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Track Listings
| 1. Reuters | |||
| 2. Field Day For The Sundays | |||
| 3. Three Girl Rhumba | |||
| 4. Ex Lion Tamer | |||
| 5. Lowdown | |||
| 6. Start To Move | |||
| 7. Brazil | |||
| 8. It's So Obvious | |||
| 9. Surgeon's Girl | |||
| 10. Pink Flag | |||
| 11. The Commercial | |||
| 12. Straight Line | |||
| 13. 106 Beats That | |||
| 14. Mr Suit | |||
| 15. Strange | |||
| 16. Fragile | |||
| 17. Mannequin | |||
| 18. Different To Me | |||
| 19. Champs | |||
| 20. Feeling Called Love | |||
See all 23 tracks on this disc
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Product Description
Amazon.co.uk
Forget the Ramones' brutal minimalism. On Pink Flag, Wire's fractured, visionary debut album from 1977, Newman, Gilbert, Lewis and Gotobed raced through 21 songs in under 40 minutes, never once forgetting to write a memorable hook-line, and some smart, sassy words. This is experimental, insidiously catchy art-pop at its peak. Fans argue over which of Wire's first three albums is the greatest--both the layered Chairs Missing and the synthesiser-laden 154 have their moments of sheer sublimeness--but there's no arguing that Pink Flag was the most ground-breaking. Its nervy, dissonant guitar-led sound went on to influence numerous bands over the following two decades--Blur and Elastica most famously among them. Even now, tracks like the invigorating punk love song "12XU" and fragile "Mannequin" sound state-of-the-art. This is a brilliant debut. --Everett True
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
22 of 23 people found the following review helpful
By Jason Parkes
#1 HALL OF FAME
Format:Audio CD|Amazon Verified Purchase
'Pink Flag' was Wire's debut album originally released in 1977 and now in its second/third reissue incarnation. Whilst a writer like Jon Savage celebrated them at the time, it appears that they were viewed with disdain for being signed to prog/Floyd-associated label Harvest (the later albums 'Chairs Missing' & '154' viewed like Magazine's second LP as prog!). 'Pink Flag' is something else entirerly, it's punk...but it's not punk - perhaps you could imagine The Ramones' brevity colliding with Captain Beefheart's angular-template 'Clear Spot' - which I always saw as the template for something like 'Marquee Moon' and this. 'Pink Flag' is a cult favourite and in the 1980s even attracted a tribute act the Ex-Lion Tamers who played it note for note live (Wire at the time didn't play anything from the Harvest years, preferring to play their latest LP, or its unreleased follow-up). The notion that all the songs are 30-seconds to a minute or so might be true of many tracks here - 'Mr Suit', 'It's So Obvious', 'Field Day for the Sundays', 'Three Girl Rhumba', 'Straight Line' (up there with anything on 'Spiral Scratch'), the mighty '12XU'...but this overlooks the more developed tracks which were heading for the plains explored on the subsequent two albums.
Opener 'Reuters' has more in common with later, sinister post-punk tracks like 'A Touching Display' or 'Heartbeat' - chiming guitars building to a mid-paced dirge as Newman sounds decidely unhinged. This is Joy Division before Joy Divison! Likewise, 'Strange' is not an angular-punk minimalist-thrash, but avant-pop that set the template Wire had for alien-pop (later examples of this would include 'I am the Fly', 'Outdoor Miner', 'Map Ref...', Newman/Lewis' 'Not Me', 'Kidney Bingos', 'Eardrum Buzz', 'Ahead' etc). 'Strange' probably found more fame when R.E.M. covered it on their breakthrough LP 'Document # 5' (1987) - shame as their version was awful! 'Pink Flag' has also been covered by others incidentally - Elastica's 'Connection' is basically 'Three Girl Rhumba' (I am sure this is reflected in the current publishing status of 'Connection'), Mudhoney made a reference to 'Lowdown' at the end of 1990's 'When Tomorrow Hits' and straight-edge pioneers Minor Threat covered '12XU' (as did Elastica). Meanwhile, Wire weren't unafraid to invoke prior material - 'Feeling Called Love' (a title that was reflected upon on Pulp's 'A Different Class') warrants its description by Jon Savage as " 'Wild Thing' sideways".
'Pink Flag' sounds fine today, it's packed with joys - 'Mannequin', 'Lowdown', 'Ex Lion Tamer', '106 Beats That' and the terminally great '12XU' which is one of the greater definitions of punk-rock: SAW YOU IN A MAG KISSING A MAN, SAW YOU IN A MAG KISSING A MAN...12XU!!!! Great material more than worth rediscovering, especially when art-punk, punk-rock, and post-punk are all in vogue with bands like Bloc Party, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Interpol & Spoon (& reissues of work by Scritti Politti, The Fall, Orange Juice, Adam & the Ants, Delta 5 etc). Next stop: 'Chairs Missing'...
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
By M. GILL
Format:Audio CD|Amazon Verified Purchase
This is the other definitive '77 punk album, with the Pistols "Nevermind..." being the first. Pink Flag contains the song structures, chord shapes and back beats from which all other punk records descend - consider it a punk template! The power transfers well to CD, unlike some other material from the same era. In my view, the only "weakness" here is the inclusion of the two "bonus tracks" ("Dot Dash" & "Options R" from "the rare stuff"), though these are not exactly rubbish, the space may have been better occupied by the live versions of "12XU" and "Lowdown" from the Vortex sessions. Your partner & neighbours will cringe - buy it!
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
By Mr. G. C. Stone
VINE™ VOICE
Format:Audio CD
The are not many 30 year old albums that sound more smart, vital, and up to date than anything currently being churned out. Time has revealed this as a genuine classic - and makes much of the guitar-pap being churned out by today's indie-poppers seem juvenile amd irrelevant. It's all very simple - fuzzy, churning, bounding guitars (sounding just like what the electric guitar was invented for), brilliant drumming and bass lines, and edgy, intelligent lyrics. If you don't like one track there will be another along in a minute - they don't overstay their welcome and leave you wanting more. Despite the plethora of tracks this album is consistently brilliant - you will play it all the way through and then go back again to the tracks you love best. I do not play any album more than I return to this one, and many of the tracks consistently make my 'best of' playlists. Much copied, totally influential, but never bettered. The central riff of 1,2,XU is worth your money alone - treat the rest as a bonus.
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4.8 out of 5 stars
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Who?
Never heard of Wire until I was reading something the other day about Punk pioneers, back when we was punks I would have loved this but somehow it passed me by. Read more
Published 8 days ago by snodger
5.0 out of 5 stars
One of the most important punk albums of all time
This album is one of the greatest in punk and post-punk history. It anticipated the evolution of punk music in 1977, the same year "The Clash" (The Clash), "Damned... Read more
Published 1 month ago by CARLOS RIJA BALCÁZAR
5.0 out of 5 stars
Still Sounding Remarkably Fresh
Having just replaced my vinyl version of this 1977 debut album by Wire with the remastered CD version I was (slightly) amazed, listening again to the record after probably the best... Read more
Published 2 months ago by Keith M
4.0 out of 5 stars
Pink Flag
What is left to say about this album?: For those of you who hav'nt, you should; those that might, had better, and for the rest,
tracks like 12XU, Outdoor Miner are proof of... Read more
tracks like 12XU, Outdoor Miner are proof of... Read more
Published 5 months ago by oskAr
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Best Album Of 1977
The best album to be released in 1977 and easily the best to come out of the UK 'punk' scene. All of which is highly ironic because in no way were Wire punks, instead they were... Read more
Published on 23 Jan 2011 by L. C. Warne
5.0 out of 5 stars
One of the punk periods finest albums.
This is the embodiement of punk in some ways (short songs with no messing about), but to label it in such a simplistic way is to do this album a massive disservice. Read more
Published on 25 Oct 2010 by Mr. M. L. Hawes
5.0 out of 5 stars
Sounds in bites of life
Warsaw before they become Joy Division, is Pink Flag to later Wire, raw, uncooked, unfiltered but not to be knocked. Read more
Published on 12 April 2010 by Dr. Delvis Memphistopheles
5.0 out of 5 stars
Originality Reborn
With 21 tracks flying in at 35 minutes 'Pink Flag'-Wire's extraordinary 1977 debut album is a short,sharp shock to the system. Read more
Published on 27 Jun 2008 by nm1270
4.0 out of 5 stars
How many songs can you fit into one album?
The first Wire fan I ever met told me that the great thing about this album was that if you didn't like a song you didn't have to wait long for it to end. Read more
Published on 17 Oct 2006 by D. J. H. Thorn
5.0 out of 5 stars
77's true masterpiece
Disappointed by the Ramones albums? This album packs more songs in to less time, with genuinely witty and intelligent lyrics and inventive music. Read more
Published on 6 Feb 2006 by Joseph Henderson
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