Day By Day #109: We're Desperate

Day After Day is an ambitious attempt to write about a song every day in 2024 (starting on Jan. 4). 

We're Desperate (1981)

The Los Angeles punk scene in the late 1970s was a wild mix of out-there bands. It got less publicity than the scenes in New York and London, but it was no less influential. Bands like Black Flag, Fear, the Circle Jerks, the Germs, the Runaways, the Dils and the Flesh Eaters were all part of that initial wave, but one of the most impactful bands to come out of that early LA scene was X. 

Comprised of vocalist-bassist John Doe, vocalist Exene Cervenka, guitarist Billy Zoom and drummer DJ Bonebrake, the band formed in 1977 and immediately made an impression, releasing their first single "Adult Books" on Dangerhouse Records in 1978. They signed to Slash Records and recorded their 1980 debut, Los Angeles, which was produced by Ray Manzarek (aka the keyboardist of the Doors) of all people. It's a raging tour de force that captures the band's punk fury, but also distinguishes them from their contemporaries with Doe's and Cervenka's off-kilter harmonies and rockabilly influences. 

X's second album, 1981's Wild Gift, was also produced by Manzarek and provides more of the same: short, punky blasts that incorporate the band's many influences (including roots rock, blues, country and R&B) with the sharp guitar work of Zoom and the poetic lyrics of Doe and Cervenka. 

The second song on side 1 is "We're Desperate," a re-recorded version of the flip side of their first single "Adult Books," which is also re-recorded here. In the liner notes, Doe said the song is about living in poverty, crappy apartments and dealing with jerk landlords. Bonebrake added that he wanted the song to have a tempo that combined the Ramones and Captain Beefheart.

"I play too hard when I ought to go to sleep/They pick on me 'cause I really got the beat/Some people give me the creeps/Every other week, I need a new address/Landlord, landlord, landlord, clean up the mess/Our whole fucking life is a wreck/We're desperate, get used to it."

"We're Desperate" is a two-minute ripper that typifies the band's lifestyle in those early days, when meals and decent housing were hard to come by.

"Coca-Cola and a Motorola kitchen/Naugahyde and a tie-dye t-shirt/Last night, everything broke/We're desperate, get used to it/We're desperate, get used to it/We're desperate, get used to it/We're desperate, get used to it, it's kiss or kill."

A few months after Wild Gift came out, the band was featured in The Decline of Western Civilization, a great documentary about the LA punk scene directed by Penelope Spheeris (who later went on to direct Wayne's World). Filmed in 1979-80, the film included footage of X, the Germs, the Alice Bag Band, the Circle Jerks, Fear and Black Flag. X are featured extensively, performing five songs including "We're Desperate."

X signed with major label Elektra in 1982 and released Under the Big Black Sun, which featured more of a country influence. They released three more relatively successful albums in the '80s. Zoom left the band in 1986 and was replaced by Dave Alvin, who had left the Blasters; Tony Gilkyson of Lone Justice also joined on guitar. After X released See How We Are in 1987, Alvin left the band; following the tour for that album, X went on hiatus. They reunited in 1993 and released the album hey Zeus! After a few years, the band took another break. In 2006, the original lineup of the band reunited to tour North America with the Rollins Band and the Riverboat Gamblers; I saw that tour when it came to Boston and it was excellent. 

They've continued to tour periodically in the subsequent years. I saw them play at Brighton Music Hall in 2016, a year after Zoom had to undergo treatment for bladder cancer. He played this show seated on a stool, but still sounded great and had his trademark cheshire cat grin going the whole time. The band released Alphabetland in 2020 and it was solid. And they're still going, playing as recently as last month. They're not as desperate as they were in the '70s, but X is still bringing it.