THE ICON - HENRY ROLLINS
Published: Music Australia Guide #75, April 2010.
In The Icon we profile those who change music. This month, Dan Rule delves into archives of hardcore punk iconoclast, spoken word artist, poet, actor and activist Henry Rollins.
Before the TV talk shows, the radio slots, the books and the famously self-deprecating spoken word performances, Henry Rollins was one of the most uncompromising figures of North American hardcore punk.
He may be better known today as a charismatic media personality, but his impact as the frontman of California’s most celebrated and notorious hardcore group Black Flag – and later, fronting Rollins Band – can’t be underestimated. His brooding, visceral, animalistic intensity changed rock performance forever; his impressive articulation and willingness to engage broadcast hardcore’s niche politics to a much wider world.
Born Henry Lawrence Garfield in 1961, Rollins early years in Washington DC fit the archetype of the punk misfit. Raised by a single mother, he could read and write before he had even entered the school system, but despite his active mind, he struggled with authority and curriculum. By the time he reached college the punk scene was calling. After releasing one EP with State of Alert in 1980 – and gaining a reputation for getting into fights during gigs – he was recruited by his favourite band, Los Angeles’ Black Flag, after he jumped onstage and grabbed the mic during one of their shows in New York.
As Black Flag’s frontman, Rollins reinvented the idea of onstage aggression. Muscular, tattooed and dressed only in his now famed black shorts, Rollins was a portrait of barely caged intensity, as frightening as he was thrilling. His words a poetic torrent of rage, disenfranchisement and hardcore activism, his first record with Black Flag – 1981’s Damaged – is still considered early hardcore’s defining opus; a guttural howl that ripped holes through music’s status quo.
But there was more to Rollins than rage. Amid his intense persona was an eye for word and an ear for more expansive musical territory. While later Black Flag records like In My Head (1985) and early Rollins Band albums such as Do It (1988) and brilliant The End of Silence (1992) fused elements of jazz, experimental music and metal into the punk format, his spoken word performances and published poetry revealed a man with an a keen eye for socio-political and personal observation, not to mention an insatiable sense of humour.
While recent years have seen Rollins play out a variety of charismatic public roles – from a radio DJ and television presenter to a leftist political agitator and human and gay rights activist – he remain one of the few punk figureheads to retain the reverence and respect of their original fan base whilst expanding their practice and profile into much wider circles. Rollins maybe something of a modern-day renaissance man, but he will forever be hardcore.
Visit: henryrollins.com
