“Cocaine’s a hell of a drug.” That’s a Rick James quote, and while he was speaking from personal experience, the phrase can’t help but come to mind after witnessing this clip of the Bad Brains performing “Big Takeover” live at CBGB in 1982. Everything about this performance reeks of awesomeness…and B.O…but in any event, this footage captures the pinnacle of hardcore punk being executed flawlessly by the pioneers/masters of the genre in their prime. And although the band was never fans of that term being applied to their music (in fairness, they were also skilled reggae musicians and would go on to further transcend punk by expanding their sound into funk-metal territory), that’s what we have here, in all, it’s unbridled, aggressive, manically raw glory, and it’s a truly impressive (dare I say beautiful) thing to behold. Respect.
