Welcome to the Punk Rock Canon, a monthly feature on Mai Tai Happy Hour where Hambone, a guest host and I sit down and argue over whether a particular punk rock album should be inducted into the pantheon of rock and roll. Sometimes we discuss one album and occasionally we pit two albums by one band against each other. Regardless, the final choice is yours. Everyone can vote for which album goes into the Punk Rock Canon by visiting the survey on my Facebook page. It typically runs for one week and is open to everyone.
George: This month, we’re talking about Fear The Record, which turned 36 this year. Fear was one of those bands from the heyday of the late ’70s punk scene that never got the acclaim they deserved from the East Coast and the rest of the world, like they did on the West Coast. Frontman Lee Ving led the band to some of the most interesting pop culture events of our time, such as Fear being the first punk band to ever play Saturday Night Live.
Hambone: And get banned.
George: You know, they say they were banned, but do you think Fear would ever have had the opportunity to perform on SNL again?
Hambone: Maybe if John Belushi had lived.
George: John Belushi wasn’t even on SNL at the time. He pulled some strings to get them on the show before the album ever even came out. Fear, the band, was created in 1977 by Lee Ving and they were a huge part of the California hardcore scene. Though none of us would ever consider them hardcore since we live on the East Coast and our hardcore features Cookie Monster vocals.
In LA, Fear was considered hardcore and they became a huge fixture of the LA punk scene and were featured heavily in the movie Decline of Western Civilization I. Then, in 1982, they released their masterpiece — Fear the Record with such classic hits like “Let’s Have a War,” “Beef Bologna,” “I Don’t Care about You,” “New York is Alright if you like Saxophones” and “I Love Living in the City.” It is a pure punk record and the best California punk record of its time.
Real talk. When I first heard them, I thought they were from New York. When I heard their interviews on Decline, Ving gave off an attitude like he was from Strong Island, but they are California born and bred.
Hambone: I first heard Fear on a punk rock comp that I bought at Sam Goody. The song was “Let’s Start a War” and I thought it was awesome. Back in the day, I would ride my bike to Sam Goody in Clifton and look through the compilations, because Sam Goody never had the original records. The comps were also $6 on cassette. Having never heard the whole album, I thought every Fear song sounded like “Let’s Start a War.” When I was a kid, I just assumed that every song by a band sounded the same. Years later, when I finally got Fear the Record and heard the saxophones, it was a pretty interesting experience for me.
Kursse: My friend and I in grammar school use to sing “Beef Bologna” to each other all the time. I couldn’t say that I knew Fear than, but there’s a good chance that I heard them from my brother who was seven years older than me. It wasn’t until my teens that suddenly these bands were being described as punk and I discovered who they were.
I’ll tell you. I saw Streets of Fire like a hundred times and it’s one of my favorite movies, but I didn’t realize until I was almost an adult that that was Lee Ving in that role. I also thought Fear was a New York-based band just by being on SNL and by Lee Ving’s demeanor. He’s got a very similar vibe to Dick Manitoba.
George: I heard the album for the first time in high school because my friends would also run around yelling “Beef Bologna,” but I didn’t take the band seriously until I saw Decline of Western Civilization. On Decline, they were the one band on the documentary that looked and sounded polished. They looked like they had their shit together. X looked half in the can. The Germs were in the can. The other bands just looked like punk rockers that were just there. Fear looked like they were going to be the next big thing.
Kursse: Fear were like the bikers of punk the world.
George: Their songs were also very controversial because of certain lyrical choices. Whether or not it was sarcasm for the time, they do have a few homophobic and misogynistic lyrics in their songs. Lee Ving has, over the course of recent years, said that those lyrics were meant to be satire and a satire on the punk movement. That said, it is tough to listen to some of those songs today, much like it’s tough to listen to some Descendent’s songs.
Sadly, the band thought it was a great idea to re-record the album in 2012 and edit themselves and change the lyrics. The problem was that Fear 36 years later doesn’t sound like the legendary Fear. Also, it came off like a cash grab, because he didn’t split the royalties with the former members of the band.
Hambone: The original version of The Record was recorded in Sound City and it sounds great. The production on it is outstanding for a punk record. That’s one of the things I recently realized, a lot of the punk bands that people loved back in the day were on major labels and had budgets and real studios to record in. As for Ving’s movie career, I bought the cassette and then saw the movie Clue, but it took years before I realized that Mr. Boddy in Clue was Lee Ving from Fear. I had no idea the character in one of my favorite movies was a crazy old punk rocker.
George: I think people have the same reaction when they realize John Doe is the guy from X after seeing him on TV and in movies. Hambone, do you put Fear The Record in the Canon?
Hambone: Let me make a quick statement. Fear sound like the way I wish Black Flag would have sounded. I don’t like Black Flag. I like the idea of Black Flag and if Black Flag sounded like Fear, I would have liked them a lot more.
George: Have you heard Damaged?
Kursse: You are not punk. Give up your badge.
George: It’s okay, I don’t like the Circle Jerks.
Hambone: I don’t think Fear belongs in the Canon. It is a fantastic record and I love it. But when people talk about punk rock from this era, no one really mentions this record. When you talk about music from this era, you hear people talk about the Germs, X, Black Flag, but Fear is often shoved to the side. Maybe it was because of the homophobic lyrics. It seems like it was there and it was gone and I don’t think it belongs in the Canon.
Kursse: I think Fear The Record totally belongs in the Canon and maybe, to their credit, people just can’t wrap their heads around them. There’s a lot of punk bands that say a lot of terrible things in their songs — it’s not just Fear. While I do not stand behind those lyrics, I hear them come up in metal and other genres.
George: I think there’s something to be said about slang at the time, too. Some of the songs on The Record that would be offensive today, probably weren’t as offensive in 1982. Lee Ving has said that it was sarcasm.
Kursse: I vote it in.
George: If we were voting on Fear, the band, this would be a tougher conversation. Fear, the band, went on to make another okay record and then died. No one cared about any of their Christmas songs or live re-recordings. But Fear The Record stands the test of time and is very influential. I think it’s a great album from beginning to end and I think it belongs in the Punk Rock Canon. It’s a good thing we’re not doing the Punk Rock Band Canon.
Kursse: Hambone’s full of beef bologna.
The discussion above was edited from the original transcriptions for readability.
