Pay to Cum

from the 7” single, Bad Brains Records, 1979



For those of us who grew up on skateboards and for whom the term “hardcore” isn’t just an adjective describing how wasted you were last weekend, the Bad Brains are a most hallowed and loved entity. For starters, they are specifically responsible for getting Henry Rollins on stage as a young punk, imploring him to sing long before he was to join Black Flag; they are credited as being the direct inspiration for no less than the Smashing Pumpkins (professed by the mighty egghead himself, Billy Corgan), the Red Hot Chili Peppers (Flea & Kiedis), and the Beastie Boys (all three of them agree on this openly); they provided bands like Fisbone and Living Colour the confidence needed to break the mold, which goes for groups like 311 and Sublime also, and countless others. Listening to this song now, 30 years on from its inception, it might be easy to merely honor it only for being among the first really fast punk/hardcore singles from the east coast---to be sure, this track blazes by so quickly it makes the Germs, from that same time period, sound as slow as Sabbath! If one manages to hear (good luck with that), or more likely to research, the lyrics of this track, it begins to sound even better, “…I came to know now with dismay, that in this world we all must pay; pay to write, pay to play, pay to cum, pay to fight…and all in time, we soon will find, what’s left behind…” While it certainly isn’t unorthodox for punk and hardcore bands to rail against society, they typically do so in a micro- or, sometimes, myopic way; these guys speak broadly of truths which you can tell they were still just digesting themselves. Many people mistakenly presume that the Bad Brains hail from Jamaica, due to the fact that they also played reggae (that’s right, reggae), but they all grew up in the United States and came together in Washington DC; actually, they only converted to Rastafarianism the same year this single dropped, so these lyrics are timely and deeply personal. Having formerly played jazz-funk (?!) in the mid ‘70s, the quick time signature changes and more technical elements within that blistering speed make sense; the bouncy bassline and insane drumming pace (extra points for the cowbell) really impress. When you imagine seeing this song played live, by four black Rastafarians, in 1979, it’s duly understandable that they created big waves and near-infinite ripples.