Note: For an index of all articles in all three Favorite Songs series, click here, then scroll down.

Who They Are: A long-running group who emerged from the nascent English punk scene, usually cited by music historians as having issued the very first UK punk single, “New Rose”/”Help!” (yes, a Beatles cover) in October 1976. The founding quartet  of Dave Vanian (vocals), Captain Sensible (bass), Brian James (guitar), and Rat Scabies (drums) issued two largely punk-centric albums, Damned Damned Damned and Music For Pleasure (both in 1977, the second featuring Lu Edmonds on second guitar and production by Pink Floyd’s Nick Mason) before primary-songwriter James departed. Following a brief hiatus, the group re-convened with Captain Sensible switching to guitar and Algy Ward (ex-Saints, future-Tank) on bass; this quartet issued Machine Gun Etiquette (1979), which found the group significantly expanding their sonic pallet to include hard rock, pop, psychedelic and Gothic elements (though “Gothic” hadn’t really emerged as a term for such quite yet). 1980’s The Black Album found Paul Gray replacing Ward on bass; this quartet also issued Strawberries in 1982 (with Roman Jugg on keyboards), and I count it as the best of their historic line-ups. Captain Sensible left The Damned in 1984; Jugg switched to guitar, and Bryn Merrick joined on bass. This line-up issued two albums, and achieved their greatest chart success in England with their non-album single, “Eloise,” a cover of a 1968 hit by Barry Ryan. Following a period of intermittent inactivity and various “Farewell Shows” featuring returns by Captain Sensible and Brian James through the late ’80s and early ’90s, a new incarnation of The Damned emerged around the Vanian-Sensible axis, along with keyboardist Monty Oxymoron. They have issued four albums and various EPs and singles since that time. Paul Grey rejoined on bass in 2017 (Vanian’s wife, Patricia Morrison, ex-Gun Club and Sisters of Mercy, had filled that role for nearly a decade, followed by Stu West), and Rat Scabies returned to his drum stool in 2023, just after their excellent most recent album, Darkedelic, was released, and after the original quartet had played a series of reunion shows.

When I First Heard Them: I heard of The Damned long before I actually heard The Damned, since the critical telling of the tale of English punk almost always referenced the “New Rose” single, but generally with a consensus that “Yeah, they got there first, but The Clash and The Sex Pistols were a whole lot better,” leaving me more conceptually interested in that pair than I was in the creators of “New Rose.” I finally came back to explore The Damned only through the back-door of Captain Sensible’s solo work, which was popular in the clubs I frequented in the early ’80s, first through his cover (with The Softies) of the oft-interpreted “Jet Boy, Jet Girl” (a.k.a. “Ça plane pour moi” in its original form), and then through his amusing faux-disco single “Wot.” Some friends at the Naval Academy had some Damned records that I sampled or taped at the time, but the first one I bought myself was 1987’s compilation, The Light at the End of the Tunnel. I loved that two-disc set and went back to nab all of their prior work, just as the group went into its longest period of churn and hiatus. I was happy when the Vanian-Sensible incarnation re-emerged, and I saw them live with Patricia Morrison on bass in the late ’90s. That show was superb, and I’ve eagerly followed along with their ongoing story in the decades since. While some of the latter-day albums are just okay, in a fair and objective assessment, the return of Paul Gray really bumped things up a notch, and their last two long players have been outstanding, ranking high in the overall pantheon of their expansive catalog.

Why I Love Them: Unlike most of their early UK punk colleagues, The Damned weren’t overtly sour in their world-view and politics, and from the git-go, their music was a bit more fun than anything else emergent from that scene. Dave Vanian has an extraordinary voice, a deeply-appealing baritone that lends itself to a variety of styles, and his intonation most certainly fits the mold (and perhaps inspired the mold’s form) of the great classic Goth singers who followed. While he began as the group’s bassist, Captain Sensible found his true calling as an ace six-string slinger and occasional second lead vocalist, and I love his work on both fronts. The pair and their various colleagues are fine songwriters, with a gift for catchy melodies, interesting and amusing lyrics, and a palpable, embraceable zest for music-making that routinely lends itself to ear-worms and toe-tapping and head-bobbing. The group’s back-story is also a fascinating one, as their personalities are distinctive and widely-divergent, and they’ve often been their own worst enemies, blowing up just as things were getting good for them. The 2015 film The Damned: Don’t You Wish That We Were Dead is one of the best rock documentaries I’ve ever seen, a fascinating and comprehensive look at their history to date, funny and surprisingly poignant in equal measure. And on the literary front, I also highly commend Christopher Dawes’ 2005 book, Rat Scabies and the Holy Grail, which is about precisely what its title says, a truly quirky, fascinating and (again) poignant road-buddy story anchored in arcane and esoteric historical conspiracy theories. I generally find the various five-piece incarnations of the group to be the most enjoyable, as their sound benefits from the presence of strong keyboard play. I’m also very pleased their latest album is among their best, and with the return of Rat (alongside Vanian, Sensible, Gray, and Oxymoron), I’m highly optimistic for what the next phase brings. Of course, given their history, that probably means that everything is about to go south, immediately and imminently, but therein lies the fun and thrill of being a long-term Damned fan, I guess.

#10. “Manipulator,” from “The Rockfield Files” EP (2020)

#9. “Problem Child,” from Music For Pleasure (1977)

#8. “Wait For the Blackout,” from The Black Album (1980)

#7. “New Rose,” from “New Rose”/”Help!” single (1976) and Damned Damned Damned (1977)

#6. “Follow Me,” from Darkedelic (2023)

#5. “Under the Floor Again,” from Strawberries (1982)

#4. “Smash It Up (Parts 1 and 2),” from Machine Gun Etiquette (1979)

#3. “Roderick,” from Darkedelic (2023)

#2. “I Just Can’t Be Happy Today,” from Machine Gun Etiquette (1979)

#1. “Life Goes On,” from Strawberries (1982)