Bad Brains’ first studio session, a six-track demo recorded in 1979 at Don Zientara’s Inner Ear Studio, has been remastered and released by Trust Records as Are You Ready: The First Studio Recording. The release revisits the moment when the band—frontman HR, guitarist Dr Know, bassist Darryl Jenifer and drummer Earl Hudson—moved from adolescent jazz-fusion ambitions to the fast, untamed punk for which they became known. Young, black and driven by a blend of Napoleon Hill’s self-help ideas and Rastafari, they were outliers in the punk scene, but their influence later reached acts including Rage Against the Machine, Deftones, Lil Jon, the Roots and Beastie Boys.
HR, born Paul D Hudson, and his younger brother Earl met Dr Know (Gary Wayne Miller) and Jenifer at Central High in Maryland. Jenifer came from Washington DC’s south-east projects. He recalled an art teacher who allowed students to bring in records, and said the group’s musicians bonded over albums such as Billy Cobham’s Spectrum rather than Earth, Wind & Fire. They rehearsed in a friend’s house when his mother was out playing bingo. Miller said their influences spanned white and black music, rock’n’roll and funk. Jenifer said female cousins teased him for listening to music they considered undanceable.
At first the group was Mind Power, aspiring to the jazz fusion of Return to Forever and Mahavishnu Orchestra. Jenifer described it as a delusional teenage phase: one song, no shows. Sid McCray then discovered punk and introduced them to Sex Pistols, Dead Boys and Ramones. Jenifer felt liberated by the music. Mind Power became Bad Brains, and HR took over vocals from McCray. An early poster billed them as the greatest punk rock band in the world—bravado backed by the band’s commitment to PMA, positive mental attitude.
HR said his father urged him to read Napoleon Hill’s Think and Grow Rich; he adopted PMA as a formula and vehicle for his music while dealing with hard drugs, a dead-end security job and impending fatherhood. Jenifer said the band wanted purpose and a message: not just a band but a mission. That focus was evident at Inner Ear, Zientara recalled: the songs and energy were there, and the session was so quick he wondered afterward whether he had really recorded them.
After further demo sessions, Bad Brains released the brief Pay to Cum 7-inch in 1980, followed by their self-titled album and Rock for Light, produced by Ric Ocasek. The period was turbulent. Several Washington venues banned the group; Miller said club owners accused them of inciting riots by making kids go crazy. A 1979 gig with the Damned led to an invitation to tour the UK, but the band tried to enter without working papers and was sent straight back to the US, penniless and with equipment lost on the way.
Live, the band’s reputation became legendary. HR was known for contorting and backflipping while delivering rapid-fire vocals and croons; the band played blisteringly fast punk informed by punk, funk and fusion. Nancy Barile, who first saw them in Philadelphia in 1982, described a physical and visceral response and said audiences needed to participate; photographer Glen E Friedman said he had never seen or heard anything like them.
The group split for the first time after Rock for Light. HR was wary of major-label interest, and tensions grew over his and Earl’s increasing fondness for all-reggae sets. The band’s legacy also carries abusive, homophobic clashes with members of the hardcore scene’s gay community, notably Texas punk band Big Boys, whose frontman was gay. Bob Mould has recalled homophobia directed at Hüsker Dü. The 1989 song Don’t Blow Bubbles was perceived as anti-gay and has since been disowned, but it continues to shadow the band. Jenifer said he was taught to love all people and rejected homophobia, suggesting youthful and misguided zealotry had been at play.
Bad Brains reunited for 1986’s I Against I, expanding into soul, funk and heavy metal. Despite a limited label budget, they secured producer Ron Saint Germain. HR was in jail for a marijuana bust during the making of the record; he said Saint Germain suggested he sing vocals for Sacred Love over the phone. HR, then working as a mop cleaning floors, got Sunday time off and agreed to try.
From the late 1980s the band existed in fits and starts. Releases were interrupted by breakups, lineup changes and violent incidents that derailed high-profile shows with Beastie Boys and a deal with Madonna’s Maverick Records. Miller said everybody can be a handful, but on stage the spirit takes over. Miller is recovering from a severe stroke and cancer, while HR is being treated for Sunct syndrome and schizoaffective disorder; another performance is unlikely. The Trust Records deal places their recorded legacy in safer hands. Miller said the band knew from the start they were unique, and that listeners should look to rock’n’roll history—Muddy Waters and others—rather than Elvis Presley.
Sources: The Guardian Music.