I tell you, little buddy, this whole island is bewitched. You remember? We were shipwrecked together. Welcome to this bonus episode of Sound Opinions. I am Greg Cott. My co-host is Jim DeRogatis. And if you want to be the first to hear our bonus podcasts, become a Sound Opinions member like Andy Bittner of Austin, Texas. Andy, we were his first podcast subscription going back to 2006.
So Andy's been a fan for a while. Well, you know, we don't get down to Texas for South by Southwest anymore, which has been cutting music back and back and back. You know, but I feel like we should bring him some barbecue or something. Yeah, man. Andy, that's great. And if you want to bring us some barbecue... You're always welcome. You know where to come.
You know, the beauty of these bonus podcasts is that we get to talk about music that we can't cram into the regular show. It gives us an opportunity to put another quarter in the Desert Island jukebox and play a great track. Jim, give us a hint of where you're going this week. Greg, I am going to pay tribute to the first great rock guitarist I ever interviewed. Ooh, that's a good one. I like that. We're going to hear about that in a minute on Sound Opinions.
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Welcome back to Sound Opinions, Jim. Okay, that was an intriguing hint. Give us the spiel here on the Desert Island Jukebox. Well, we have to acknowledge the late, great Brian James, guitarist for The Damned. who recently died at the age of 74. Brian James, you know, born Brian Robertson in Hammersmith, London. His life is full of these odd little facts. He didn't want to be confused with...
Thin Lizzy guitarist, Brian Robertson, right? So Robertson became James. You know, grew up working class English. I interviewed him when he was playing with Stiv Bader's in the Lords of the New Church. A band I very much liked in the 80s. You know, Stiv, one of the founders of that great Cleveland... punk rock scene. So influential. The Rocket from the Tombs early on goes on to form the Dead Boys. Kind of a cartoonish New York.
take when they moved to New York on punk rock. But I think they wanted to cash in in the early MTV era. So Brian James, guitarist from punk legend The Damned and Stiv Bader's from punk legends The Dead. Boys formed this band that's sort of goth, sort of pop. It's got some synthesizer. You know, I was running for the underground paper at New York University, the Washington Square News, us hipsters, which was just me and my friend AJ.
were the entire hipster contingent at NYU. We called it the square news. We were going to write for the underground Marxist newspaper, The Courier. And I mentioned this when we paid tribute to David Johansson. There were the first two things I...
ever published in, you know, published professionally, not in a fanzine at the school paper where an interview with Johansson or trying to get an interview with Johansson that never happened, much like Gay Talese's Frank Sinatra's Got a Cold and Brian James and Steve Bader's.
Now, Steve was quite a character. You know, my buddy, AJ, was there to take pictures. And he said, you mind if we take a picture? And Steve started climbing on the furniture in this hotel room and taking down the bad hotel art and handing it to my brother. Here, take a picture. Whereas Brian James, I was a big fan of the first Damned album. I couldn't understand it.
damned thing he said his accent was so thick it's like you know keith richards on a bad day which is pretty much every day which he'd consider a good day i have no idea what Brian James said. But The Damned deserved their place in rock history as the first English band. Everybody tends to think the Sex Pistols happened in 76, it all explodes, it all comes from there. The Damned were the first out with...
the single, the song I'm going to play, the fantastic tune, New Rose, which James wrote. And that's followed up by the first album, you know, pre the Sex Pistols. The Damned were not a great band, in my opinion. And I'm going to get some hate here from fans. I think that first album is pretty good. Neat, Neat, Neat is a great song, and New Rose is a fantastic song. The rest of it's okay.
The second damned album, I don't know where this idea ever came from, and I've talked to the man himself, and he couldn't explain it. You know, the damned tap Nick Mason, Pink Floyd's drummer, to record their second album, which is a horrible flop. And then they, you know, Brian James leaves and they break up.
And then they reform. And they've never kind of unformed since. David Vanian with his vampire fascination. I really like Captain Sensible. I own Captain Sensible's solo albums, right? Yeah, yeah. But the damn just became too much of a cartoon. and stayed well past their welcome. I think their best moments were early on. James wrote or co-wrote every song on that first album. It had a lot to do with the second. He'd already been bouncing around the underground scene in London.
with Mick Jones, who'd go on to The Clash, and Tony James, who'd go on to Generation X, and Sieg Sieg Sputnik, right? It was a much smaller scene than I think the legend allows for now. All these guys were... playing with each other if they didn't want to do pub rock or they didn't have the chops to do it you know they were making this raw sound that would come to be punk rock just like people in new york uh would come to form this sound that took off at c GBGB. So, you know, I'd say...
The first Lords of the New Church album, half of the first Damned album, but that still was a lot of history from one guitar. Yeah. And just you hear the slashing tone. I mean, to me, it's a pretty straight line from the Stooges' raw power. to what Brian James did with The Damned. And this is an undeniable song. New Rose by The Damned. I can't stop. I got a new rose. I got it good. Yeah.
How can you not love that? Oh, yeah. No, it's great. That first album, I made the rounds. So let me tell you, that was one of those records where you go, oh, this is something fresh. This is a nice punch in the face. It was great. Brian James, great tribute to a pioneering guitarist is the only way to say it.
That is it for this bonus episode. For more full episodes, visit soundopinions.org. To sponsor the show, email sponsor at soundopinions.org. Sound Opinions is produced as usual by Andrew Gill, Alex Claiborne, and Max Hatlam. Social media consultant is Katie Cott, and our business development manager is Gary Yonker. Thanks for listening.