Salutations (again) to Austin’s Alamo Drafthouse on Monday night’s screening of the classic Quincy episode, “Next Stop Nowhere”. Lord & Lady CSTB attended said event and not only were we blown away by the NBC drama’s accurate depiction of that era’s punk rock scene, but we were equally impressed with the archival footage of the infamous “CHiPs”, “Battle Of The Bands” episode. Mohicaned punk rebels Pain, fronted by beat guru Thrasher (as played by a young William Forsythe) attacked the blatant conformity and ennui of the blow-dry / new wave scene with their primitive avant-anthem, “I Dig Pain”.
Take a piece of concrete,
and stick it in my face,
I like to play with razor-blades,
I hate the human race.
Kick me when I’m down,
come up and rip my shirt,
my dad will buy another one,
especially if I’m hurt.
Cause I dig pain,
the feelin in my brain,
the scratchin,
the bashin,
the clawin,
the trashing,
the given,
the gettin,
and the total blood lettin,
drive me insane,
I dig pain.
I love to do the pogo,
and I love to do the slam,
but it’s nothing like the feeling,
of a knife stuck in my hand.
Now you can never stop me,
from being what i choose,
and if you try to shut me up,
some skin you’re gonna lose.
(despite have starred alongside the likes of Howie Long, Brian Bosworth, Edward James Olmos, Vincent Gallo and Rob Schneider, could Forsythe have done his best work in one of his earliest TV appearances?)
Not to discount the importance of the Quincy episode, but we really need to know more about this song. Who wrote it? Are the vocals actually Forsythe’s? Was anything else recorded? Has anyone covered it?
Re: Forsythe. You forgot Steven Seagal. By the end of “Out for Justice,” Forsythe’s character looks like a bleeding, beaten Oliver Hardy doing double-time pratfalls.
that battle of the bands episode mystified me as a child.
Also recommend the great 1980 flick Out of the Blue, which features ex-junkie-truck-driver-who-did-time-for-plowing-into-a-schoolbus-fulla-kids as the dad of a misfit teenage daughter. She falls in with a punk band whose live performance in the movie is pretty great (though lyrically not as amazing as the Quincy punks); worth watching just to see the crazed look in the drummer’s eyes.
Oops, yeah, Dennis Hopper = the dad
The song “pain” was covered by legendary ’80s Los Angeles punk bank, The Infidels.
…and was also covered (around 1984 or so) by perhaps no-so-legendary AZ hardcore band Useless Pieces of Shit.
hey, i wrote the lyrics to I dig pain. music was by alan silvestri. i also wrote the CHiPs episode Battle of the Band, so blame me.
Larry, you are now officially the coolest person to have ever written to CSTB. Well, other than Bobby Steele.
My band No Identity covered the song ‘Pain’ in the early 1980s, we usually went semi-Townsend at the end. Good times.
This song is sooooo much better than it should be. Thank you for this gift Mr. Mollin. Check out PSYCHO DRIVE-IN, a column called POPCORN CINEMA, in a few days. Doing a piece on “The Day My Kid Went Punk” and there’s gonna be a mention of that fantastic CHiPs episode.