Henry Rollins

Henry Rollins is 52 today. His post-punk incendiary rock was a great 80's and 90's counterpoint to the self-absorbed and introspective rock of that era.  I always looked forward to the in-concert energy of the Rollins Band and fellow political rock gadflies Rage Against the Machine.  Rollins always seemed like a prime candidate for on-stage spontaneous combustion. The other day someone asked if they would ever see Ted Nugent on WYMA.  Good question.  I had a couple of apocryphal experiences at Nugent concerts in the Rust Belt Midwest which in retrospect seem to be scripted by Fellini and Bosch.  I may share them at a future time.  Instead, I leave you with a clip from an anti-Nugent rocking harder than Ted ever has.  Give it a listen and pull-start your rock and roll motor.

  

I'm sitting in my room in your prison doin' time
bars on my windows 'cause you got so good at crime
standing on the corner with nothing in your head
shirt on your back and a gun in your pants
thinking you're the man but you're only a stand in
standing in line to be the next bad guy
I see what you do when you use what you got
but what do you do when you do what you want

you're so civilized, you get brutalized
you're so civilized, man: I watch you get hurt down

getting your mind off some guy's record
he makes his money off fools like you
singing about killing like it ain't no thing but
you do the time when you live it for real
paying his way from your death row cell
you're the last 1 to see, you got sold out
I hear you say you hate pigs so much then
why the hell do you act like 1

I wonder what you're like without the gun
I'd like to see when you're not hiding behind the gun
how you've lived your life without the gun
'cause I know how I lived mine
because you got one, yeah, 'cause that's what it is
you hide behind your gun
you take life, you're just another pig to me
you think you're different but you're just another pig
yeah, a pig, yeah
you gotta have a gun then you're just another pig to me
you think you're different but you're just another pig
you gotta have a gun, you'rea pig to me, just a pig to me
you gotta have a gun, you're just another pig to me
you got a gun, you're just another pig

a gun in your hand makes a fool out of you, oh yeah
a gun in your hand makes a target out of me, oh no
freedom, you ain't no freedom, you want your freedom,
your freedom is killing you man, freedom
you can't handle your freedom, hey
and now you're dying for it

HenryRollins.com