Track Listing

1. Rise Above - Chuck D & Henry Rollins
2. Nervous Breakdown - Keith Morris
3. Fix Me - Iggy Pop
4. American Waste - Neil Fallon of Clutch
5. I've Had it - Cedric Bixler Zavala of The Mars Volta
6. I've Heard It Before - Jeff Moreira of Poison the Well
7. Room 13 - Corey Taylor of Slipknot
8. Wasted - Exene Cervenka
9. Jealous Again - Nick Oliveri of Queens of the Stone Age
10. TV Party - Henry Rollins
11. No Values - Hank III
12. Gimmie Gimmie Gimmie - Dean Ween
13. Depression - Casey Chaos of Amen
14. Six Pack - Mike Patton
15. Police Story - Ice T
16. Revenge - Tom Araya of Slayer
17. Thirsty & Miserable - Lemmy
18. What I See - Chuck Dukowski
19. No More - Tim Armstrong & Lars Frederiksen
20. Black Coffee - Henry Rollins
21. Slip It In - Henry Rollins & Inger Lorre
22. Annihilate This Week - Henry Rollins, Kira Roessler
23. My War - Henry Rollins
24. Nervous Breakdown - Ryan Adams (Bonus Track)

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #62814 in Music
• Released on: 2002-10-08
• Number of discs: 1

Amazon.com
Holy countercultural confluence! For the cause of fundraising for the defense of a trio of legally bound Arkansas headbangers--one of whom is currently on death row on the basis of hearsay testimony--Henry Rollins has resurrected the sacrosanct songs of his legendary former Los Angeles hardcore band Black Flag. Much as he first joined the popular Flag by jumping on stage and grabbing the microphone, Rollins here assigns lead vocals to a bewildering array of guests, including Iggy Pop, Dean Ween, Corey Taylor of Slipknot, Tom Araya of Slayer, Queens of the Stone Age, and Ice T. The Rollins Band convincingly serves as caustic backing band throughout. Protest music godfather Chuck D. of Public Enemy appears as well, though simply to introduce the album. Many of the singers, whether inspired by the cause itself or the muscular caliber of Black Flag's music, deliver the rebellious message with heartfelt intensity. Motorhead leader Lemmy's ripping version of "Thirsty and Miserable" is a stunning highlight, as is Hank Williams III's psychotic "No Values." Former Flag singers Keith Morris and Chuck Dukowski bring their veteran intensity, and Rollins himself shouts "My War," "TV Party," "Black Coffee," "Annihilate This Week," "Slip It In," and the title track. (Flag guitarist-lyricist Greg Ginn is notably absent, though his trademark clear Lucite guitar joins the West Memphis Three defendants on the cover artwork.) The participating musicians' anger and frustration over the West Memphis Three case, which has been detailed in HBO's Paradise Lost documentaries, is well matched with the giant fury of this band. --Ian Christe

Customer Reviews

Outstanding!
I think this CD is a true gem. I really enjoy all the tracks. Yes, ALL THE TRACKS!
I approached this album with the intention of hearing someones else's take on a Black Flag song. Every artist delivers a unique insight to the original song. I feel the cover songs are done respectfully, sincerely, and with the accomplishment of capturing the true emotion of the original tracks! This compilation is very worthy of household recognition. I recommend to anyone. Black Flag fan or not, this release is very enjoyable.
Oh yea. It is a benefit album too. I don't have to much insight of the cause. But I do know, it good to see a diverse group of musician come together.

Some outstanding performances, and a good cause make this worth getting.
Okay, not everybody is in agreement about the West Memphis Three. I don't see one iota of actual evidence that proves they're guilty.
That said, I'm here to review the music on this CD, not go on about my opinon.

Black Flag was of course a great band for a good 5 or 6 years.
Their last material was dire (witness 'Annihilate This Week'; nothing can make that song good folks, not to my ears).

The best covers on here partly belong to Henry Rollins himself, he of the classic Damaged. Never mind his self-congratulatory liners, when given the right material, he's awesome here. My War in particular is fantastic, maybe better than the original; the version of Slip it In with Inger Lorre of the Nymphs is also fantastic, with the lyrics ringing clearer than ever before in their meaning.
Rise Above, with Chuck D. (who I don't hear on it, except the intro!) is incredible, and best of all, is the great Keith Morris, of both Circle Jerks fame (Group Sex being the best hardcore punk album ever made), and also the original singer of Black Flag, on their finest moment, the Nervous Breakdown E.P. His re-recording of Nervous Breakdown is just F-----g INCREDIBLE. Worth it for that alone.

The others? Well, Police Story by Ice-T is quite good, surprisngly for me (never a fan of his), and um...
there's not much else, which is why I gave this three stars.
Lemmy's version of Thirsty and Miserable is fair, and of course all Motorhead completists must have this I guess.
Ryan Adam's Nervous Breakdown ("bonus track" --???) is nowhere near Keith Morris's, but it's fair.
The lyrics of Jealous Again are much clearer her as done by Nick Oliveri, but it's not a great version; I'll take the Everything Went Black version by Dez as the best one.
Most of these covers aren't that good, I give it three stars for the few truly incredible ones.
Interesting to hear Hank Williams III doing No values, but not any good either.
Iggy Pop tops them all in terms of sheer awfulness with his version of Fix Me, which has to be heard in all completion to see what a joke it, like he, is. Pathetic.

That all said, the songs on here that ARE done well are SO great, it's worth having if you're a Black Flag fan at all.

And if you believe they're innocent, well, there ya go...

I've definitely heard Worse benefit albums! By FAR.

Good Music For A Bad Cause
Rise Above: 24 Black Flag Songs to Benefit the West Memphis Three is a case of good music being used to support a bad cause. The music, contributed by the likes of Henry Rollins and other leading musicians is pretty good on the whole. However, there is quite a bit of pro-West Memphis 3 stuff on this CD and all of the profits from sales of this CD goes to help legal efforts on behalf of the WM 3.

This would be a good thing if there was good reason to believe that the WM 3 really were framed for a crime that they commit. Problem is the pro-WM 3 material on this CD contains many factual errors and fails to make a persuasive case to believe in the innocence of the WM 3.

If you want to listen to this good music, then the thing to do is to look for it at your local public library, secondhand music shop or borrow it from a friend. Don't let your good money go to support a bad cause like the West Memphis 3.