there were technically only two albums released in the time that the OG misfits were together - Walk Among Us, and Earth AD. recordings of songs before this were compiled into the collection known as Static Age, which i will cover as well, even though it wasn't an official album originally.

there is a lot of speculation and bullshittery regarding the meaning of songs in here, so take it all with a grain of salt, it's my fucking opinion about 40 year old poetry that was never actually written down and i'm sticking to it.

Static Age :

Static Age

- I consider this song, as the title track, to be kinda the thesis statement of the whole collection. The primary subject matter of these songs is television (brand spanking new to bb Glenn growing up in the 50s and early 60s), and its effect on his psyche. Exposed to some of the greatest real world horrors of the century through television, a desensitized monster is created, and its only escape is punk rock.

this is really important to me personally, as someone witnessing the internet age as it unfolds, and not entirely comfortable with its effect on my thought process/interests or the attitudes of my generation. This album remains unreleased for many, many years until after the Misfits break up- no one wants to sign or produce for them, so Glenn started his own record label, Plan 9, and did all the work himself, spending most of his free time designing, printing, and gluing album sleeves, cutting his own vinyl, and mailing shit out of his mom's basement (where he was living at the time).

Bullet

- this is one of Danzig's most inflammatory songs. he wrote it when he was 19 as a poem. It's about shooting JFK and raping his wife, Jacqueline Onassis (or Jackie O.); the Kennedy assassination was for sure one of the great innocence-destroying events on early TV, and it definitely left an impression on him. Danzig hates the Kennedys pretty openly; last time i saw him live, he was talking about "All the evil stuff" they had done; more on that later.

She

- the 'she' in this song is Patty Hearst, the girl who was kidnapped by the Symbionese Liberation Army in 1974 and brainwashed to commit crimes like bank robbery. This song celebrates her loss of control as the “virgin vixen”, “machine gun in her hand.”

Danzig doesn't like to publish his lyrics and is fucking hard to understand sometimes, and I have had serious arguments about what the words are to this song with people. “Snakes and sex”? “Steaks and sin”? “He loves evil death”? “Killer eagle’s nest”? Oh, who the fuck cares, I love this song.

Last Caress

- i like to think of this song as about being a soldier in the Vietnam War. American soldiers overseas were accused rapists, murderers, and “baby killers” by protesters and coming home with stories of terror from the constant threat of unexpected death all around them. returning to America and actually speaking their minds about what they had seen and done in Vietnam obviously changed the public's perception of war and burned those images right into a generation's brain

3 Hits From Hell :

London Dungeon

- The band decided that they needed to go to the birthplace of punk rock to make their mark and widen their fanbase, and so asked Jerry's dad for cash to take a trip to London. While there, they played one (maybe two?) shows, and then spent the rest of their time overseas partying with the Sex Pistols, getting arrested, and spending all of Jerry's dad's money. Glenn wrote this song while in a London jail cell (after almost getting into a fight with a group of British punks and threatening them with a large shard of glass, presumably in self defense).

Walk Among Us :

Skulls

- This is the biggest crowd pleaser of all Misfits songs, the most fun to sing along with, and the most catchy. It is very typical of the overall sound of Walk Among Us, which is upbeat, fun, dare I say- pop-y in a 1950s kinda way? If Static Age represented Glenn Anzalone (by now going by Glenn Danzig), then Walk Among Us definitely revealed the influence of Jerry Caiafa (now Jerry Only), who preferred songs about old “B” horror movies to Glenn’s obscure political and philosophical work. I feel like they were having a lot of fun at this point though.

Mommy Can I Go Out and Kill Tonight?

the lyrics to this are obviously Ed Gein, Psycho inspired. A shade of the next album, this song is more on the hardcore side and has the most fucking beautiful pit-boiling brutality to it that makes a crowd go insane.

Vampira

- Vampira was a late night horror movie hostess in the 50s. “two inch nails, micro waist, pale white feline face, and inclination eyebrows to there.” Vampira herself was so flattered when she heard it that she actually asked to meet with the Misfits.

Earth A.D./Wolfsblood :

We Bite

the final Misfits album is all hardcore punk. if Static Age is Glenn's, and Walk Among Us is Jerry's, then Earth A.D. has all the unskilled, brutal, unfocused power of Doyle. it is fast and loud and violent and angry, a good match for other American hardcore bands like Black Flag.