Bad Brains Album: “Rock For Light”

For this CD, you need to talk about not just the music but also how it has been presented. First, the music part. "Rock for Light" was the Bad Brain's first full-length vinyl release, coming a couple of years after their attention-getting (on the underground scene) release for New York's cassette-only ROIR label. A lot of the tracks from the ROIR release are repeated here. In case you don't know--and maybe you don't, which is why you read these reviews--the music here is punk rock. The Bad Brains' fast, precisely played interpretation of it was one of the sounds that helped create the template for hardcore punk, for better and worse. Vocalist H.R. does everything from croon to screech to yowl as he belts out frequently Rastafarian-themed lyrics about freedom, social ills, and the like. Three reggae tracks are mixed in--not the greatest reggae you'll ever hear, but a nice change of pace and certainly played from the heart. The riffs are hard and the musicians know what they're doing; this is great music to set your heart racing and get your arms and legs pumping.

The presentation: As two earlier reviewers (Tokyogarman and ebblank) suggested in their comments, all of the hardcore songs have been sped up a full half-step on the CD reissue from the original vinyl release of "Rock for Light." I used to play these songs on guitar all the time and have them pretty much committed to memory, and I had to play everything higher when I played along to the CD. If you've got the LP, you can play it side by side with the CD--you'll hear the change right away. Oddly, the reggae songs still play at the same speed, though a lot of the toasting (the bits thrown in at the end of the reggae songs where somebody, presumably an overdubbed H.R., throws in the occasional, "Rasta say 'revolution' bingity bingity bong," and so forth) is now buried in the mix for the CD.

Hard to say whey they did this. Speeding up a recording is frequently a producer's or record company's trick to make a band seem more energetic--surely, that's the last thing anyone had to worry about with the Bad Brains?

The ROIR cassette was indeed a classic, but the sound was terribly muffled (I haven't heard the CD reissue so I don't know if they "fixed" that), like they had recorded it in a large cardboard box. That made the cleaner-sounding "Rock for Light" a most welcome release in 1983 (at least if you weren't hung up on the idea that a muddy recording was somehow more authentic and "real"). But the LP still suffered from some odd choices about the sound balance between the instruments, and that problem has not been fixed with the CD. The biggest complaints about the vinyl mix are (1) you can hardly hear or feel the bass, and (2) the guitar solo overdubs seem to float on top of the music. Given that bassist Darryl Jennifer had a hand in so-called remix for the CD, I was surprised to discover that the bass was still pretty inaudible. Moreover, the guitar sounds REALLY strange now--all treble, no midrange or low end sounds. The only improvement was that the vocals seem to be clearer and have greater presence. After purchasing this, I was tempted to just burn my vinyl to CD and tack on the three extra tracks that appear on the CD version that weren't on the LP.

(In the end, I just ripped the hardcore tracks to my computer, slowed the speed to about 93% to shift the pitch down, recorded the vinyl versions of the reggae tunes, and burned myself a "proper" version of the CD.)

All told, the music itself rates a 4.5; this CD gets a 3 mainly for the disappointments. If you can't find (or play) the vinyl, you won't suffer if you buy the CD, but you should be aware of its quirks.

Don't get me wrong-this ALBUM is one of the best punk records of all-time. But the CD sounds terrible and is actually inaccurate when compared to the original vinyl release. I'm not a vinyl nazi but in this case the parties concerned really screwed it up. The CD is 5% faster and is pitched up as well when played alonside the vinyl. That means that the songs aren't even in the same key anymore! Why? Why did they ruin this amazing record? The tunes on the original vinyl release were faster than anything before. They sounded insane and that was good. Now HR sounds like a damn chipmunk and the drums have no guts at all. The mix is all screwed up as well. In the mythic "someday" this will be restored by finding the original 2 track mixes and then re-releasing them on CD. If you can find the vinyl buy it, but if you can't then the CD will have to do. Just know that the CD does not contain the sound that makes this such a classic record. To me, the funny thing is that there is a whole generation loving this CD now that would hate the vinyl 'cause it would sound "slow". A better purchase would be the ROIR sessions.

This is a great album, but get the PVC Records release which is available on CD, the reason being that the Caroline re-issue has been sped up making HR sound like a chipmunk and the bass guitar and floor tom seem non-existent. I don't know what the reviewer down below is thinking--with Rock for Light you get blazing furious hardcore assault with some reggae tunes where the extremely overhyped I Against I doesn't come close...If you like 80's rock mixed with hardcore than get I Against I...If your full of testosterone and you just wanna go nuts, then get Rock For Light!!!!!!!

If you are a Bad Brains fan, or are interested in the early 80s hardcore scene in DC, this album belongs in your collection. The songs show strong punk influences -- long before BB adopted reggae and progressive hardcore sounds into their songwriting -- but the lyrics show the same angry, topical style as is found in later releases.

The production is raw (I think it's an eight track recording, and I heard that Rock for Light was originally released on cassette!) but the CD sounds good. The title track and "Big Takeover" are particularly good.

How can you describe Bad Brains? How can you describe the first time you listened to Bad Brains? First off you are blown away by tracks like Supertouch and Sailin' On then the next minute you get hit with some pure reggae tracks like The Meek and I! You are left thinking to yourself "What the ****!"

Bad Brains are a band like no other and this is one of their best albums, no matter what anyone says about this band they are unique in music. Hardcore that leaves Minor Threat in the dust.

Buy it, buy it now!