I just have one question: what are we to make of the Kings of Leon‘s transformation from greasy-haired, southern-fried dirt rockers — i.e., this:
… to poncey American Idol contestants; i.e., this:
I mean, really, am I the only person who finds this transformation both weird, and, I dunno, somehow backwards? Aren’t rock stars supposed to start out dressed for success, then let themselves slip into lazy, bongwater-atained hippiedom? What’s going on here?
HVB
Despite the fact that I’ve loved The Outsiders‘ “Time Won’t Let Me” since I was a kid, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a photo of the band before today, let alone a clip on YouTube of the band in action. I can’t say I ever sought one, but now I know why images of the band aren’t flooding the web and showing up unexpected when I’m searching for topics like cool bands from the 1960s.
Prior to the 1980s, when bad hair suddenly was in style, has any band collectively sported worse hairdos than The Outsiders? In rock ‘n roll terms, there’s something wrong about every hairdo in that band.
The lead singer’s ‘do is obviously the inspiration for sports journalist/inspirational memoirist Mitch Albom‘s mannequin’s feathered rug Look.
The guitarist who first appears at the 16-second mark has the least-objectionable hair in the band. His hair simply grants him the anonymity of whichever rhythm section member of The Undertones whose name you most frequently forget.
What the hell is the guitarist who first appears at the 22-second mark aiming for? This is what I’d imagine Ray Liotta‘s character in Hannibal would like like if you tried to stick a wig over his leveled-off head.
At the 28-second mark we’re introduced to my favorite failed hairdo in The Outsiders, that of the bassist. You can be assured that the day actor Michael J. Pollard decided he should never grow a pompadour was the day he saw The Outsiders on whatever show broadcast this performance.
The producer of this television performance knew what he or she was doing by making the audience wait until a minute into the song to show a close-up of the most puzzling of all the hairdos in The Outsiders. It’s bad enough that the drummer has the beefy, bemused visage of Buddy Hackett, but he tops it off with the broken-bowl haircut of Jerry Lewis’ Nutty Professor.
The Supreme Court of Rock will hear no arguments as to why the makers of this brilliant single were not better known for their efforts.
In honor of the opening of baseball season (yeah, I know, a couple of teams that fly under the radar opened their seasons last night, but the season really begins at 1:05 EST, when the Nationals’ John Lannan throws his first pitch to Jimmy Rollins, shortstop for the repeat-defending NL champion PHILADELPHIA PHILLIES), let’s open a baseball-themed thread for discussion.
One of the simple joys of reviewing the schedule for the upcoming baseball season is seeing if your team is going to have a throwback uniform day, that is, a day when an old-style uniform is brought back into use for one game. I read that the Houston Astros are planning a 1965 throwback-uniform day, complete with the grounds crew reviving the astronaut suits they originally wore when the Houston franchise first switched its name from the Colt 45s. When the home team wears throwback unis the road team gets to wear them too. The Phillies will be wearing their own ’65 road throwbacks when they face the Astros in this game. Better yet, when facing the Brewers in their ’70s throwback uniforms later this season the Phils get to revive their polyester road blues!
So what’s this have to do with ROCK Town Hall, you ask? Imagine the following artists were going to tour in a Throwback Look. Which Look would you choose for them to bring back? Please be as specific and nerdy as your heart desires. Please feel free to cap off your choices with an artist of your own choosing in a desired Throwback Look.
The Ramones, Chrissie Hynde, AC/DC, and other slaves to a single Look will not be scheduled to perform on this day.
As I once stated, the vest may be the only unnecessary piece of clothing cooler – at least in concept – than the poncho. However, as with the poncho, the vest has proven extremely difficult to apply to rock ‘n roll fashion.
Although my posts are usually known for their diligent, thorough research, I’ll state up front that I haven’t taken the time to research the first instance of a rock ‘n roll artist featuring a vest. I would bet that vests first crept into rock fashion through country music. Cowboys in Westerns wear a type of vest, right? A highly unscientific stroll through my mind, however, tells me that vests first caught on among rock ‘n rollers in the mid-60s, possibly through American garage bands.
As I first thought about this piece, the following image of this famous rocker and His early band sprang to mind:
I never liked KISS – in fact I couldn’t stand them – but like all rock-loving kids in the ’70s, the first time photos leaked of the band members without their mighty makeup, I snatched up a copy of whatever magazine and took a peek:
OK, maybe you’ve had some time to think about this question, based on our current poll: Why do British rockers typically have more style than American rockers?
Is it, as the poll states:
Personally, I think the British have been working harder all these years to catch up to Elvis, Little Richard, et al.
Wearing the right jeans at the right time have long been a crucial element to rock ‘n roll stardom. It may have been a passage from Clinton Heylin‘s excellent oral history of proto-punk, From the Velvets to the Voidoids, that’s stuck with me all these years, but I recall cracking up at a comment by David Thomas of Pere Ubu regarding his inability to ever fit into cool jeans, not to mention his parents’ complete lack of interest in keeping him dressed in the current Levi’s fashion trends. He was talking about the humorous teen angst behind “Final Solution” when he bemoanded an adolescence stuck wearing the “BoBo” brand Big Yank jeans. As we knew then, as we know now, some brands don’t cut it in rock ‘n roll.
To ease the development process for aspiring young rockers as well as to revisit and perhaps gain closure on some of our denim growing pains, I thought it might be helpful to conduct a frank, candid forum on The Dos and Don’ts of Rock Jeans.
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