fear - the record

I've always found Fear fascinating.

Intimidation, shock value, aggression, confrontation--these are aspects of punk that have been there almost from the very beginning. Once frontmen started catching on to Iggy's shtick, it became commonplace, if not expected, to work as hard as possible to push your audience to the breaking point. Dive off the stage! Fight with your fans! Cut yourself with broken glass! Wear swastikas! It was just what you did when you were the head of a punk band.

Yet within this world of constant edginess and boundary-pushing, Fear manages to stand out as one of more tasteless, crude, even sinister bands to ever come out of punk.

It's not a completely undeserved title, obviously. Lee Ving is a total asshole, and he revels in it, striving to push every button he can get his hands on. He's sexist, racist, and just plain mean. Sometimes his scorn is twisted and elaborate, sometimes it's as simple as saying "I Don't Care About You," as loud and frequent as possible. He doesn't give a fuck, and clearly he has the talent to piss people off.

Fear is possibly the highlight of The Decline of Western Society, a classic snapshot of the L.A. hardcore scene in the early 80s. Ving berates his audience mercilessly, going well beyond the standard taunting and jeering, to the point of being outright mean. And it's simply incredible to watch. He's absolutely fearless, despite the violence spread out among the crowd, and despite the fact that very active threats are being thrown his way throughout. It's a display of uninhibited antagonism so pure that you can't help but be impressed.

At times, it's hard not to read into Fear's music and look for a deeper message. "Let's Have a War" has roughly the same message as Jello Biafra's chilling "Kinky Sex (Makes the World Go Round)" monologue, but while Biafra's satire was crystal-clear, you get the feeling that Ving might actually want to kill off a good deal of society, for various reasons. You almost look for meaning in self-defense, to fend off the notion that you're listening to the truthful words of a sadist.

Nihilism in punk dates back to the very beginnings of the movement, and in many ways is inseparable from the music itself. The difference here is that Fear truly revels in that idea. There's happiness and glee and excitement behind these words. Fuck the world, hate everything, don't give a shit, use whoever you can whenever you can, get yours and move on because who gives a fuck. It equates to a rejection not just of society itself, but everything and everyone in it, on a personal level. There are no higher goals, no personal philosophy, just carnage.

As much as I want to just accept it all from the outset and take Fear for what they are, it's hard not to be affected by The Record. It's an unrelenting piece of art. Taken apart and analyzed, it's easy to shrug off. But as a whole, it's impossible not to be affected. Bands like Brainbombs would take this to the logical extreme, but even in this relatively watered-down form, it's still chilling stuff. Which is the ultimate victory, I suppose.

Even in 1982, after five to six years of punk and punk derivatives expanding on the work of Iggy, Stiv Bators, Richard Hell and co., Fear manages to take it to a different level. The simple answer is that The Record is so riveting because it's true. But that reality is too much for me to accept. I'd much rather believe that Lee Ving is a twisted little genius, and we all just fell for the act. I'm just not sure that I can.