The remastered BoC black & white albums?

Are the remasters worth it?

Yeh, they sound a whole lot better than those first dismal issues.

I don't have the first one yet, but Tyranny and Mutation was well worth the upgrade. "The Red And The Black" once again sounds like the monster it is - and reminds why the Minutemen chose to cover it. My only complaint with it is the bonus tracks are all bullshit. Secret Treaties, on the other hand, has some awesome bonus tracks, including the demented "Mommy" and "Boorman the Chauffeur".

...my only complaint.

Is your complaint the cowbell or NOT ENOUGH COWBELL?

Picked this up last night. Seriously, WTF?

Elaborate, please.

There is a studio out-take bonus track on "Secret Treaties" entitled "Mommy". Radcliffe's "demented" is an understatement. Imagine all of Jim Morrisson's angst taken to a ridiculous extreme.

Is it disgusting or awesome or both?

I'm betting on disgustingly awesome.

Yeah, pretty much.

It's 3 minutes of dumb misogyny. The chorus is

I hate my momma
I hate my wife
I'd like to kill 'em both
It's a fact of life
I'd like to plan it now
I'm gonna use the knife

And the word "momma" becomes interchangeable with "wife" and "daughter" throughout the song. The lyrics were by R. Meltzer, who was a rock crit for Crawdaddy at the time (this was way before he'd started his punk band Vom). I'm sure he must've been fucked up on some of Lester Bangs' pharmaceuticals when he wrote "Mommy" - and I understand completely why it was left off the original album. But its boneheadedness makes for a great, hideous bonus track.

Those first four BOC albums really benefited from having the lyrics mostly written by non-band members R. Meltzer, Sandy Pearlman, and Patti Smith. They definitely came up with some subjects outside the realm of your typical early '70s heavy metal band.