Track Listing

1. Big Takeover
2. Attitude
3. Right Brigade
4. Joshua's Song
5. I and I Survive
6. Banned in D.C.
7. Supertouch
8. Destroy Babylon
9. F.V.K. (Fearless Vampire Killers)
10. Meek
11. I
12. Coptic Times
13. Sailin' On
14. Rock for Light
15. Rally Round Jah Throne
16. At the Movies
17. Riot Squad
18. How Low Can a Punk Get?
19. We Will Not
20. Jam

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #10292 in Music
• Released on: 1991-07-01
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .21 pounds

Amazon.com
Virtually everyone agrees that this group--made up of four Washington, D.C.-bred African American jazzbos--single-handedly invented hardcore. They radically quickened punk's tempos, added virtuoso instrumentation, and topped it all off with the mystic squeals of shaman-like frontman Paul "H.R." Hudson. This disc, produced (oddly enough) by ex-Cars leader Ric Ocasek, gives voice to the band's scathing sociopolitical judgment (see "Big Takeover") as well as its ability to simply put the hammer down and rock ("At the Movies"). It also allows the rhythm section of Darryl Jenifer and Earl Hudson to flex their muscle on a smattering of dub reggae interludes that help lull the unsuspecting into the right frame of mind for the next HC sucker punch. --David Sprague

Customer Reviews

A HC classic, even with the inferior track sequencing
Bad Brains is a classic, immensely talented, frenetic hardcore band (...), and "Rock For Light" is arguably their best release (although I probably prefer the more punkish "Black Dots" album a slight bit more). I know a lot of folks prefer the self-titled release to this, but I have never understood that. RFL is so much more diverse, with a handful of great reggae songs and some wonderful "pop-core" (the title track and "At the Movies," for instance). The song selection, for sure, is far superior to that of the self-titled release (including the already-mentioned "Rock for Light" and "At the Movies," as well as "Coptic Times," "How Low Can A Punk Get," "Joshua's Song," and "Riot Squad"). My one complaint is that I take great umbrage with Darryl's decision to resequence the track order on the Caroline CD. The new tracking blows and completely ruins the flow of the album. For those of you who really want to experience the greatness of this album, reprogram the tracking as follows:

Coptic Times (the perfect opener)/attitude/we will not/sailin' on/rally around jah throne/right brigade/f.v.k./riot squad/the meek shall inherit the earth/joshua's song/banned in d.c./how low can a punk get?/big takeover/i&i survive/destroy babylon/rock for light/at the movies (you can add the three bonus tracks at the end -- supertouch/I/jam)

Strange remix and pitch shift for an excellent record
For this CD, you need to talk about not just the music but also how it has been presented. First, the music part. "Rock for Light" was the Bad Brain's first full-length vinyl release, coming a couple of years after their attention-getting (on the underground scene) release for New York's cassette-only ROIR label. A lot of the tracks from the ROIR release are repeated here. In case you don't know--and maybe you don't, which is why you read these reviews--the music here is punk rock. The Bad Brains' fast, precisely played interpretation of it was one of the sounds that helped create the template for hardcore punk, for better and worse. Vocalist H.R. does everything from croon to screech to yowl as he belts out frequently Rastafarian-themed lyrics about freedom, social ills, and the like. Three reggae tracks are mixed in--not the greatest reggae you'll ever hear, but a nice change of pace and certainly played from the heart. The riffs are hard and the musicians know what they're doing; this is great music to set your heart racing and get your arms and legs pumping.

The presentation: As two earlier reviewers (Tokyogarman and ebblank) suggested in their comments, all of the hardcore songs have been sped up a full half-step on the CD reissue from the original vinyl release of "Rock for Light." I used to play these songs on guitar all the time and have them pretty much committed to memory, and I had to play everything higher when I played along to the CD. If you've got the LP, you can play it side by side with the CD--you'll hear the change right away. Oddly, the reggae songs still play at the same speed, though a lot of the toasting (the bits thrown in at the end of the reggae songs where somebody, presumably an overdubbed H.R., throws in the occasional, "Rasta say 'revolution' bingity bingity bong," and so forth) is now buried in the mix for the CD.

Hard to say whey they did this. Speeding up a recording is frequently a producer's or record company's trick to make a band seem more energetic--surely, that's the last thing anyone had to worry about with the Bad Brains?

The ROIR cassette was indeed a classic, but the sound was terribly muffled (I haven't heard the CD reissue so I don't know if they "fixed" that), like they had recorded it in a large cardboard box. That made the cleaner-sounding "Rock for Light" a most welcome release in 1983 (at least if you weren't hung up on the idea that a muddy recording was somehow more authentic and "real"). But the LP still suffered from some odd choices about the sound balance between the instruments, and that problem has not been fixed with the CD. The biggest complaints about the vinyl mix are (1) you can hardly hear or feel the bass, and (2) the guitar solo overdubs seem to float on top of the music. Given that bassist Darryl Jennifer had a hand in so-called remix for the CD, I was surprised to discover that the bass was still pretty inaudible. Moreover, the guitar sounds REALLY strange now--all treble, no midrange or low end sounds. The only improvement was that the vocals seem to be clearer and have greater presence. After purchasing this, I was tempted to just burn my vinyl to CD and tack on the three extra tracks that appear on the CD version that weren't on the LP.

(In the end, I just ripped the hardcore tracks to my computer, slowed the speed to about 93% to shift the pitch down, recorded the vinyl versions of the reggae tunes, and burned myself a "proper" version of the CD.)

All told, the music itself rates a 4.5; this CD gets a 3 mainly for the disappointments. If you can't find (or play) the vinyl, you won't suffer if you buy the CD, but you should be aware of its quirks.

the best punk HC album?
surely one of the best punk hardcore records, and at this day the only all black punk band. they introduced reggae in the punk (which became "fashion" since then). this record is 22 year old, but kicks asses of bands like nofx and that kind of crap... A must have for all music addicts