Old punks might not agree on much \u2013 who was first, who was fastest, where to file the Faith\/Void split LP in their record collection \u2013 but for those who saw them in their prime, Bad Brains were, unequivocally, the best live band on the planet. YouTube footage bears this out: frontman HR, born Paul D Hudson, is equal parts straining sinew and raw electricity as he bucks and contorts, punctuating rapid-fire snarls and otherworldly croons with impeccably timed backflips. The band surge around him, forging blisteringly fast punk informed by everything from the Damned and Dead Boys to P-Funk, Stevie Wonder and Chick Corea\u2019s Return to Forever.<\/p>\n
Young, black and fuelled by an ideology that united the 1930s self-help mantras of Napoleon Hill with Rastafari, they were outliers in the already outre 70s punk scene. But while Bad Brains helped change the face of American punk as it morphed into hardcore in the early 80s, and inspired artists as diverse as Rage Against the Machine, Deftones, Lil Jon, the Roots and Beastie Boys, defeat was never far from glory as they balanced feted live performances and a scintillating run of records with an excruciating capacity for self-sabotage.<\/p>\n
double quotation markI cleaned the floors in jail and got time off on Sundays. I said: \u2018Let\u2019s give it a try then\u2019<\/p>\n
The band\u2019s roots thread back to Central High, a school in Maryland where middle-class military kids HR and his younger brother Earl (drums) met Dr Know (AKA Gary Wayne Miller, guitar) and Darryl Jenifer (bass). Jenifer hailed from Washington DC\u2019s south-east projects. \u201cWe had an art teacher that would let us bring in records,\u201d he says. \u201cSo you\u2019re making papier-mache, or whatever the fuck, and our clique of musicians met by bringing in things like Billy Cobham\u2019s Spectrum rather than Earth, Wind & Fire.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2018It wasn\u2019t like being in a band \u2013 it was a mission\u2019 … from left: Dr Know, Earl Hudson, HR and Darryl Jenifer AKA Bad Brains. Photograph: Atiba Jefferson<\/p>\n
The quartet, along with Jenifer\u2019s close friend Sid McCray, began making music, rehearsing in a friend\u2019s house when his mother was out playing bingo. \u201cWe were very influenced by all kinds of music,\u201d says Miller. \u201cWhite, black, rock\u2019n\u2019roll, funk \u2013 all the flavours, just like Baskin-Robbins.\u201d Jenifer sums things up more pithily: \u201cMy female cousins would say, \u2018Darryl listens to white boy music that you can\u2019t dance to.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
The group initially aspired to the jazz-fusion of Return to Forever and the Mahavishnu Orchestra, although Jenifer suggests this era was little more than adolescent daydreaming. \u201cWe called ourselves Mind Power, but we never played a show, and we only had one song. It was the delusional teenage phase: it never was serious, it never was real.\u201d<\/p>\n
Things got real, though, when McCray discovered punk, introducing the band to Sex Pistols, Dead Boys and Ramones. \u201cI just remember listening to the music and feeling liberated,\u201d says Jenifer. \u201cLike, damn, I can make some shit like that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mind Power was rechristened Bad Brains, and HR inherited the mic from McCray. \u201cOur first poster said: \u2018Bad Brains, the greatest punk rock band in the world\u2019,\u201d laughs Jenifer. While easily chalked up to youthful braggadocio, this radical self-belief was largely the product of the band\u2019s adherence to PMA \u2013 positive mental attitude \u2013 as a guiding credo.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy father would say, \u2018Why do you want to be a musician? Be a doctor or a lawyer or something,\u2019\u201d says HR from his Texas home. \u201cHe told me to read a book, so I read Think and Grow Rich.\u201d This was by Hill, the personal motivation guru. \u201cI decided to use PMA as a formula, as a vehicle in my music, and to try to use it to help guide me through what I was going through.\u201d Dabbling with hard drugs, working a dead-end security job and on the brink of fatherhood, it\u2019s perhaps no surprise that PMA seemed like a lifeline for HR, but his interest was shared by the rest of the band. \u201cWe wanted to have a purpose and a message,\u201d says Jenifer. \u201cIt wasn\u2019t like being in a band \u2013 it was a mission.\u201d<\/p>\n
This sense of focus was apparent at the band\u2019s first studio session, when they entered Don Zientara\u2019s Inner Ear Studio in 1979 to record a six-track demo, a pivotal moment that has now been remastered and released by Trust Records under the title Are You Ready: The First Studio Recording. \u201cThey were serious,\u201d says Zientara, speaking from his studio. \u201cThe songs were there. The energy was there \u2013 tons of energy! \u2013 and you hear that coming through. At the time, I didn\u2019t have a chance to think about how good they were. They came, they played, they packed up. It was so quick. It was like, did I record these guys?!\u201d<\/p>\n
A force to be reckoned with \u2026 Bad Brains<\/p>\n
After another demo session, Bad Brains hit their stride with a series of landmark releases: 1980\u2019s brief, brilliant 7-inch Pay to Cum was followed by a self-titled album and then by Rock for Light, produced by Ric Ocasek. These years were turbulent, marked by triumph and tribulation: the band were banned from a number of Washington venues. \u201cThey said we incited riots,\u201d says Miller. \u201cThe club owners said, \u2018You\u2019re making the kids go crazy!\u2019\u201d And, although a scorching 1979 gig with the Damned had led to an invitation to tour the UK, the band tried to enter the country without working papers and were immediately sent back to the US \u2013 penniless and with their equipment lost en route.<\/p>\n
For all the chaos, this period cemented the band\u2019s legend as a force to be reckoned with. The excitement of their music was matched by a zeal amplified by their burgeoning Rastafari beliefs. \u201cThe intention has always been to excite people and make them exult,\u201d says Jenifer. \u201cWe\u2019re not performing a riff or trying to nail a show. We\u2019re giving the crowd the vibration to destroy Babylon. This music is the spearhead \u2013 that\u2019s what we go on stage with. If we didn\u2019t have that revolutionary spirit, we\u2019d probably feel stupid playing the shit that we play.\u201d Miller, more succinct, agrees: \u201cWe\u2019re not lost in the moment,\u201d he says. \u201cWe are the moment.\u201d<\/p>\n
These sentiments are echoed by many who saw Bad Brains perform. \u201cMy friend Bruce and the guys in Autistic Behavior kept telling me, \u2018Once you see Bad Brains, your life will change,\u2019\u201d says author and educator Nancy Barile. \u201cThey were right.\u201d Barile first saw the band play in Philadelphia in 1982 and had a \u201cphysical and visceral\u201d response. \u201cEvery time I saw Bad Brains in the early 80s, the audience reaction was insane,\u201d she says. \u201cThere\u2019s only a handful of bands I\u2019ve seen get that kind of unrestrained \u2013 and totally pure \u2013 response and Bad Brains lead the pack. It was chaotic but hypnotic. It was clear that we, the audience, wanted \u2013 actually needed \u2013 to be participatory in the performance.\u201d<\/p>\n
Photographer and artist Glen E Friedman concurs. \u201cThe first time I saw Bad Brains was just after these early demos were recorded,\u201d he says. \u201cI was in high school. In all honesty, I had never seen anything or heard anything like them. They were incredible in so many ways.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2018We\u2019re not lost in the moment. We are the moment\u2019 \u2026 the band in 1983<\/p>\n