for a friend

So I'd always felt a little guilty calling myself a true punk fan, because I could never - despite the encouragement from a certain very enthusiastic friend, as well as many attempts at forced conditioning/auditory self-flagellation - get into Bad Brains. Because not listening to Bad Brains, as a punk fan, is kinda like visiting Paris and not going to the Louvre: it's just something you have to do.

So when I stumbled across Frank Turner's cover of "Pay to Cum" - probably Bad Brains' most well-known song, and definitely one of the most important songs to come out of the hardcore DC scene - I felt I could ease up on the metaphorical whip, because I felt that I had finally gotten it.

(Does it still make me feel guilty that that process of acceptance took a lot of prettying up, a near-thorough stripping away of the song's essential rawness and rage, and a complete replacement of HR's crooked reggae-punk utterances for a King's English pronunciation by an Eton-educated folk singer? Well, yes.)

The cover version made me realize that, when it comes down to it, this is a beautiful song, and a profound statement against both the excesses and the dishonesties of a hypocritical, restrictive society: not at all as crude as the title may suggest.

By the way, here's the original version, which is seriously hardcore and a total classic in its own right (a sentiment which I finally feel I can fully endorse. Yay!)

As for that certain very enthusiastic friend, I'm not sure whether he'd like this cover or totally hate it. But I think he'd be happy to know that (with the help of his encouragement, as well as this very pretty cover) I've jumped on the Bad Brains bandwagon and have come closer to accepting HR as a personal god.