The Left-Last Train To Hagerstown (1985)


 

Artist: The Left

Title: Last Train To Hagerstown

Label: Bona Fide Records/Greenworld Records

Format: LP

Cat #: BFX-4503/GWD-90517

Year of Release: 1985

Country and Year of Edition Issue: US 1985

Sold Price: $12.99

Listed Condition: VG+/VG+

Sell Date: 10/13/20

Discogs Last Sold: VG+/NM $18.00

Low: $5.95

Median: $11.88

High: $30.00

Current low price: VG+/G $9.41, VG+/VG+ $15.00

Current Number on Sale at Discogs: 12

Have/Want: 150/45

Where Sold: Brooklyn, NY

Time it took to sell: 4 years

Where and When Bought: guessing Nuggets, Boston MA early 90's used for a few bucks maybe even $1.99!

Gwiz-gau Letter Grade: A

Sad To See It Go?: Yes

The Viet Cong live next door/We don't want them around anymore

At first blush, the politics of The Left are somewhere left of the Mentors, Skewdriver or GG Allin.   The reality is the described train rider is not coming from a go-go party in DC.  He is probably coming from a bar a few stops away, where he sat alone for a few hours after work.  This is small town outsider politics 75 minutes outside a city (in this case DC, if trains run to Baltimore or Pittsburgh I stand corrected).

Ten Dollars will bring 'em to their knees/Hungry mouths/Eager To Please

The music is dispassionate observation of small town mid-80's life outside an urban environment on the East Coast.  The character mournfully notes "The Viet Cong Live Next Door" as he passes "AIDS Alley" on way to "Redneck 7-11."  This guy hates everyone--immigrants and male prostitutes as well as the local idiot riff raff driving pick-up trucks and equipped with baseball bats.   I wouldn't call this particularly political as it might be identified today, 35 years after it's release.   More like indoctrinated and ingrained.  Their website says this worldview is spawned on "hypocrisy, boredom, ignorance and hate."  A worldview that is actually censored on youtube.

Redneck 7-11/Stupid Fuckin' Asshole Heaven

I found it amusing that famed critic Richie Unterberger completely glossed over the bands lyrics in his allmusic review.  It is because the sound is high quality rock.  They nod to the Stooges covering "T.V. Eye," but the sound is more garage rock than proto-punk, without the trappings of a fan base.  Tough and seething anger.  This was new when I started radio at 15 in my own small East Coast city of Worcester, MA.  When the Reagan FCC clamped down on indecency rules, it was a challenge to cut out all the expletives live on the air as the record was playing.  The letter, if not the spirit of law was obeyed.

Mostly.

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