STRAIGHT FROM HENRY

March 14, 2002
Hi. I am in the studio, sitting next to audio veteran Clif Norrell, engineer, mixer and survivor of our albums: Come in and Burn, Get Some Go Again, Yellow Blues, Nice & A Nicer Shade of Red. This time Clif is mixing recordings he made of the band on March 1 & 2 at the Metro in Chicago, IL. We will be releasing these tracks as a live album this summer. So far it sounds pretty damned good.
Several months ago I was approached by Sanctuary Records about doing a live album. I was hesitant because I know what the usual perception of a live album is to most people; it’s the record many bands release when they have nothing new to put out and the record company wants to squeeze every drop of potential out of their investment. The poor soul who diligently buys said live album is usually treated to a lackluster recording that has been overdubbed to death in the studio rendering it a non-live experience which is a lie to the fans and proof that the band didn’t have the chops to begin
with. The only way to judge a band’s true worth is to throw them onstage and let them do it without the help of repeated takes, overdubs and other modern day crutches that hide a band’s weak spots. "Live" is the only way to know for sure. Sanctuary was not interested in releasing a live record as retail fodder until the next studio album came out, turns out they really wanted to put i t out as a legitimate release. I was impressed by their enthusiasm and said ok. Since we are such a touring/live outfit, it seemed like a natural thing to do. Also, it doesn’t really matter what we do since radio doesn’t
touch us, music television doesn’t acknowledge us, and no one seems to know when we put out a record at retail, so we do as we please. It doesn’t mean you have to move without sense, but there’s definitely no pressure or career making corner for us to turn. All we can do is play well and be grateful for the next opportunity to do so. For me, I play and write better knowing that the only pay off is that I get to do it some more.
I got to thinking about where and when to make this live record and I picked the Metro in Chicago. I have played the Metro many times over the years.
We had a great night there the last time we played Chicago and there’s always one hell of an audience. My idea was to play two nights and to record the shows in analog to really get the sounds hot and saturating the tape to the maximum, something that digital just can’t do. And so the shows were booked and we hoped to play well on those two nights. Well, I think we played pretty good. The audience was, as I expected, just through the roof.
The live record will come out this summer and when it’s time for release, we’ll let you know so you can check it out if you are interested.
The Metro dates in Chicago concluded our winter tour. We had a great time playing on this tour and I have to tell you how thankful we are that you
showed up in such great numbers and were so damn cool to us. We are very fortunate to have you as an audience. This isn’t something that I toss off
casually or to gain your favor. I have been at this for a very long time, I am into my third decade on the road, and the fact that you still show up is a
source of great happiness for me and the rest of the band and crew. The fact that we couldn’t do it without you puts us in a very precarious position--we survive off your approval--and in a way, it’s a pressure gig but it keeps us honest, grounded and motivated.
After forty shows, fifty-two days and seventeen countries, we left Chicago and flew back to Los Angeles to play one more show. This show was a benefit for three young men, Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin and Jessie Misskelley, now dubbed the "West Memphis Three." I am sure many of you are aware of the Robin Hood Hills murders case, and if not, you should be. At the risk of minimizing it, I will very briefly outline the events: In 1993, three 8 year-old boys were found murdered most horribly in a secluded spot in West Memphis, Arkansas. Three teenagers (Damien, Jason & Jessie) were arrested and found guilty of the murders with no real evidence tying them to the crime at all. They were convicted, it seems, only because they looked different, wore black clothes and listened to heavy metal bands like Metallica. They were incarcerated through ignorance and a blindness that is as infuriating as it is horrifying. These three men have been locked away for many years, Jason Baldwin and Jessie Misskelley got life sentences and Damien Echols is on Death Row facing lethal injection. These three are innocent and to stand for the kind of insanity that convicted them is to align oneself with all that is bad. You should check out the two very fine documentaries on this case that HBO has released: Paradise Lost and Paradise Lost II: Revelations. Watch them and see if you’re not incredulous at what has happened to Damien, Jason & Jessie. You know how I am about time, I don’t like wasting mine or yours, so if I didn’t think this was totally worth your time, I wouldn’t urge you so strongly to check it out and hopefully get involved. To put it bluntly, you’re going to freak out when you see what has happened. After I saw the documentaries, I got so mad that I had to get involved. We contacted the West Memphis Three Support Group and proposed that the band do a benefit to raise money and awareness. They were into it so we booked a show at a local LA venue called the Troubadour. The gig was set to go on Friday, March 8. That night, with a sold out house inside, the club’s mixing board blew up and the show had to be rescheduled. People had come in from Seattle, Arizona, distant points in California and many other places, so it was really bad to have to tell them there was no show that night. I stayed afterwards and talked to people who were hanging out and they were all cool about it. Some people were not going to be able to make it back for the rescheduled show on March 12 but didn’t ask to get their money back because they wanted to contribute to the cause. I went back to my place very much moved by the goodness of the people I had met that night. The show on March 12 was a blast. Wayne Kramer’s Ship of Fools opened and then Exene Cervenka’s very fine band, the Original Sinners, played. Everyone was into it. By the time we went on, the place was packed, the audience was psyched and we played hard. It was a great time. I’m glad to know that Damien, Jason & Jessie have so many good people on their side: the people who came to the benefit show, the West Memphis 3 Support Group, and all the others who have raised money and awareness about the disgrace to justice that allowed the conviction of these three men.
Please learn more about this case by going to the West Memphis Three website (www.wm3.org). Please watch the documentaries (rent them at Blockbuster or buy them through Amazon.com (enter through the link on the www.wm3.org website). Please spread the word. And please make a contribution, if you can. I know that this is not the only case of innocent people in prison and I am not trying to imply that this is the only case like this that should be addressed. But it’s there, glaring in your face, obscenely flaunting its ignorance and hatred. You can’t let this kind of thing happen on your watch and call yourself free.
Other news:
--There will be a few talking shows here and there in April. I don’t know where for sure. When we get the dates, we’ll let you know.
--Mother Superior has a new album finished called Sin and it’s their best one yet.
--Rollins Band has nothing planned for a little while, perhaps some song writing and recording over the summer. In late summer when the European
festival dates start up we’ll be there for as many shows as they’ll let us play.
--There is a new book of mine due out in September 2002, called Unwelcomed Songs: Collected Lyrics 1980-1992. I have been working on this one for many years. I am usually let down by lyric books. It’s not the lyrics that are the letdown, it’s that there’s no cool information about the songs or many pictures or stories about recording them. It’s usually just the lyrics printed on a page like a textbook. Not much fun in my opinion. I sought to do something different with mine. Several years ago with this project in mind, I started collecting pictures and holding onto the songs that didn’t make
it onto records as well as documenting the making of the records. Last year when I started assembling the parts for this book, I found that I had
accumulated a fair pile of stuff. I was still missing some things so I contacted a few people I knew to help me fill in the blanks photo-wise and thanks
to Chris Haskett and others, we will be including studio session photos of the making of Hot Animal Machine, Life Time and the End of Silence. There will be many other pictures in the book too, hardly any of them previously published anywhere, including some really cool Black Flag photos and photos that date back even earlier. I don’t think you can ever have enough photos. I am driving our very fine layout guy Dave to an early grave with all this but I know he’ll come through.
In addition to the softcover edition, there will be a very limited, hardcover edition of Unwelcomed Songs that we will be offering with "personalized"
signing. You send in the name of the person you want the book signed to and I’ll sign it like that. The hardcover will not be in retail stores and only
available via the website and perhaps at some of the shows. For those familiar with Get in the Van, this new book will be about the same size in pages
and format. I wanted to make it as cool as possible and I think this will be a good one. Like I said, it comes out in September and we’ll send out a
newsletter when advance orders are possible. At this point, it’s still in layout and we will be burning lean tissue all the way until we send it off to
the printer to make the September release date.
Let me thank you again for showing up to the shows and for packing the place out at the Troubadour. See you down the road.
--Henry