Monday Videos: Crucifucks
The Crucifucks were one of my favorite 1980s hardcore bands, easily one of the angriest and most wacked out bands around. Led by Doc Dart (prodigal heir to the Dart Styrofoam Cup company), the band was known for prank calling the police, getting sued for including fake pictures of dead cops on their album covers, lyrics that see-sawed between apoplectic fury, verbal abuse, and bipolar rants (Dart eventually ended up losing his mind), and of course Doc Dart’s voice, which sounded like a dentist’s drill on meth. My mother hated the Crucifucks more for their singer’s voice than the name (although she did enjoy the calls for Reagan’s execution).
The Crucifucks only put out two albums: the first self-titled album, with the exception of drummer Steve Shelley (years before Sonic Youth), is primitive compared to the new lineup that played on the masterful “Wisconsin”, yet the power of both recordings is undeniable The following clips from 1983 are live, and like most live hardcore recordings not the best sound quality. However, the video for “The Mountain Song (the opening clip from “Wisconsin”) is the studio cut.
My favorite song from the eponymous album was probably “Hinkley Had a Vision”, which you can watch here; the lyrics, which I will reprint below, will not only allow you to sing along with Doc, they’ll probably get me hauled off to Guantanamo (open note to the NSA, they relate to Reagan, who’s already dead).
Can you believe we’re being plagued by religion still?
These christians aren’t about to give up.
It’s the same countless fools go on and on and on and on and… Closest thing to witches i’ve ever seen, let’s get out the gas and set them on fire!
Aw teach me how to pray good christian.
If it works you’ll all be dead.
We’ll see the secret to salvation, for me it’s when you’re dead, you’re dead, you’re dead.
I can’t believe they’re serious, superstitious spastic fools.
Yhey live for everlasting life, and ruin my life here on earth.
They must be so intelligent, to know so much more than me…
I wanna take the president, chop off his head, and mail it to them in a garbage bag.
Hinkley had a vision, Hinkley had a vision.
Yeah, you could say I was an angry, and politically aware, kid. It was the 1980s, and I was into hardcore.
Here’s a televised version of “Democracy Spawns Bad Taste” (how the Crucifucks ended up on TV, I cannot say). Lyrics posted bwlow
you make things miserable every day.
you make me sick with the things you say.
you stand for the anthem at the old ball game
and your pledge of allegiance is so fucking lame.
this kind of freedom is perfect for you
as long as you can get away with what you do,
but everything you do is in such bad taste
and it’s your fault the media is such a waste.
be a good american - fuck off!
be a good american and go to war
be a god fearing citizen and - kill someone or kill your self -
cuz you’re such a fucking bore.
you nearly drove me crazy in your asshole schools,
grooming us all to be fucking fools,
working for the government as zombie tools,
but we won’t be satisfied till we trash your rules.
put a gun in my back and i’ll do what you say
but i’ll burn down your house if i get away,
throw me in jail and i’ll spit in your face,
cuz anarchy is gonna take your fucking place…
so be a good american - fuck off!
be a good american and go to war
be a god fearing citizen and kill someone
or kill yourself!!
And finally, the video for the Mountain Song: as you’ll hear, in comparison to the earlier cuts, the band really has “run a mile, where others walked some fifty feet.”
One Response to “Monday Videos: Crucifucks”
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March 21st, 2007 at 10:58 am
If there was ever a band that we need to have back together it’s the Crucifucks. Doc Dart is Jesus Christ and the more fucked up the world gets the more glaring and true his words become.