The Damned- Machine Gun Etiquette (1979)

The Damned- Machine Gun Etiquette (1979)

By: Ghost Writer

The Damned have the dubious distinction of being England's first punk rock band, but that wouldn't mean nothing if it wasn't for the fact that they were also one of the best, more proto punk based than their peers like the Sex Pistols, The Clash, or Wire; The Damned also, were fearless musicians with no problems a acknowledging glam rock bands like T. Rex, or hippie favorites like The Beatles, Pink Floyd or the Jefferson Airplane.

This band might be widely recognized for issuing the first punk rock single and the first punk rock record ever in England, but The Damned were again, pretty much more than that, in fact, after their first recording and under the musical guidance of bassist turned guitarist Captain Sensible, the band grew to become one of those key punk rock bands that signaled an evolutionary route towards post punk.

Recorded in 1979, after the record Music for Pleasure seen by many at the times as a disaster, Machine Gun Etiquette was a do or die record for The Dammed, in a way, it should prove that the band's debut Damned, Damned, Damned was not a fluke, and that Music for Pleasure was an experiment in order to brake punk restrictions, and if that was the intention, MGE was a big success, and his time, with Captain Sensible taking over guitar and keyboard duties, Sensible a more accomplished musician than previous guitarist Brian James, helps a lot expanding the band's sound, making it more fluid and complex at the same time, and even heavier, opener Love Song is a good proof of what the band were about, ambition married to furious exuberance, singer Dave Vanian proving his worth carrying the weight of the great melody.

The furious blast of the title track makes us clearly understand why the band were such big friends of the mighty Motorhead,  and then the band memorably hit peak with the epic bombast of Just Can't Be Happy Today, the hard edged melodic Melody Lee and the intense Anti Pope, all these while been true to their proto punk roots, going for a blistering cover of Looking at You by the great MC5, and an emotive homage to Marc Bolan from T. Rex, recently deceased on a car crash with the scary Smash It Up, closing this way one of the most amazing records of the era, transcending from pure anarcho punk going somewhere else beyond everyone dreams, a truly hallucinating record.