"You just leave me alone, and be a real good friend of mine . . ."
For whatever reason, I got it in my head the other day to listen to some Children's Crusade. Essentially the brainchild of Doug Gillard, the band was put together around '84 and only stuck around long enough to put together a cassette, a posthumous 7", and a handful of live shows. I missed all this (gimme a break, I was just starting grade school), but I mail-ordered the 7" from Scat during the period of time when I was spending all of my spare change on the label's back catalog. Surprisingly, the 7" is still available, though I'm guessing there can't be too many (it's a limited edition of 1500).
I go back and forth as to which I think is better. My copy of the cassette, A Duty-Dance with Death, has always been a personal treasure of mine. I've never seen how many copies were made, but there couldn't have been too many copies floating around. The one I got is a dubbed copy of what was probably a 1st generation original that I basically lucked into around 10 years ago after a long time of searching. I thought I had lost it, but I found it over the summer.
Anyway, A Duty-Dance with Death is described by Gillard as music by "a couple 4AD/Chrome/Killing Joke-influenced high school seniors just coming out of a hardcore punk phase." I suppose I've got to agree with his assessment, but I'll add that it has that Cleveland (or, in this case Elyria) essence about it, where it's something that people might say gives a hearty nod to its influences, but it really does transcend its influences.
The most well-known track from the cassette is probably "Lurker on the Threshold" by virtue of its inclusion on the 1985 They Pelted Us with Rocks and Garbage LP compilation (which also features Spike In Vain, Offbeats, the Reactions, the Guns, and a hearty handful of other mid-80's Cle heavy-hitters). I think the classic is "Decade of the Worm," with its sizzling Gilliard guitar leads and vocalist Fraser Sims's rock apocalypse lyrics, featuring alternating refrains of "Underground, we are so underground" and "Bury us, bury us, our culture is dead / Bury us, bury us, dead is our culture." Early Gillard maximum riffage highlights "Man-Gun" and we get one Sims's more dramatic performances in the first movement of "Operate/Art Student." And if you're looking for a mid-80's Cle anthem, "Bleak Outpost" will probably do the job.
The charm of A Duty-Dance with Death is enhanced by its somewhat improbable origins. All of the instruments --drums, bass, and guitar -- were recorded in-studio by Gillard. Legend has it that once the recordings were complete, Gillard asked Sims to come in and add vocals. Without having heard any of the songs before, Sims showed up with a notebook of lyrics, came up with melodies, and laid down the vocals. Pretty impressive for anyone, let alone a couple of kids in 1984 Cleveland.
After finishing the cassette, Gillard put together a band to perform live, and it was probably during this time that Gillard and Sims really found the "Children's Crusade sound" that is present on the Scat 7", Scorpio Moon.
To me, "Blue Venus Aflame," the first Scorpio Moon track, represents the recorded debut of Gillard's stunning lead guitar work. It's a lengthy song, and you can tell that the time -- however brief -- spent with the full band gave Gillard and Sims the chance to flesh these songs out in a way that wasn't possible with the songs from the cassette (even though all of the instruments on Scorpio Moon, like the cassette, were played by Gillard). The layered guitar riffs float above and around the simple, but driving, drums, pinned down only by Sims's stark, intense, almost desperate vocals. Everything really takes off mid-song, when Gillard's lead kicks in real good. This is the genesis of Gillard's best guitar work -- never too flashy, always melodic, and perfectly suited to the song.
The EP's other tracks might not be up to the stellar level of the A-side, but they're memorable in their own right. "Your Time Is Through" is Children's Crusade in their most punk moment. It's a solid, fairly straightforward rocker -- the kind of thing you need after "Blue Venus Aflame" -- and I swear you can almost hear the Dead Boys in there when the bridge kicks in. "St. Jack's Bible" is the original version of "Gimme Your Heart" from Cobra Verde's first record. I prefer "St. Jack's," mostly because I think Sims's feverish vocals work a little better on this one than John Petkovic's.
If you're a fan of Gillard's or Sims's later work (Death of Samantha, Gem, Cobra Verde, GBV, and a bunch of others for Gillard, and Starvation Army and some others for Sims) and you haven't heard any of the Children's Crusade stuff, you're likely to be impressed at how versatile these two guys are. While it's still possible to get your hands on the 7", it's a bit of a tragedy that A Duty-Dance with Death has never seen a wider release. Maybe that's because both Gillard and Sims moved on to bigger and better things. I also tend to believe that there's truth to the story that the original tapes were recorded in a way that effectively prevents them from being replayed today.
Still, though, I hold out hope that maybe one day someone with the money and resources (Exit Stencil, I'm looking your way) might be able to rerelease A Duty-Dance in a way that does it justice, much like what CDR did with the excellent Tommy Jay rerelease. Until then, if you're really desperate for a copy, I'm sure you can try to contact Gillard through MySpace, and if not, you know how to get a hold of me if you want a third-generation dub.
