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Rise Above is an album both musically exhilarating and deeply troubling. On the positive side of the ledger, Henry Rollins has pulled together twenty-four songs by his alma mater, Black Flag, mostly penned by Flag-founder and guitarist Greg Ginn, and given them a full makeover. In the hands of a cross-section of cross-generational hard rockers, from Iggy Pop to Slipknot's Corey Taylor, the music of Black Flag retains it's original anger, but has been updated for listeners who either weren't born or weren't listening when that band barked around the Los Angeles underground. A cleaner sound, unavailable to the band during its guerilla-style recordings during the 1980s, is paired with vocal diversity on Rise Above as Dean Ween, Ryan Adams, Mars Volta's Cedric Bixler Zavala, Ice T and Mike Patton update vintage Black Flag tracks like "Gimme Gimme Gimme," "Nervous Breakdown," "I've Had It," "Police Story," and "Six Pack," respectively.
The other side of the album is without hardcore revelry. In May 1993, three eight-year-old boys were mutilated and murdered in West Memphis, Arkansas. A dubious confession, a Satanic panic, a sloppy police investigation and a trial seemingly short on due process sent three teenagers -- Jessie Misskelley, Damien Echols and Jason Baldwin -- to prison, with Echols facing a death sentence. The deaths of the three children, and the plight of the West Memphis 3 (as the trio of convicted have become known) were the focus of a 1996 documentary by Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky, Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills. The film cast an eye on flaws throughout the boys' convictions, and follow-up documentary, Paradise Lost 2: Revelations, focused on further evidence that the West Memphis 3 -- who next year will have spent a full decade in prison -- were not involved in the murders of Michael Moore, Stevie Branch and Christopher Byers.
Rise Above makes a strong case for revisiting the music of Black Flag, while also throwing additional light on a cause that has created a public outcry. Rollins sat down in the New York City office of his label, Sanctuary Records, to discuss both aspects of Rise Above.
So I take it, like most others, you were introduced to the West Memphis 3 through the documentaries.
Yeah, that's how I became aware of the case. I saw the first one and got very upset. You watch it and it freaks you out. You're hoping that at the end, everyone goes, "Ha-ha, we're just actors! This could happen!" But it's real. It's like a nightmare you don't wake up from. Then I saw the second one and that one made me furious. Due process was not served. I mean the worst pedophile gets a fair trial. That's just how we do it here. I'm really for a fair trial for the worst scumbag. I think these guys are flat out innocent and they got screwed.
And they were so young when they were convicted.
And it's too late, it's their teenage years and early twenties they spent in jail, they'll never get that back. And those are huge years. That really made me hurt inside. My involvement started with a benefit show: me and my band, Exene [Cervenka]'s band, Wayne Kramer's band, we raised a bunch of money. Got people like Eddie Vedder and Bad Religion and Tom Waits to donate signed goodies, we auctioned them and all the money went to the boys.
Then I had the idea for the record and realized it was going to be a huge undertaking so in order to get it going, I called my band and said, "Look fellas, here's what I want to do. Do I have a band?" And they said, "Yeah, you have a band." I called the studio and booked the time and had an accountant cut a check for the deposit. Fifteen grand, and I was in. Now I can't back out. I did that because I didn't want to change my mind and a day later just cut a check for five grand and send it. Mention it at the next talking show I do at a university. Instead, I said, "Fuck it. I'm doing this." I just dove into the mouth of it.
How'd you go about setting up the guests? We found two guys who were integral to all this. Sean E and a guy named Bill Fold. They're like freelance A&R guys, they're facilitators. So we brought them in and showed them the wishlist of musicians. And they just looked at it and went, "Gay, gay, gay gay gay." We're like, "Really?" And they're like, "Aw, c'mon, this thing is starting to look like one of those movie soundtracks. Forget that guy. We have guys for you, like Corey from Slipknot." At the time, I'd never heard Slipknot. I said, "Do you think he'd do it?" And these guys said, hold on a minute, and called him up on the cell phone. "What song do you want him to sing?"
The songs really jump out at you.
We made a record that is absolutely bomb-proof. You can't fuck with this record on any level: The playing, the production, the vocals, the songs. I defy any critic to find a chink in our armor. And I have nothing to do with it. I didn't write any of this stuff. It's the maddest cover record ever. You'd think there'd be some lame-o's on there.
The sound quality is a marked improvement over the Black Flag days.
Black Flag records were always lacking in production values in my opinion. You could never hear what Greg [Ginn, guitarist and songwriter] was doing and it was murky. And this thing rips your head off, with totally clear sound.
Iggy's vocal on "Fix Me" felt like a throwback to the Stooges days.
I called Jim's A&R guy. I go, "We gotta get Jim [Osterberg, Pop's real name] on this record, and it'll connect him with a different audience." Because young people should listen to Jim Osterberg a lot. When kids hit like fourteen, they should be given the first three Stooges albums and The Idiot and Lust for Life. Here ya go. You may now walk through the halls of youth.
So FedExed him the documentary and all the Black Flag stuff. And I wrote this looong letter to him: You have to know what your music meant to Black Flag. When I joined Black Flag, I was handed a couple of cassettes: MC5 live, [the Stooges'] Funhouse, the first Stooges album and Masters of Reality by Black Sabbath. And they said, "Get this under your belt, because if you don't like the Stooges, you can't be in this band." Greg Ginn and Chuck Dukowski, they hated everybody. They thought everyone was a poser. The Clash? Posers. The Sex Pistols? They hated punk rock, they thought it was lightweight. If you have to do that to your hair, you're thinking too much about your fashion statement. That's Greg's whole thing. He looks like some office supply guy. Because all of his clothes came from the Salvation Army.
There was always that purity to what he did.
Staggering. It made you check yourself. He was a weird guy with bad shoes and no moves on stage. Just this kook writing these songs in these weird rhythms, it was genius. Pure definition of. So I said, "Jim, consider this, because you mean a lot to me, Ginn and Black Flag, a group that hated everybody but you. I said if you're on this record, Greg Ginn will smile again." Two days later there's a message from him. [In Iggy voice] "Uh Henry, hey man, it's Jim Osterberg, I'm gonna sing 'Fix Me.' So long man."
For those that have seen Hank Williams III live, his cover makes sense, for those that haven't, that vocal might come as a surprise. He really tears up "No Values."
He was a no-brainer, because you see him wearing Black Flag shirts on-stage. And he hangs out with my bandmates when he comes to town. He was one of the first guys we went after because he knows the songs, and he knows the case. He had the West Memphis 3 web site hyperlinked to his a long time ago. You hear that vocal, holy shit man.
Did you enjoy getting to play fantasy camp with the different singers?
Absolutely. Having sung all those songs live and some in the studio, all of my favorite vocal versions of those songs are on this record. You can't replace Greg Ginn. But a few of these people, I heard the song in my head, and thought that guy's gotta sing it. Lemmy [Kilmister of Motorhead] and "Thirsty and Miserable," not because of the subject matter of the song -- because I know he likes alcohol. But [sings] Thirsty and miserable always wanting more . . . that's right in his vocal range. That's a Motorhead melody. You think, Lemmy could own this song.
I was there for those vocals. Lemmy doesn't want you to watch. So he sings behind a partition. The riff comes in. and I had it in my mind what that vocal was supposed to sound like. And all of the sudden, there we are in the studio with Lemmy, and out of nowhere, [sings] thirsty and miserable and it's like, "Oh my God, Lemmy's here." Everyone has this huge smile on their face. Because everyone likes Lemmy. That was the one song, where when people would ask how it was going, I'd play it for them. It's the voice you know. You might not own any Motorhead, but you know that voice. It's one of my favorite Lemmy vocals. He might not have the biggest range, but he knows how to work within his space. You can do a lot with a footlocker if you know what to do with it and use it efficiently. And he gets so much soul out of that song, you really get that this song is about a desperate and lonely fucked up guy who lives for booze. I mean, Lemmy likes booze, but he's not a fucked up guy. He's very intelligent and he knows what he's doing. But he got the idea of the character of the song. He got into it. It's just an incredible vocal.
There's a broad diversity among the singers too.
We tried to get some old and new, get some guys from the rap world. We wanted to get some more chick singers on it, but it was just hard in our time frame. If I'd more time, of course, I would've gone for Johnette Napolitano and Joan Jett. I would have gone even more interesting than that. Bikini Kill. I had a number of weeks to do this before I had to leave the country for a long time.
And time is tight. Isn't Damien still on Death Row?
Yes, he very much is. It's very intense and fucked up. But there's a hearing coming up and lots of new evidence is being introduced so we're very expectant. But the coverage there has been ridiculous. The West Memphis Commercial Appeal is like a tabloid. "Human heads found under Damien Echols bed," but they won't even retract it! And they said, "Henry Rollins would not respond to our request for an interview." I got that guy's number. I called him every morning for five days. "Hi it's Henry Rollins, you say you don't have my number, here it is!" I finally got his skinny ass on the phone. I gave him all my phone numbers, and I said, "If you lie in your newspaper again about me, I'm gonna send your email and phone number out to 10,000 kids who will call and ridicule you. Don't mess with me." But the new book does a good job of setting some facts straight.
Is it out yet?
This month, I believe. The book is about as fun as watching the documentaries. It's full of excruciating facts. But talk about no case, they had nothing. They had a coerced confession and a lie detector test that you can't even admit. Oh but they're Satanic! Those guys? They're just three soft, suburban kids from Arkansas. Their crime is bad hair. And that's not enough. Not in my America. The cavalry is coming.
Obviously the record will help out with the legal bills. Do you think it will have any further effect?
I'm not sure. Can a record get anybody out of jail? I doubt it. Will they still be in jail this time next year? Probably. But we're doing a good thing and I think it will make a difference. I didn't know what else to do. I can't do nothing, so I made this record. That's just me as a citizen.
More information on the West Memphis 3 is available at www.wm3.org.
ANDREW DANSBY
(October 10, 2002)