Fonzie’s blue windbreaker.
Townspeople of a certain age knows that Fonzie was coolest in his early appearances on Happy Days, when he wore the light blue windbreaker, not the leather jacket. What’s the Fonzie’s Light Blue Windbreaker of Rock, that is, the early, underrated, almost-forgotten stylistic mark (musical or otherwise) that is actually much cooler than what an artist would be known for?
With Halloween approaching it seems only right to bring back this sadly underappreciated (or perhaps too-true-for-further-comment) post on Lou Reed’s poor efforts at trick-or-treating as Fonzie.
This post initially appeared 10/31/08.
Think Lou Reed + Rock Fashion and, thanks in large part to his period with The Velvet Underground, you think cool shades, lots of black clothing, maybe that striped shirt he used to wear in the VU, genetically challenged rock hair, and leather. Leather is supposed to be cool and Lou is supposed to be cool. It should be a marriage made in heaven, right?
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Here’s an old topic worth revisiting not only for the benefit of those of you who have entered the Hall since early 2009, but to see if any of the thread’s original respondents have since learned the cool instrument they never got around to learning. Can even older dogs learn new tricks?
This post initially appeared 1/21/09.
What instrument have you owned but still not learned how to play, no matter how cool you know it would be to play said instrument?
The year my wife and I lived in Hungary I saw some folk bands with guys playing a Hungarian version of a bagpipe. One of these bagpipe players also wore a really cool hat. I’ve loved bagpipes since I was about 10, when my Dad took me to see some Scottish marching band at the Spectrum. I had no interest in buying a kilt from the concession stands after the show, but I recall crying over the fact that my Dad wouldn’t buy me a set of bagpipes that day. I got that they were expensive, but this was 1973 or so, long before Internet shopping. If I didn’t make a trip to Scotland, I thought, I might never have another opportunity like this to buy a set of bagpipes. Waaahhhhhh!
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What do you do when a member of your band has clearly moved on to another look, leaving the rest of you behind? This video kills me: the singer/guitarist has on his right wrist perhaps the strangest rock fashion accessory I’ve ever seen.
Mockproof?
Short of appearing on the cover of Rolling Stone in a pee-soaked diaper is there anything traditionally less cool Rick Ross could have worn for his big cover shot?
I don’t know jack about Rick Ross. I suspect he makes music that I would chuckle over in a way that shows my complete lack of respect for the cacophonous, impotent complaining that I hear in most modern-day hip-hop music. I would then briefly feel a little guilty for holding such a dismissive opinion of an entire genre of music, including the fine people who dig that stuff.
Presently I feel a little guilty about looking at this photo of a fat, tattooed, bejewled man with his bunched-up briefs rising way too high above his droopy jeans and feeling remorseful that people no longer get shoved face first in toilet bowls for looking this way. He’s probably wearing “bo-bo” sneaks, maybe the 4-stripe adidas knockoffs his Mom picked out of a bin at the grocery store for $3. It’s a disgrace. It’s not cool. It’s not even “I’m so uncool I’m cool!” cool. It’s stupid.
I need to drop about 30 pounds. I need to make sure my belt is doing its job. I need to maintain a modicum of cool as I judge others, as I long for the day that musicians get back to raising the bar for cool fashions and behaviors.
Here’s an old topic I would have thought, when it was first posted, would have stoked the fires of the Hall’s collective fashion sense. But it did not. Perhaps we were distracted by John Lennon’s birthday. Or John Entwistle’s. Or Jackson Browne’s. Or Chickenfrank’s. Today is Distraction-Free Friday. Let’s give it another try, shall we? (And whatever happened to Townsman eh?)
This post initially appeared 10/9/08.
Here’s a question that’s probably too encompassing and open to discussion to fit in a poll:
Which uniform/costume of a non-rock group has been most successfully co-opted by a band as their Look?
Looks that don’t count:
