Danzig - The Lost Tracks of Danzig Review
Posted by Jesse Coy on 07.12.2007
The summer hit albums keep rolling out... and there's no use in keeping anyone in suspense. Luckily, these "lost tracks" weren't lost for good, and happily, they're collected on two discs. Now let's see Danzig out on the road, supporting some of this live!
Danzig The Lost Tracks of Danzig
2007
Evilive/ Megaforce Records
Here’s my history with Danzig… from late ’88 through mid ‘89, three releases came out that remain to this day favorites, and blew wide open for me the gates of my musical tastes, which were already broadening at the time. The ’89 releases were Ministry’s The Mind Is a Terrible Thing to Taste and Faith No More’s The Real Thing, and the late ’88 release was the self-titled debut of Danzig. Boy, can I listen to any of those three even nowadays and love the hell out of them.
I believe I listened to the Misfits a bit before Danzig. But as far as Danzig goes within that trio, the imagery was just as striking and unique compared to what I saw of Faith No More and Ministry. Danzig was stark black and white in a number of those early videos, sounding like the evil cousin of Elvis and Jim Morrison. I was mixed on that first home video. While it was cool, on the other hand, there were parts where it felt like the band was trying to be too dark and evil.
That was nearly twenty years ago… hell, how time flies. I will say that since then, I’ve followed Danzig the band from album to album, nearly all the way up to this point (the only release I don’t have is 2004’s Circle of Snakes, which I’d been quite interested in, being a Prong fan, and knowing Tommy Victor played guitar on that one). I’ve heard mixed stuff about Glenn Danzig, never quite sure how to take him. Of course, none of that matters either. The proof is in the pudding, or the music. I like some Danzig albums more than others, but whenever I picked up a Danzig album, I was always guaranteed to have several tracks resonate, and strongly resonate.
What are my favorite Danzig albums? Might as well get it out of the way. Aside from their debut, an all-time favorite, I’m inclined toward Danzig IV and Blackaciddevil (which surprised and angered some fans, with Danzig testing a bit of metal industrial elements… traditionalists always hate change, but I love it when a band goes a new route). As I said, though, even the albums that aren’t my favorites by these guys always have a number of tracks ranking high with me.
That prelude and overview is fitting, since The Lost Tracks of Danzig is a two-disc collection of twenty-six tracks total, only three or four of which are different versions of tracks that have appeared on other Danzig albums. The rest? We’re talking about tracks that haven’t been heard. Very few were even B-sides. One that was a B-side, quite great to hear on a disc, was a sort of holy grail of a song, because it was so hard to come by… “When Death Had No Name.” It’s nice to finally have that on a disc.
As for this whole collection in general, after listening to it a couple times, my impression? It’s almost like a best of Danzig, because the songs span the band’s entire career, and it’s full of great songs… but they’re best of songs you’ve never heard before. The press that’s accompanying this release is that, as earlier stated, they’re not B-sides, but rather tracks that maybe didn’t fit the album under whose recording session they were developed, or maybe they just couldn’t fit on the album (Danzig releases aren’t ever skimpy).
At twenty-six tracks, if I were to sit here and go into each one, I’d probably double the length of this review. Besides, this two-disc release comes with some nice linear notes, short but to the point, on most of the tracks, which are arranged in linear order. Instead, I’ll just hit on some highlights. Two of my favorite tracks (in addition to the long sought after, “When Death Had No Name”) are “You Should Be Dying” (Lucifiuge era, set aside because “Rick Rubin thought the time change was weird”) and “Soul Eater” (I believe Circle of Snakes era). “White Devil Rise” is of course a very interesting track… a unique take on, or reply to, some of the accepted racism of Louis Farrakhan. There’s also the very haunting “Warlock” and the dark rocking “I Know Your Lie.”
Covers always interest me, and there are three on this release. “Buick McKane” isn’t one I would’ve guessed Danzig would do, but it sounds great. There’s also the Germs’ “Caught in My Eye,” followed by David Bowie’s “Cat People” (and while I love David Bowie’s stuff, that was never a favorite of mine, but Danzig’s version is pretty damn good, and very much its own animal).
“Come to Silver” (the album boasts an acoustic version of this one) was slated to be sung by Johnny Cash (“Thirteen,” a great song Danzig wrote, was recorded by the man in black). But this one was not to be. As Glenn writes, “when I left Def American, the song came, too.” It’s not too hard at all imagining Johnny Cash singing the song. In the back of my mind, I can almost hear a duet, it seemed so perfect for Johnny Cash. And speaking of songs coming with Glenn upon switching labels, I’ve given much credit to the band (and/or Glenn) for releasing them this way. I’m sure the entire Danzig catalogue could’ve been reissued and remastered with bonus tracks. Thankfully, that didn’t happen. As Danzig puts it…
“I don’t care if my record is not the number one record,” he said. “There’s not much money in the record business anymore. I could make a jillion dollars doing a Misfits reunion, but it’s never going to happen. Whoever thinks I'm doing this for money can stick a red-hot poker up their ass.”
Classic Glenn there, but no matter what you think of him one way or the other, my guess is that that sentiment rings out with integrity. I’ve only listened to this one three or four times so far. I’m sure I’ll listen to it a lot more, and other tracks will creep deeper into my noggin. There really isn’t a weak track, though.
The 411: If you like Danzig, you won’t be disappointed at all. If you’ve never listened to Danzig, this one is a great start… again, it’s Danzig’s greatest (never heard before) hits, spanning the band’s entire career.
