Editing Damaged (Black Flag album) (section)

==Business disputes with Unicorn==
Black Flag's distribution deal with Unicorn—which was associated with [[MCA Records]]—resulted in an initial pressing of 25,000 copies.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Gehman |first1=Pleasant |last2=Rhodewalt |first2=Bruce D. |last3=Lee |first3=Craig |date=October 9-15, 1981 |title=L.A. Dee Da |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/578877454 |journal=[[LA Weekly]] |page=19 |url-access=subscription |via=[[newspapers.com]]}}</ref> In September 1981, MCA refused to distribute the album after the label's president, Al Bergamo, objected to its lyrical content. Speaking with the ''[[Los Angeles Times]]'', Bergamo stated: "I'm not the kind of guy who believes in [[Book burning|burning books]], but this record bothered me. As a parent with two children, I found it an anti-parent record, past the point of good taste. I listened to it all last weekend and it just didn't seem to have any redeeming social value."<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Goldstein |first=Patrick |author-link=Patrick Goldstein |date=September 27, 1981 |title=MCA Sees Red Over Black Flag |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/387643606 |journal=[[Los Angeles Times]] |type=Calendar |page=74 |url-access=subscription |via=[[newspapers.com]]}}</ref><ref name=":1">{{Cite book |last=Ruland |first=Jim |title=Corporate Rock Sucks: The Rise and Fall of SST Records |publisher=[[Hachette Book Group|Hatchette]] |year=2022 |isbn=9780306925474 |pages=90–91}}</ref> Subsequently, the members of Black Flag personally visited the pressing plant and apply a sticker over the MCA logo which read, "As a parent&nbsp;... I found it an anti-parent record"<ref name="van" /><ref name="band" /><ref name="damaged_sticker">Al Bergamo (uncredited), sticker applied to back cover of original pressing of ''Damaged'', SST Records/Unicorn Records, 1981</ref>—thus essentially throwing Bergamo's words back in his face.<ref name=":1" /><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Goldstein |first=Patrick |author-link=Patrick Goldstein |date=November 22, 1981 |title=Black Flag Feud Just Warming Up |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/388325788 |journal=[[Los Angeles Times]] |type=Calendar |page=84 |url-access=subscription |via=[[newspapers.com]]}}</ref>

Longtime SST employee Joe Carducci has reported that the "anti-parent" statement was a [[Ignoratio elenchi#Red herring|red herring]]. In fact, according to Carducci, Unicorn Records was so poorly managed and so deeply in debt that MCA lost money in distributing ''Damaged'', regardless of its content, and was eager to sever its relationship with Unicorn by any possible pretext.<ref name="narcotic">Joe Carducci, ''Rock and the Pop Narcotic'', 2.13.61 Publications, 1993</ref>

SST and Unicorn ended up distributing ''Damaged'' through an independent distributor;<ref name=":1" /> it arrived in stores in late November 1981.<ref name=":0" /> As a result, Unicorn filed a lawsuit against Black Flag and SST, claiming breach of contract. Black Flag were suddenly enjoined from recording any more records under their own name,<ref name="band"/> although SST were able to continue with its own release schedule, releasing [[The Minutemen (band)|The Minutemen]]'s ''[[The Punch Line]]'' and the debuts of the [[Meat Puppets]] and [[Saccharine Trust]].<ref name="turned" /> However, Unicorn released a single of an updated "T.V. Party" before the legal trouble started, a recording commissioned by MCA for the soundtrack to the film ''[[Repo Man (film)|Repo Man]]''.<ref name="broken">Henry Rollins, ''Broken Summers'', 2.13.61 Publications, 2003</ref>

The legal dispute between Black Flag and Unicorn tied the band up for almost two years, during which time they released ''[[Everything Went Black]]'', a double album of pre-Rollins outtakes, under the names of the individual musicians and vocalists on the record.<ref name="trouser">[http://www.trouserpress.com/entry.php?a=black_flag Black Flag entry] on Trouser Press Online Record Guide</ref> Unicorn ended up filing even more legal briefs, claiming that Black Flag had violated a court injunction against releasing new records. Ginn and Dukowski ended up doing several days in Los Angeles County Jail for contempt of court, but the case fizzled out soon afterward when Unicorn went out of business, freeing Black Flag of any further obligation to the label.<ref name="van"/><ref name="band"/><ref name="turned"/>