The first with Henry was Damaged, which was and remains the band’s greatest achievement. My War was the second full-length album from the Henry-era band. But for a time he was just performing the songs written and developed by the existing band, for the most part. As he grew older, a macho streak developed and he inserted a lot of “poetry” into the music. He started off as just a ball of pure enthusiasm. Yeah, sure, it was all angst, but it was a deeper and more nuanced range of angst than the previous vocalists could deliver. Rollins brought a much deeper vocal palate to bear.
Rollins came to an established band as a fan, a kid no less. Henry Rollins came along, by chance almost, mid-tour while Black Flag played the East Coast, and filled the void on vocals after Cadena focused on playing guitar.
They were growing, but they suffered from growing pains. The band was still kind of funny (“Louie, Louie”), but they kind of took on a more serious overtone too. When Dez Cadena took over vocals for a while, something kind of changed. They were just the new product of a different central California culture. You could see the Flag as an extension of punk. Not everybody got the jokes, like “White Minority.” But fuck those people, seriously. All together, they came up with a few devastating recordings of the likes of “Nervous Breakdown” and “Jealous Again”. Bassist Chuck Dukowski, the outgoing, confrontational clown of the band, was in some respects the polar opposite of Ginn. Hey, maybe the music should matter more than the clothes! Confrontational and contrarian, the band leavened those elements with the wild, lackadaisical efforts of the vocalists, singing blunt lyrics so often drenched with monochromatic irony. Founding guitarist Greg Ginn was the reclusive introvert, the enigmatic wizard behind the band’s totally unique approach to punk rock. The thing about those early days was that the Flag was very balanced. Vocalists Keith Morris and then Chavo Pederast took the mic in the early years. On the one hand, you have those who say “Stop after The First Four Years.” Those were the early hardcore years. Pioneers of the 1970s and 80s California underground, they went through personnel changes and stylistics shifts through the years. So much ANGST!!!!! Fans divide over the legacy of the mighty Black Flag.