Legionaire’s Disease Band / Rather See You Dead (Than With Wool On Your Head) (7″ Vinyl)

Description

Single / 45 RPM

Reissue – Pink

Rare item ! 100 copies on pink vinyl out of 500 total pressed of the reissue.

1979-USA

Format: 7″ Vinyl

#Ref: CRR-005

Release date: 2013

Release notes

The first thing that I was aware of on the local Houston scene that had anything to do with punk rock was the advent of the band Legionnaire’s Disease. The Sex Pistols had come to Texas and gone, and one Jerry Anomie, fresh out of prison, had somehow ended up at their show in San Antonio. Well, he was inspired. He came back to Houston and put together, what I remember as, Houston’s first punk band. They were The Legionnaire’s Disease Band. They were chaos! Superb chaos. Just exactly what Houston needed. Musically they were nothing very original. Their original stuff was either a version of the Sex Pistols or a version The Stooges. But what they lacked in musical originality, they more than made up with sheer guts and spectacle. They would literally con their way into playing some sleepy hippie bar or unsuspecting club with the intent of causing a riot.

They would walk out in front of an unsuspecting crowd of beer guzzling hippies and completely freak everyone out. There was blond and stacked Gwen Duke playing bass in her underwear. There was Norman dressed in a mock Gestapo uniform and holding a completely unplugged guitar. Their real guitarist was way loud and could actually play. By the second song, Jerry would have dropped his pants and begun playing air guitar using his dick for a guitar. He would be totally naked by the third song. He was this skinny little guy with his back covered in a jailhouse tattoo. He would yell things like “It’s deprogramming time” and “wake up!”, he would run into the audience and turn over tables and pour people’s beer on them. They were part threat and part farce. It was dangerous, exciting, and hilarious. They were also amazing at self-promotion too. Jerry could talk bar owners into booking them after they had been banned from any place they had previously played. They were the first Houston punk band that played anywhere in public, as far as I’m concerned. _ U-RON

Tracklisting