FEAR POWER GOD

The Birth of Tragedy magazine, with a title lifted from the book by Nietzsche of the
same name, marked a certain sort of scabrous and profane looking into the garbaged
heart of our present place in space. Simultaneously and unapologetically intellectual
and resolutely probing, The Birth of Tragedy’s examination of SEX, DEPRESSION,
FEAR, POWER, GOD, LOVE and the almost-soon-to-be-never-released MADNESS
issue formed a sui generis basis for reinterpreting the entire premise of spoken word
recordings: how you said it mattered not, it was all about what you said.
And pulling interviewed artists from the Fear, Power, and God issues of the Birth of
Tragedy was easy, as was aligning their varied interests and approaches. Recording
was full on guerilla style with everybody recording their contribution on whatever they
had available. Art was generated by the inimitable and now artist of some renown Jim
Blanchard and with its white vinyl [also initially released on cassette tape] on the US
releases and black vinyl on the UK releases [the largely suspect Worker’s Playtime
Records], most of the heavy lifting was done.
Right in time to have its distribution done in by the folding of distributor [Jem,
Systematic, and Rough Trade, in pretty short order] after distributor. Fitful later
attempts to reissue the record, most notably by the Swiss German label Skin &
Speech, turned up little and in the intervening years since its 1988 release, in addition
to the deaths of several of some of the original participants, no one’s approached who
was even remotely interested in resurrecting it in anywhere near to its original glory.
Until now. And this Blackhouse-led initiative--a rare and limited re-issue of a rare and
limited issue—marks the last and fi nal chapter in this glorious and storied enterprise.
Though Allen Ginsberg, Anton LaVey from the Church of Satan, Mr. V.O. Real, and
Whipping Boy have all shuffl ed off of this mortal coil, the remaining participants—
LYDIA LUNCH, MATT HECKERT formerly of SURVIVAL RESEARCH LABS,
CHARLES MANSON, JELLO BIAFRA and HENRY ROLLINS—are still destroying
anti-culture, one project at a time.
And for this I have to say to some degree we’re all a little bit better off. – Eugene S. Robinson