131: Wire - Pink Flag (1977)

December 12, 2023 / Amanda Rodgers

“We didn’t want to sound like anyone else. Why would you bother? Yet, all the punk-rock bands did.”

—Colin Newman

1 2 X U! As punk was just beginning to take off in the UK, Wire was already looking ahead, itching to push the genre toward artsier, more abstract frontiers. Their 1977 LP Pink Flag planted the seeds for post-punk and hardcore before most kids had even had a chance to spike their first mohawk. Boasting a dizzying 21 tracks at an economical 35 minutes, Wire packed more into one album than some of their peers managed in a career. Join Dan, Phil, Mike, and Rich as they discuss how it holds up as one of the boldest debuts of the punk era.

Miscellany

Pink Flag features some adult themes and some f-bombs, so we’ve got the explicit tag turned on and the cursing un-bleeped. So be wary if you’ve got young children around while listening.
The blog Go Johnny Go has shared several performances of the Ex Lion Tamers opening for Wire at a 1987 show in Hoboken, NJ. We didn’t clip the songs in the episode because they come from the blogger’s personal collection, but they are shockingly faithful to the originals, as advertised!
Rich’s infant son was having trouble getting to sleep during the recording and is audible during the commentary on “Ex Lion Tamer,” one of the perils of podcasting and parenting in a small apartment. Just think of it as one of the weird sonic details you would hear in a Wire song.

Discord & Rhyme Roll Call

Dan Watkins (host)
Phil Maddox (moderator)
Rich Bunnell
Mike DeFabio

Pink Flag tracklist

Reuters
Field Day for the Sundays
Three Girl Rhumba
Ex Lion Tamer
Lowdown
Start to Move
Brazil
It’s So Obvious
Surgeon’s Girl
Pink Flag
The Commercial
Straight Line
106 Beats That
Mr. Suit
Strange
Fragile
Mannequin
Different to Me
Champs
Feeling Called Love
12XU

Other clips used

Wire:

Sand in My Joints
Lowdown (Live at the Roxy WC2)
Men 2nd
I Should Have Known Better
Map Ref. 41°N 93°W
In the Art of Stopping

Others:

The Rolling Stones - Gimme Shelter
Nomeansno - The Tower
Harm A. Drost - Injection - Basic Sound
Elastica - Connection
The Modern Lovers - Roadrunner
Guided by Voices - Over the Neptune/Mesh Gear Fox
The Fall - Before the Moon Falls
Elastica - Human
Boston Spaceships - You Just Can't Tell
Ramones - Today Your Love, Tomorrow the World
The Minutemen - Nature Without Man
The Fall - Pay Your Rates
Cardiacs - Fast Robert
New Bomb Turks - Mr. Suit
This Heat - Paper Hats
R.E.M. - Strange
R.E.M. - Letter Never Sent
Starship - Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now
Meco - Star Wars Theme
Radio Birdman - I-94
Buzzcocks - Harmony in My Head
The Premiers - Farmer John
Ween - El Camino
Minor Threat - 12XU
Mission of Burma - Secrets
Black Flag - Nervous Breakdown

Band/album personnel

Bruce Gilbert – guitar, sleeve concept
Robert Gotobed – drums
Graham Lewis – bass guitar, backing vocals, mackerel (18)
Colin Newman – vocals, guitar, backing vocals, imaginary maracas (7)
Kate Lukas – flute (15)
Dave Oberlé – backing vocals (17)
Mike Thorne – production, piano (1), backing vocals (1, 14), flute arrangement (15)
Paul Hardiman – engineer
Ken Thomas – assistant engineer

Credits

“Discord & Rhyme (theme),” composed by the Other Leading Brand, contains elements of:

Duran Duran - Hungry Like the Wolf
Amon Düül II - Dehypnotized Toothpaste
The Dukes of Stratosphear - What in the World?? ...
Faith No More - Midlife Crisis
Herbie Hancock - Hornets
Kraftwerk - Autobahn
Talking Heads - Seen and Not Seen
Wire - Reuters (this episode only)

You can buy or stream Pink Flag and other albums by Wire at pinkflag.com, your local record store, or the usual suspects such as Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube, and Amazon. Follow Discord & Rhyme on Instagram @DiscordPod for news, updates, and other random stuff. Editing is by Rich Bunnell, and special thanks to our own Mike DeFabio, the Other Leading Brand, for production and original music. See you next album, and keep as cool as you can.

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tags / Dan Watkins