Song · Gang of Four
“Damaged Goods” by Gang of Four
From the album Entertainment! (1979)
“Damaged Goods” by Gang of Four appears on 11 radio countdowns from 8 stations between 1979 and 2026. It was first released in 1979 on the album Entertainment!. Its best result is #23 on the John Peel's All-Time Festive Fifty (1979). In the combined RockLists rankings it is #3,266 alternative song of all time.
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"Damaged Goods" was Gang of Four's first single, put out by the independent Fast Product label in 1978, and the raves it drew got the band signed to EMI. They cut it again for their debut album Entertainment! in 1979, produced this time by Andy Gill, Jon King and Rob Warr.
It opens on bass and guitar jabbing against the beat before Hugo Burnham's drums fall in, and it's Dave Allen's bass that does the seducing, springy and hooked, while Gill hacks at his rhythm guitar like he's trying to chop the song into kindling. King sings it as a lonely lament, Gill cuts in with a passage closer to talking than singing, and the whole thing comes about as close as the first album gets to a conventional pop single.
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.
RockLists rankings
Alternative & Modern Rock
Indie & Adult Alternative
All Rock Formats
All-time and decade countdowns
| Year | # | Station | Countdown | of |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1979 | 23 | John Peel (BBC Radio 1) | John Peel's All-Time Festive Fifty (1979) | 50 |
| 1980 | 50 | John Peel (BBC Radio 1) | John Peel's All-Time Festive Fifty (1980) | 50 |
| 2002 | 1108 | Fred (XM 44) | Fred XM Top 2002 Songs of All-Time (July 2002) | 2002 |
| 2003 | 457 | Fred (XM 44) | Fred XM Top 2044 Songs of All-Time (July 2003) | 2044 |
| 2019 | 344 | KEXP | KEXP Listeners' Favorite Songs of All Time | 627 |
| 2020 | 1781 | WXPN | WXPN 2020 Greatest Songs of All Time | 2020 |
| 2022 | 88 | 90.9 The Bridge | 90.9 The Bridge Top 909 Songs of the '70s | 908 |
| 2022 | 546 | The Colorado Sound | The Colorado Sound Top 1055 Colorado Sound Songs of All Time | 1055 |
| 2024 | 686 | WYEP | WYEP Best Songs of the Past 50 Years | 1049 |
| 2026 | 627 | KXT | KXT 917 Song Countdown | 917 |
| 2026 | 761 | WYEP | WYEP Greatest Songs of All Time | 1180 |
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