m not going to argue with you. But Side A of Shock Troops is taking GNR to the scorecards and they better hope that Cecil Peoples and Adalaide Byrd aren’t scoring this fight. Let’s get into it…

First, the album kicks off with Where Are They Now - the ultimate mission statement and one of the best punk diss tracks of all time.

I believed in Julie when she said how easy it could be
And I believed in Tony and his written words of anarchy
And I believed in Joe when he said we had to fight
And I believed in Jimmy when he told us to unite

So who are they coming at?

Julie/Tony: punk journalists for NME

Joe: Joe Strummer of The Clash

Jimmy: Jimmy Pursey of Sham 69

Shots fired. Fuck yea!

Where Are They Now/Riot Squad/Working/Take ‘Em All/We’re Coming Back = back to back to back to back to back 10/10 songs.

If they could’ve squeezed I Got Your Number onto Side A, Slash and the boys are a distant 2nd.

‘83 also brought us this classic. 13 songs of perfect hardcore punk, well, 12 + (I Hate) Reggae. Allow me to gush. The drumming is some of the best hardcore drumming ever and drives this whole thing. Jerry A lays down the blueprint for the mid-line quick breath. This is what it’s all about: the sub-one minute blazers juxtaposed with the mid-tempo bangers.

I wanted to address something we talked about on the pod: the original vs. the remaster of Rock for Light. For some reason, in 1991, engineer Rick Ocasek and Darryl Jenifer decided to remaster this record which included speeding it up a tick and changing the track listing. Basically, if your record starts with Coptic Times, you’re listening to the original version, and if it starts with Big Takeover, you’re listening to the remaster.

Now obviously Rick and Darryl are musical geniuses, and I’m just some dude, but even this dude knows that whatever the fuck the Bad Brains were doing in 1983 was the right thing. Musically, at least. It’s just a bummer that a bunk idea tainted an amazing record for about 30 years.

Original:

Remaster:

The remaster is wonky and made me a ROIR guy for my whole life. Can’t stop now! Anyway, it’s great that the original version is available on vinyl again. Hopefully they update the streaming stuff at some point.

Be sure to check the episode where we chose our favorite 7 songs of the year 1983. Here were the picks:

Here’s the playlist.

Here are some 1983 flyers:

Thanks for reading! Hardcore rules.

- Zack