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<\/p>\nNew Orleans (by way of San Francisco) foursome The Red Rockers scored a hit in in 1983 with \u201cChina,\u201d a single from the band\u2019s second LP Good as Gold<\/i>. Reflecting the zeitgeist of the time, \u201cChina\u201d earned regular play on MTV and reached #19 on the U.S. Mainstream Rock singles chart. And while the tune was representative of the chiming new wave character of the music on Good as Gold<\/i> and its followup, 1984\u2019s Schizophrenic Circus<\/i>, it was a far cry from the sound of Red Rockers\u2019 early days. Instead, the band\u2019s debut album Condition Red<\/i> is a fiery slice of left-wing informed punk, and the music within led critics and fans to refer to the group as the \u201cAmerican Clash.\u201d<\/p>\n
Released in 1981, Condition Red<\/i> has long been out of print. Now in 2023, the group\u2019s three surviving founding members have reissued the LP, appending it with bonus tracks. John Thomas Griffith, Darren Hill and James Singletary spoke with me about those early punk days and the making of Condition Red<\/i>. \u2013 bk<\/p>\n
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The group came together when LSU college student Griffith decided to start a band with an old classmate from his high school days, James Singletary. The two had reconnected and bonded over their love of the music and passion coming out of the burgeoning punk movement. Any shortcomings in their their musical skills were offset by enthusiasm and commitment. \u201cLooking for a bass player took us all summer,\u201d says Griffith. \u201cFor a long time, we didn’t hear from anybody.\u201d<\/p>\n
Eventually they found a like-minded musical comrade in Darren Hill. \u201cI had a little setup in my dad’s garage,\u201d Griffith recalls. \u201cWe started out playing all covers, anything from the Sex Pistols to the Clash to Stiff Little Fingers.\u201d The new group called itself Rat Finks. \u201cWe had a few gigs under that name,\u201d says Hill. \u201cInitially we were just writing dumb songs, and learning how to play.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI was a beginner just trying to learn the easiest three-chord songs,\u201d says Singletary. \u201cDarren and I were both brand new on our instruments; John was the talent of the band. He could sing, he could play guitar and piano.\u201d The group added more covers to work up a full set. \u201cBuzzcocks, Wire, The Damned,\u201d Singletary recalls. \u201cWe were fans of Generation X, but we could never really pull their songs off, so we didn’t do them.\u201d<\/p>\n
New Orleans in the late \u201870s wasn\u2019t exactly a hotbed for punk. \u201cYou really didn\u2019t get anywhere playing alternative music there,\u201d says Griffith. Hill agrees: \u201cNew Orleans is probably the best musical town in the entire world, but not for what we<\/i> were doing,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
Reading magazines like New York Rocker<\/i>, Singletary was keeping up with the thriving punk movements happening elsewhere. \u201cI was looking at everything going on in New York and England,\u201d he says. \u201cI said, \u2018I\u2019m going to be part of it.\u2019 And I told John, \u2018Hey man, we can do this!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Inspired by late \u201870s California punk band The Dils, the band changed its name. \u201cThe Dils were a huge influence on us,\u201d Hill says. \u201cThey had a song called \u2018Red Rockers Rule,\u2019 and that\u2019s where I lifted the name from.\u201d<\/p>\n
They started focusing more on writing original songs. \u201cWe wanted to make a stand in social politics a little bit: peer pressure, growing up and all the things that you deal with in life as a young person,\u201d Singletary explains. \u201cBecause we only had the perspective that we knew. We came up from middle class families. We weren’t poor or anything like that, so we couldn’t sing about being on the dole.\u201d He says that he was inspired by lyrics of substance, \u201csomething other than stupid \u201870s rock bullshit.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had written a lot of songs based on experience of having to go register for the draft, which was instituted by Reagan at that time,\u201d Griffith recalls. \u201cThe three of us went down to the post office and all signed up together.\u201d The rebellious nature and left-wing perspective of the band members would find expression in their songs.<\/p>\n