Pink Flag

Infobox Album |
Name = Pink Flag
Type = Album
Artist = Wire


Released = December 1977
Recorded = Advision Studios, September & October 1977
Genre = Punk rock
Length = 35:37 (original album and 2006 re-issue) 39:31 (1994 re-issue)
Label = Harvest/EMI 11757, Pinkflag
Producer = Mike Thorne
Reviews =
*Allmusic Rating|5|5 [http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:tdjw7i3jg74r link]
* Pitchfork Media (10.0/10) [http://pitchforkmedia.com/article/record_review/23215/Wire_Pink_Flag_Chairs_Missing_154 link]
*Robert Christgau (A) [http://www.robertchristgau.com/get_artist.php?name=wire link] |
Last album =
This album = "Pink Flag" (1977)
Next album = "Chairs Missing" (1978)Listen
filename=Wire-Reuters.ogg
title="Reuters"
description=Sample of "Reuters" from "Pink Flag"
format=Ogg

"Pink Flag" is the first album by the band Wire, released in 1977. Upon its release, Robert Christgau called it a "punk suite" and praised its "simultaneous rawness and detachment" and detected a rock-and-roll irony similar to but "much grimmer and more frightening" than the Ramones. [http://www.robertchristgau.com/get_artist.php?id=1682&name=Wire] Trouser Press called it "a brilliant 21-song suite" in which the band "manipulated classic rock song structure by condensing them into brief, intense explosions of attitude and energy, coming up with a collection of unforgettable tunes". [http://www.trouserpress.com/entry.php?a=wire] Although the album was released to critical acclaim, it was not a big seller. RS500|410

The sleeve concept is credited to B.C. Gilbert and Graham Lewis. The cover is a photo by Annette Green of a flagless flagpole with the pink flag painted on.

Influence

The album's wide-ranging influence is exemplified in the number of bands that have covered songs from it. R.E.M. reworked "Strange" on their 1987 album "Document". Henry Rollins (as Henrietta Collins & The Wife-Beating Child Haters) covered Ex-Lion Tamer on the 1987 album " Drive By Shooting". Other notable covers include Minor Threat's version of "12XU" on the 1982 Dischord compilation "Flex Your Head", and fIREHOSE's version of "Mannequin," which appeared on its "Live Totem Pole" EP in 1992. Elastica also used a riff similar to that of "Three Girl Rhumba" for their song "Connection". The New Bomb Turks covered "Mr. Suit" on their 1993 album "Destroy Oh Boy!" and noticeably slowed it down. The Amherst, Massachusetts, hardcore band Ampere also cover "Mr. Suit". It can be heard on their split LP with Das Oath. "Reuters" was covered by Therapy? as a b-side to their "Troublegum" album.

Track listing

All songs written by Bruce Gilbert, Graham Lewis, Colin Newman & Robert Gotobed, except as indicated.

ide one

#"Reuters" – 3:03
#"Field Day for the Sundays" – 0:28
#"Three Girl Rhumba" – 1:23
#"Ex Lion Tamer" – 2:19
#"Lowdown" – 2:26
#"Start to Move" – 1:13
#"Brazil" – 0:41
#"It's So Obvious" – 0:53
#"Surgeon's Girl" – 1:17
#"Pink Flag" – 3:47

ide two

#"The Commercial" – 0:49
#"Straight Line" – 0:44
#"106 Beats That" – 1:12
#"Mr. Suit" – 1:25
#"Strange" – 3:58
#"Fragile" – 1:18
#"Mannequin" – 2:37
#"Different to Me" (Annette Green) – 0:43
#"Champs" – 1:46
#"Feeling Called Love" – 1:22
#"1 2 X U" – 1:55

CD reissue bonus tracks

#"Dot Dash" – 2:25 [1994 reissue]
#"Options R" – 1:36 [1989 reissue, 1994 reissue]

Extra tracks have been removed from the 2006 remastered reissues, because, according to the band, they didn't honour the "conceptual clarity of the original statements".

LP sleeve credits

*VOCALS--COLIN
"Black Hair"
*GUITAR--B. C. GILBERT
"Blue Eyes"
*DRUMS--ROBERT GOTOBED
"6' 3"
*BASS--LEWIS
"9 st. 6 lbs."

Personnel

*Colin Newman - vocals
*Bruce Gilbert - guitar
*Graham Lewis - bass
*Robert Gotobed - drums
*Kate Lukas - flute on "Strange"
*Dave Oberlé - back-up vocals on "Mannequin"
*Mike Thorne - producer

External links

* [http://www.stereosociety.com/pinkflag.html The Making of Pink Flag]