“Sailin' On” by Bad Brains

"Sailin' On" comes from Bad Brains' debut album, the cassette ROIR put out in February 1982 that fans call the Yellow Tape for its yellow packaging. By then the band had been shut out of every major club back home in Washington, DC, and had decamped to New York in 1981, where between regular gigs at CBGB's they hung around Jerry Williams' 171-A Studios in Alphabet City.

Williams taped one of their shows there on reel-to-reel in May 1981, the band liked what they heard, and they came back to cut the album between August and October. He engineered "Sailin' On" and mixed it with the band: H.R. sings lead, Dr. Know plays guitar, Darryl Jenifer bass and Earl Hudson drums. It finally gave them an album, after the earlier Black Dots and Omega Sessions projects had been shelved.

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