(1326) Been away with the fairies, chaps and chapesses, explained below. (1428)
Moosh started it with her tweet on skinhead girls
… with button down shirts. Not being female myself … I started reflecting on which styles I’d been wearing at different times over my life … about the only time I conformed to a fashion was later, with chinos … for a time. In primary school, I certainly went the slicked back Brylcreem route for a short time, as we had to be either jazzers or rockers … I went the rocker route or heavy sound:
Along with it went the leather jacket (couldn’t afford one as a kid but eventually bought one), film noir, Hawaii Five-O etc.
Sick of trying to upkeep the slick back, I suddenly went skinhead well before it became a cult … certainly much cleaner but something started impinging … the songs I really liked were now sung (cough) … by girls … Helen Shapiro’s Don’t Treat Me Like A Child, Lesley Gore’s You Don’t Own Me, Peggy March’s I Will Follow Him, The Exciters’ Tell Him, and this one among others:
It’s only now, decades later, that I realise just how many females there were on the hit parade … man they could sing! Frank Sinatra? Nah. Beatles? Well yes, for some years. Stones? Well yes, around 1969, which was when the music died a second time imho … became prog ego early 70s, was “just ok” in my eyes till post-punk, when it took off again:
… which it did, then died a third and final time early to mid-90s. Females became auto-tuned shriekers and thots, males became whatever.
Attire? Well once the short hair under curved brim cap, leather jacket, straight or tapered jeans became my go, I never really escaped that, only switching to black leather shoes in the middle years. Fashion to me was bollox … some clothes suited, sat well, looked ok on lil ole moi, others did not. End of story.
Musically, there was always something with the Ramones and Stranglers which was reverse-ersatz … not so much pseudo but they could play much better if they’d cared to … they preferred to play punk-posing, be all shout … yet in a real fight, Jean-Jacques Brunel turned out to be a handful for whomever he beat up.
And for you?
Much like yours my journey through life can be defined by musical styles and the clothing that went with it. Was it the fashions which determined the music or vice versa, probably the music came first? Although I’m a few years behind you, born 1954, I also had to make that choice between mod and rocker, the rockers won out. From that moment I reckon my musical tastes mirrored yours.
As you know James my formative years within post war popular culture coincided with Glam rock. It was short but intense – pretty much ended around the time Marc Bolan had his last hit, and no it wasn’t a tree (that was the joke going round at the time). Fast forward I finished my mechanical engineering apprenticeship when Punk began to rage it’s way through society. So at it’s height I joined the army. Being a commando out of uniform was T-shirt, jeans and desert boots. Whatever the weather that was me for almost a decade: I travelled the world, was very fit and thought I would live forever.
…..
JH: “and thought I would live forever”
And still are! 😎