Biker jacket

[Edward]

I get the feeling what general population consider "good leather" is soft, dyed through, with little to no grains (probably chrome calfskin). so any leather here with tea core, standing by itself, wild grains, leaving permanent marks and creases on the sleeve are all seen with prejudice as "bad cheap leather" haha. I hear a relative who told me that he felt his jacket look shabby when the sheen is dulled and the top pigment starts to fade on stress points

All subjective, isn't it? One man's patina is another's 'past it'.

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Johnny Ramone knew what he was doing when he created that uniform. I think it's a Beatles influence, albeit from the Hamburg era... Joey looks like he's wearing a Perfecto type maybe there, though I know later on both he and Marky had Lewis jackets for a while; the 'all in Schott' period was markedly later than many now realise, even if it's an obvious NYC link.

Then if you are a famous Rocker you can wear what looks like your little brother's jacket and be so stylish.....or an oversized sloppy body hanger as just so wonderfully fashionable....

Joey Ramone always struggled with jacket length in the early days, but then he *was* somewhere between 6'4" and 6'6"... the fit of his jackets improved when a little money came in. Ain't that a truth for so many of us?

This made me literally LOL. My 11 year old daughter has entered the tween right of passage that involves an obsession with this movie. For me, the opening 70’s disco theme is enough and steals the show. “Go back to class...you can pass”.

Years ago, I was in a Rocky Horror cast who did a run at Grease - just one night only (we also did one night only on Ghostbusters, but that's another story....). I played Leo - and the headmistress. I spent weeks painting half a dozen leather jackets and got a bit fixated on getting them right (the T Birds logo, shape of the T, the quotation marks, all of it are slightly different from jacket to jacket by more than just it being the variation from the same thing painted one to the next...) I remember MCing that night and basically having to throw out most of my pre-planned script and wing it because the audience that turned up was mostly families with kids under eight. I can only guess most of what the thing's about went over their heads!

Never seen the stage show, I gather it's much naughtier. Loved the songs from the show, though I never did like Grease is the Word. Not a fan of disco, detested the BeeGees in particular. Funnily enough, though, aside from the ghastly music and clothes, Saturday Night Fever is a fascinating picture in terms of the sociology of it and the next-generation immigrant experience.

 

[Edward]

I know from all my older English punk friends and from reading material that after The Clash returned from their first American Tour and having gone thrifting and come back with engineer boots they started a mini fashion trend. Obviously some English bikers and trades people knew engineer boots but the clash introduced them heavily into punk and larger cultural fashion. So much so they were referred to as “clash boots.”

Oh, absolutely. Joe in particular indulged his love of Americana on that tour (even as he opened his set every night with I'm so bored of the USA), and it definitely showed in the details and the knock-on as a result.

 

[Doctor Damage]

Alain Delon in the film "Le Gitan", good movie, he wears this 3/4 length cross-zip throughout

 

[Fifty150]

There's Corona Virus. I'm wearing a balaclava. You can only see eyes. How did she know it was me?

"All these years, and you're still wearing those same clothes that you wore in high school?"

Double breasted, cross zipped, leather motorcycle jacket. Black hoodie. 501 Levi. Black Doc Martens.

I could have been anybody. But she knew it was me. Maybe it was the telltale roll of quarters in my pocket.

 

[Doctor Damage]

The recently deceased Nick Kamen photographed in 1987.

 

[Monitor]

 

[Doctor Damage]

 

[Yango]

 

[Yango]

 

[Yango]

 

[Doctor Damage]

 

[Edward]

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Ah.... the swines who destroyed the British rock and roll boom! The Silver Beetles were great, but it all went downhill after Stu left....

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Paul Macartney doing his best Stu Francis impression here....

Nice Lewis Bronx.

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Shamefully I didn't recognise HImself here - had to google image search. Obvious once you know!

 

[barnabus]

It's Iggy isn't it?

 

[Edward]

It's Iggy isn't it?

Yes indeed - Mr James Newell Osterberg himself.

 

[barnabus]

I

Yes indeed - Mr James Newell Osterberg himself.

Saw him play a show once, years ago. Still remember it like yesterday.

 

[Edward]

I

Saw him play a show once, years ago. Still remember it like yesterday.

He's quite the performer. I saw him last about twenty years ago now, I think - but I have a ticket to see him in July in London. Looking forward to it.

 

[barnabus]

He's quite the performer. I saw him last about twenty years ago now, I think - but I have a ticket to see him in July in London. Looking forward to it.

I bet it will be brilliant!

I've just looked it up, it was '98 I saw him. I'd love to see him again, but nowadays sadly I just cba.

 

[Doctor Damage]

 

[Aloysius]

If you do wear a Perfecto style jacket, PLEASE, if you wear it un done, tuck the belt back in the loops. In my opinion and it is only my opinion, I think it just looks sloppy just hanging down.

Funny to see this thread bumped because in the reread I saw above what might be the origin of the most off-putting leather fad I've seen on here.

Either do your belt up or leave it hanging like a greaser or Ramone. Undone-yet-tucked-out-of-the-way is neither here nor there.

Johnny Ramone knew what he was doing when he created that uniform. I think it's a Beatles influence, albeit from the Hamburg era... Joey looks like he's wearing a Perfecto type maybe there, though I know later on both he and Marky had Lewis jackets for a while; the 'all in Schott' period was markedly later than many now realise, even if it's an obvious NYC link.

Tommy established the uniform, which then got refined to a cross-zip, but yes there was a definite Silver Beatles influence. Dee Dee idolized McCartney (or 'Paul Ramon'…), hence the name (and much more than the name). The original plan was even for their debut album to come out in a mono mix, which we finally got 40 years later.

Ah.... the swines who destroyed the British rock and roll boom! The Silver Beetles were great, but it all went downhill after Stu left....

While likely facetious, the British rock n roll boom was moribund at that point, which is also why the Beatles wouldn't even have been signed if not for as something of a punishment to George Martin over an incident. As far as the music industry was concerned, it was a dead genre.

Please Please Me is just about the most electric sequence of back-to-basics rock that could have burst onto the scene when it did, and really it just takes listening to the opening song to see the seed of the Ramones (and so many others). Indeed, getting the 1, 2, 3, 4 in there was a priority for The Beatles and George Martin!

A lot has been said about the Ramones being the Beatles of the 70s, in terms of their impact on music if not sales, but not enough has been said about the Beatles being the Ramones of the 60s. Both groups took huge inspiration from 50s rock on the one hand and the girl groups on the other. They also shared a sense of being on the periphery, with the Beatles being in the war-ravaged North, Ramones growing up in an unfashionable semi-suburban neighbourhood of New York. And of course with the Beatles there's the added dimension of being working class (besides Lennon) in 50s-60s Liverpool, which was practically Edwardian poverty compared to London at the same time.

 

[Edward]

Funny to see this thread bumped because in the reread I saw above what might be the origin of the most off-putting leather fad I've seen on here.

Either do your belt up or leave it hanging like a greaser or Ramone. Undone-yet-tucked-out-of-the-way is neither here nor there.


Tommy established the uniform, which then got refined to a cross-zip, but yes there was a definite Silver Beatles influence. Dee Dee idolized McCartney (or 'Paul Ramon'…), hence the name (and much more than the name). The original plan was even for their debut album to come out in a mono mix, which we finally got 40 years later.



While likely facetious, the British rock n roll boom was moribund at that point, which is also why the Beatles wouldn't even have been signed if not for as something of a punishment to George Martin over an incident. As far as the music industry was concerned, it was a dead genre.

Please Please Me is just about the most electric sequence of back-to-basics rock that could have burst onto the scene when it did, and really it just takes listening to the opening song to see the seed of the Ramones (and so many others). Indeed, getting the 1, 2, 3, 4 in there was a priority for The Beatles and George Martin!

A lot has been said about the Ramones being the Beatles of the 70s, in terms of their impact on music if not sales, but not enough has been said about the Beatles being the Ramones of the 60s. Both groups took huge inspiration from 50s rock on the one hand and the girl groups on the other. They also shared a sense of being on the periphery, with the Beatles being in the war-ravaged North, Ramones growing up in an unfashionable semi-suburban neighbourhood of New York. And of course with the Beatles there's the added dimension of being working class (besides Lennon) in 50s-60s Liverpool, which was practically Edwardian poverty compared to London at the same time.

It's an interesting argument! While I like some of the Beatles stuff (though the Stones could equal them as composers, and for my preferences outstripped them as performers), I am in the camp that considers their significance musically (as opposed to commercially) significantly overrated in the main. I would love to have heard how they'd have sounded without the very cleaned-up production in the early days, though. I remember reading an interview with the guys who put together the soundtrack for Backbeat. Apparently they consulted George Harrison on imitating the Hamburg era sonically. He just said "Don't try and sound like the Beatles. We didn't."

There's got to be a great book in that Beatles / Ramones idea!