Born To Rock & Roll

A quick postscript to yesterday’s Fitsaplaooza – here’s our take on the next 4 years of Glenn Danzig’s career, from Samhain up through the first Danzig album (with one very interesting pit stop in between).  In short, here’s what happened:

After the Misfits broke up in 1983, Glenn started his next project, Samhain, which featured Lodi, NJ, homey and Misfits photographer Eric Stellman (better known as Eerie Von) on bass and, at least initially, Brian Baker and Lyle Preslar from Minor Threat fleshing out the rest of the lineup.  The D.C. guys fell by the wayside, and by the time Initium was released in 1984, Glenn was handling guitar duties and Steve Zing was on drums.  Samhain was generally slower, heavier, and far more gothic than the Misfits (a point Glenn made by including a ‘Fits cover or two on each Samhain release – they all pale next to the originals except for the souped-up metal version of “Halloween II”).  The Unholy Passion EP came out the following year, with Damien now handling the guitar chores.  Zing was replaced by London May for 1986’s November-Coming-Fire.  At this point, Rick Rubin was interested in signing Samhain to Def American, and with this move came even more line-up changes – John Christ was on board on guitar and (is he dead or isn’t he?) Chuck Biscuits took over the drums.  At this point, Glenn was probably as confused by all the line up changes as you are, so he figured he’d just change the name of the band to Danzig and be done with it.  Which he did.  However, before Danzig went in to the studio to record their 1988 self-titled debut, he recorded the Roy Orbison homage “You And Me (Less Than Zero)” for the Less Than Zero movie soundtrack (which also featured none other than the Big O himself singing Glenn’s “Life Fades Away”) – as far as we know, it’s only available on the soundtrack CD, but you should probably be able to score one on the cheap.  It’s worth it.  Anyway, the biker metal-steeped Danzig was released, “Mother” became a hit a couple of years later, and our boy Glenn became a household name and the king of death rock.  Oh, and true to form… Von, Biscuits, and Christ (sounds like a law firm, no?) all left the band by the mid ’90s, Samhain reformed for a few shows in ‘99 without Eerie, and to bring it all full circle, Glenn is now doing a Misfits mini-set during Danzig shows with none other than late-era ‘Fits guitarist Doyle joining him.  So without further ado, here are our 13 favorite tracks from the middle phase of Glenn Danzig’s career (no explanations today as we want this up by Thanksgiving):

Danzig circa 1988

13. Let The Day Begin (November-Coming-Fire)

12. Initium/Samhain (Initium)

11. Unholy Passion (Unholy Passion)

10. November’s Fire (November-Coming-Fire)

9. The Howl (Initium)

8. She Rides (Danzig)

7. Moribund (Unholy Passion)

6. Mother (Danzig)

5. Halloween II (November-Coming-Fire)

4. Twist Of Cain (Danzig)

3. You & Me (Less Than Zero) (Less Than Zero soundtrack)

2. Mother Of Mercy (November-Coming-Fire)

1. Archangel (Initium)

A tip – if you’re looking for Samhain on CD, seek out the original Plan 9/Caroline Records releases – Initium features the unremixed Unholy Passion EP as bonus tracks, and the sound is generally much better than the reiussues (even if half of Initium still sounds like it was recorded in a trash can).  Final Descent – a collection of Samhain outtakes and early Danzig demos, is for completeists only, as live Live ‘85-’86.  Much better is the Live 1984 At The Stardust Ballroom DVD.

And be sure to pick up Eerie Von’s upcoming photo tome (tomb?) Misery Obscura: The Photography Of Eerie Von (1981-2006) in December.

Full Samhain/Danzig lyrics, timelines, recoring info, setlists, etc. can be found at Misfits Central.