gang of four, damaged goods ep, free mp3s from vinyl
The back cover of the Damaged Goods EP
On June 18 I spent an afternoon with the University of Oregon’s philosophy department class presenting a talk on Gang of Four and our place in the “creative, potentially transformative popular music pantheon.” It was fun. As a band our achievements are well known, mainly in critical circles, but also from the few thousand passionate hard core fans who continue to hang on dearly to their vinyl copies of ‘Entertainment!’ For a band that didn’t sell very many albums we continue to draw new listeners and thought leaders to our music. Hence the invite to speak today.
It was fun taking questions from the students, and very good questions too, about our lyrics, our political stance, how we messaged through our music. We also discussed where music is going and how will musicians be able to make a living. The students appeared to take to heart my idea that musicians are no longer in the music business, they are in the T-shirt business.
As I researched for the talk I came across the Damage Goods EP ripped from vinyl and made available as a download along with a hi-res file of the back cover. 30 years ago, on June 28th and 29th 1978, in Cargo Studios just outside Manchester England, the original Gang of Four line-up recorded the EP. Two days, live recording, minimal overdubs, recorded and mixed. Three songs - Damaged Goods, Armalite Rifle, (Love Like) Anthrax.
It’s amazing to listen to today [the students loved it.] The disarming, sprawling charm of the non-production stands out. Performed basically live this version of Damaged Goods seems now perfect - unhurried, raw, prickly guitar, Jon sounding like he’s just yelling in a room. I’m glad I never trust my memory.
Gang of Four - Damaged Goods (EP version 1978)
Damaged Goods 3 song EP Click, right click or control click to download. It’s a 12mb zip file and it includes a hi-res back cover image.
June 19th, 2008 at 10:18 am
Thanks Dave…not much more I can add except to say its a classic, and its hard to imagine my life without it.
June 19th, 2008 at 10:48 am
great! would you be OK for a talk in a French high school English class? (unfortunately, this can only be dreamed of, cos they wouldn’t pay for that :’( )
June 19th, 2008 at 11:07 am
While the musicians are now in the T-shirt business it looks like Apple is still doing well in the music business, taking advantage of the collective of musicians that are selling their music through Itunes. http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2008/06/19itunes.html
June 19th, 2008 at 12:53 pm
@John,
Sure, where?
June 19th, 2008 at 1:25 pm
yay! a 6-color silkscreening machine has taken the place of an Akai sampler as the must-have gear for musicians! :)
June 19th, 2008 at 6:20 pm
Thanks Dave! How I love me a case of Anthrax! :)
June 19th, 2008 at 6:44 pm
This is incredible, Dave. These recordings sound like four determined young men loading their ammo. Since the split I’m a ghost of myself as I visit this website lately. Thanks for the punch I didn’t see coming.
June 19th, 2008 at 7:44 pm
@Dave: do you have my personal email? we could chat about this if you want to…
June 20th, 2008 at 2:50 am
It was a rare good time, indeed. The lasting visual for me was watching Andy grab at a can of Special Brew right before recording a take and draining it…not realising somebody had been using it as an ashtray. A visual gem I cannot (and will not) get out of my head…
June 20th, 2008 at 5:04 am
@hugo - Ha! I seem to remember an early photo of the Moose with a cigarette. Best wishes, Mr. Burnham. Or is it Dr. now?
June 21st, 2008 at 9:15 am
Vibrant… In just the first 30 seconds, you can hear a direct inspiration on “The Ben’s” song, ‘XFire’….
June 21st, 2008 at 10:25 am
Dave,
Thanks again for coming down. We were all still buzzing with ideas the next day. I think the various discussions surrounding your visit indicated that reflective discussions about thoughtful art can intensify and deepen our experiences and even the effects of work that moves us. I note this b/c I often encounter the presumption that one can’t be moved and critically reflective about the same phenomena, and I think that’s an unfortunate error.
Hope to have you back.
John Lysaker
Eugene, OR
June 22nd, 2008 at 7:04 pm
[...] to find out that Dave Allen is in Portland, Oregon, running the Pampelmoose Music blog, recently speaking about the band. Local, nearly. No Comments so far Leave a comment RSS feed for comments on this post. [...]
June 24th, 2008 at 2:28 pm
Thanks for this. I actually got hold of the Fast Product compilation a couple of years back on CD featuring pristine digitals of the EP but this vinyl rip sounds for all the world like the original moment of bringing it home from the shop in 78.
June 30th, 2008 at 12:02 am
So many bands of the 2K’s owe a debt of inspiration to you guys! Massive debt, actually….
Love this original version. Even the rice crispies goin’ on…
Ya know what’s pretty damn sweet too?
The John Peel session version of this. I have it on vinyl in the archives.
I might’ve even burned it to CD someplace. Want I should send it to you, Dave?
July 8th, 2008 at 11:49 am
John Henley - thank you! No…Dr. Burnham is a long way off yet. Slowly but surely. (and I should let you know that I saw The Moose with quite a few odd things in his mouth back in the day).
Paul V’s right about the Peel sessions…great versions.
July 14th, 2008 at 11:03 pm
Hey Dave, hey Hugo - I wish you guys would email me!
Love to say hello and chat directly. I hope you guys remember me?
Dave - ain’t chatted with you since that horrendous Porno For Pyros management period of my life….
(Oh, the drugs those boys did back then. Talk about S N A F U)
Hugo - I can’t even remember when we last spoke!
I still can’t believe it’s 14 years since I waved bye bye to Warner Records.
And baby, I got no regrets about THAT….
Check in sometime
djpaulv @ sbcglobal.net
July 15th, 2008 at 10:55 am
@Dave, any more vinyl fun from your archives?
July 15th, 2008 at 9:16 pm
[...] Allen recently offered up a lovely zip file of the three songs from the GoF vinyl Damaged Goods EP in a post on his excellent blog, Pampelmoose.com. I’m a complete fan of the site for a [...]
December 8th, 2008 at 7:30 pm
[...] Gang of Four bassist Dave Allen has uploaded the original Damaged Goods EP as a ZIP file here. Not only does it contain the early versions of “Damaged Goods,” “Love Like Anthrax,” and the [...]