The Black Flag/West Memphis Three tribute CD came out today. I just ordered my copy. It is for a good cause, and contains some great music with some well known singers, so go ahead and order a copy.
From Henry Rollins' website:
Track Listing:
01. Rise Above (Chuck D, Henry Rollins)
02. Nervous Breakdown (Keith Morris)
03. Fix Me (Iggy Pop)
04. American Waste (Neil Fallon (Clutch))
05. I've Had it (Cedric Bixler Zavala (The Mars Volta))
06. I've Heard It Before (Jeff Moreira (Poison the Well))
07. Room 13 ( Corey Taylor (Slipknot))
08. Wasted (Exene Cervenka)
09. Jealous Again (Nick Oliveri (Queens of the Stone Age))
10. TV Party (Henry Rollins)
11. No Values (Hank III)
12. Gimmie Gimmie Gimmie (Dean Ween (Ween))
13. Depression (Casey Chaos (Amen))
14. Six Pack (Mike Patton)
15. Police Story (Ice T)
16. Revenge (Tom Araya (Slayer))
17. Thirsty & Miserable (Lemmy)
18. What I See (Chuck Dukowski)
19. No More (Tim Armstrong, Lars Frederiksen (Rancid))
20. Black Coffee (Henry Rollins)
21. Slip It In (Henry Rollins, Inger Lorre)
22. Annihilate This Week (Henry Rollins, Kira Roessler)
23. My War (Henry Rollins)
24. Nervous Breakdown (Ryan Adams (Live @ the Fillmore))There is not enough space in this format for me to say all the things I want to about Damien Echols, Jessie Misskelley and Jason Baldwin, otherwise known as the West Memphis Three and the scarcely believable situation they're in, or Steven Branch, Christopher Byers and James Moore and their tragic deaths. Since there are more informed sources, WM3.org for example, I will concentrate on what will be effective here in this confined area.
I became aware of the case like many people, from watching Paradise Lost documentaries that HBO released. The first one shocked me and made me upset. The second one made me mad. Damien, Jessie and Jason were found guilty of murdering three boys and sent to prison. I didn't agree with the verdict. I figured that to do nothing about that would be to align myself with the forces of injustice that got them pulled into this horrible situation.
One thing led to another and soon I was in contact with the West Memphis Three Support Group folks; Grove, Burke and Kathy and the plight of the WM3 became personal.
What could I do to help? I could send a check to aid in the boy's defense. That's nice, but it’s pretty quiet and I thought what this situation needed was volume and motion. I tried to think of things to do and it always came back to a benefit record.
Benefit records are well meant but anonymous and boring to me. If I were to put one together it would have to be one-of-a-kind, a must-have. One morning at around 0330 hours when I am at my best, I came up with the idea to make the record you now have. Like many brilliant ideas had at this hour, they fade with the dawn when sanity and an already daunting itinerary of things that must be done come back on line.
Great idea but I'm too busy I thought. Then I thought about the ages of the WM3, when they went into prison and how old they are now. Mid-teens to mid-twenties. Those were some great years for me. I spent them all over the world. They spent theirs in small rooms with no natural light for something they didn't do. All of a sudden, my schedule opened up and I got busy. I talked to the guys at my label, Sanctuary Records in New York and they were totally into it.
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