Jun 072011
Certainly there are still a few bare-chested rockers out there, including the eternally bare-chested Iggy Pop, Henry Rollins, and Anthony Kiedis, the last of whom who’s wisely begun working vests into his wardrobe, but when these veteran rockers are gone will a younger generation be prepared to pick up the slack?
I think the blame can be put on one important thing – the rocker-as-sex-god ideal has faded into the background. People like Kurt Cobain seemed too morose and self-absorbed to happily flaunt themselves as sex objects. Maybe Beck had tons of groupies on his tours but you’d never know it by looking at him. Would you want to see John Popper of Blues Traveler without a shirt? Most of the current rockers seem too nerdy or emo-y to come across as major bare-chested studs. STDs might have played a role too.
I did the shirtless rocker thing a few times as a sax-playing kid. I was a surfer so I was fairly tan and trim plus I had a full chest of hair. It was all done for one reason – to impress the girls.
Isn’t one or Kings of Leon habitually shirtless?
Also, one could make the argument that — in the mid-to-late-’80s — Rollins and Kiedis brought back shirtlessness after it was thankfully bypassed in the Costello/Weller era.
Fugazi, all shirtless: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SGJFWirQ3ks
My band used to play the final encore as our alter-ego “The Shirtless Wonders” (when we were 19 or so) and it was kinda a joke even then. I can’t come up with a good reason to be currently shirtless onstage for any reason.
Maybe as a rapper. I think Lil Wayne does the shirtless thing
the band LIVE did the shirtless thing on their 1st record/videos/album cover I think
I think being shirtless in public requires (1) youth (2) fitness (3) coke. You have to have at least two of these going on for it to work
This is the greatest live rock video of all time.
I’ve long thought one of the deficiencies of rock music was that it was made almost exclusively by young skinny white dudes. I don’t think I’d ever heard of Citizen’s Band, but the singer’s more um zaftig build is a rarity in the rock biz.
And you proudly sported that chest hair!
I was trying to remember that band’s name for this piece. I suspect the guy is seriously manscaped.
Speaking of this band, maybe you or another Townsperson knows: do you pronounce their name with a long or short i sound?
Isn’t that guy in Danzig an habitual shirt-free performer? He’s got a shirt on here — this just happens to be one of my fave rock star viral videos:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nEehtlKVKps
It’s pronounced with a long “i”.
GREENBAUM!
I love this video!
I like how it continually sounds like it’s going to break into Call Me by Blondie.
They keep playing even though the stage is on fire.
Weird primitive synth solos.
How Doug Henning’s curly guitar chord is so prominently connected to that wonderful Peavy amp.
Singer reminds me of Michael Anthony of VH. Did he play bare chested? They both have a bit of a George the Animal Steele body.
PPS: Turn the Page on the car ride home tonight.
Colonel J.D. Wilkes of Th’ Legendary Shack Shakers
http://www.whitesparrow.com/Shack%20Shakers/pg8.html
I opened for them 5 years ago at a big Atlanta club on a Saturday night (our live Cd is from this show), they were horrible, way too loud, the singer spat on the crowd one song in and our fans (most of the crowd) headed for the bar room next door. They played to 10 people who all pressed against the back wall. I was very dissapointed, since I kinda liked them on CD
i’ve always enjoyed them live. at a chicago street fest several years ago, (a shirtless) wilkes climbed the stage rigging and sang a couple of songs hanging upside down like a bat by his knees from the lighting truss over the stage. had he been any less scrawny, it seemed like it all could have come tumbling down.
In my memory from 15 or 20 years ago, Lou Christie was shirtless in this clip. Not so but there is much to love in the clip anyone. Well worth an investment of 4 minutes and 9 seconds.
And here’s the link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1YjSAMtSQ2Y
and in the heavyweight division, the singers for les savy fav and fucked up…
http://www.losanjealous.com/2010/04/02/tickets-broken-bells-green-day-buzzcocks-les-savy-fav-fucked-up-shout-out-louds-more-on-sale-now-saturday-morning/
I think the shirtless Lou Christie you were thinking of is here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=haYvrO5D_Yo&feature=related
A better song, too, in my opinion.
That is the one I was thinking of. And I make it too close to call on which is the better song.
Not nearly as funny a video though…
Just because you’re bare-chested doesn’t mean you can’t be fur-trimmed:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Qv6QTrWXN4